Alphabeasties, Singable Flash Cards! Plus “A-Is an Alligator!” – New lyrics to an old favorite!
Posted on: April 19, 2010
Alphabeasties (and other Amazing Types),
Alphabet Flash Cards and Floor Puzzles
(Alphabet Flash Cards and Floor Puzzles)
By Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss
Typography is one of those art forms that gets me all excited. And what Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss have done with letters and type faces to create the images of animals is thrillingly amazing!!
I ran across these flash cards in the underground gift shop for children at the National Gallery of Art and snapped them up!
(A digression, suggestion from a local: If you come to Washington, DC, you can’t do better than to spend a day at the National Gallery of Art, including the East Building (filled with modern art) and West Building (filled with classical art) and the Sculpture Garden. The two buildings are connected underground by a tunnel, with moving walkway, that is itself an art installation of glittering lights. Plus, the underground area is where you find a terrific cafeteria and gelateria, art bookshop for the grown ups and an artistically minded toy store for kids that is crammed with creative, colorful and pleasing delights. The Sculputre Garden also has the charming Pavillion Cafe housed in a glass building that is decorated on one side by an original Parisian Art Nouveau subway (Metropolitain) entrance designed by Hector Guimard…see picture below!)
So, it was exciting for me to find the flash cards, already aware of Werner and Forss’s exuberant book:
Alphabeasties (and Other Amazing Types)
By Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss
The book and the flash cards are, in my view, Works of Art, and mind-blowing creativity!
I bought the book for a fun alternative for singing the ABC’s and ZYX’s.
The flash cards inspired me to write a new version of “A-You’re Adorable,” which I will call “A-Is an Alligator.”
A-Is an Alligator
Words by Emily Leatha Everson Gleichenhaus
Music by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise and Sidney Lippman
A, is an Alligator
B, is a Bat that Bant-ors
C, is a Camel who Chews Cud
D, is a Dog that Dances
E, are the Elephant-ces
F, is a Fish who swims in Floods
G, is a Great Giraffe
H, a Hippopotam-ass
I, is an Ibis made of I’s
J, is a Jag-U-ar
K, a Kangaroo jumps far
L, is a Lion’s yeLLow eyes
M, N, O, P, an Octopus has 8 legs
Q, R, S, T, Quaffed little Quails lay speckled eggs
U, Unicorns Unite
V, a Viper’s Vicious bite
W, X, Y, Z
It’s fun to wander through the Alpha-Zoo with you to see the Zebra made of Zees!
A, is an Alligator
B, is a Bat that Bant-ors
C, is a Camel who Chews Cud
D, is a Dog that Dances
E, are the Elephant-ces
F, is a Fish who swims in Floods
G, is a Great Giraffe
H, a Hippopotam-ass
I, is an Ibis made of I’s
J, is a Jag-U-ar
K, a Kangaroo jumps far
L, is a Lion’s yeLLow eyes
M, N, O, P, an Octopus has 8 legs
Q, R, S, T, Quaffed little Quails lay speckled eggs
U, Unicorns Unite
V, a Viper’s Vicious bite
W, X, Y, Z
It’s fun to wander through the Alpha-Zoo with you to see the Zebra made of Zees.
I love the Penguins made of Pees and the wiener Dog made of Dees!
You can sing the lyrics above with this karaoke sing-along track for “A-You’re Adorable”:
http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Adorable-Alphabet-Karaoke-Version/dp/B00147I9M4/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1271688937&sr=1-9
(Just download the song and sing along!!)
Take a peek at the graphic delights of Werner Design Werks, Inc. at: http://wdw.com/
I recommend singing the song only with the sturdy flash cards. The song moves along very quickly and I’m afraid that the gorgeously engineered pages of the book will rip if handled with the enthusiasm required to get through the song!
Singing with the flash cards, you flip each card when you sing a new letter. It’ll take a little practice to get the rhythms and to stack the cards back up for the second time through the song, but the effort will be with it because your kids are gonna LOVE it and after a while, the children will sing it for YOU and that’s when your heart will swell with pride and the kind of joy that will send you over the moon.
A-Is an Alligator
Click here for the Sing Books with Emily “A-Is an Alligator” Lyrics Poster Card:
A-Is an Alligator lyrics poster card
