Today is Eric Carle’s birthday and in honor of his birthday, a large group of bloggers have been putting together ideas that would go nicely with many of his books. I love so many of Eric Carle’s books that I had a hard time narrowing it down. But after much ado, I have narrowed down my choice to a sweet idea for “The Mixed-Up Chameleon”…
This book is about a chameleon who isn’t happy with himself and wants to be like everyone else. With each new animal he meets, he takes on features of that animal until in the end, he realizes he is much happier just being a chameleon…
What I like about this book is that it opens the door for talking with children about how we are different, how we are special, and how others are special too! I also like simply focusing on the changing chameleon. Chameleons are pretty fascinating creatures and the fact that they can change colors to adapt to their environment can lead to lots of fun color exploration….
Preparation
This little activity calls for the use of some type of clear paper  or film. I traced several of the chameleons that are found in the book onto transparency film which is used for an overhead projector. I traced both large and small chameleons on full and half sheets of the transparency film…
After tracing chameleons, you are all set for this activity!
Read the book
After reading and discussing the book with the children, show the children several of the traced chameleons…
Find the Chameleons
To play this game, place the traced chameleons on different objects throughout the environment (works indoors and outdoors)…
Choose places to set the chameleons where the color and patterns will be different…
As the children find the chameleons, talk with the children about how the chameleons adapt to their environment by changing color.
It isn’t necessary to “hide” the chameleons rather you just want to find different colors to blend the chameleons with…
Once the children have found all of the chameleons, you can then let them hold their own chameleon and walk around the room to find other places that will make their chameleon change colors…
More Colorful Chameleon fun…
To prepare for this activity, I used the same traced chameleons from above and I also cut up some colorful see-through plastic dividers like you use in notebooks or binders…
I am showing you this activity on a white table but it was originally suggested to me by one of my readers that these dividers would make excellent light table activities…
Set out the traced chameleons and the strips of colorful, cut-up dividers. Invite the children to change the colors of their chameleons by placing the strips of colorful dividers on the chameleons any way they wish…
So there you have it! Two fun ideas to keep little one’s engaged as you explore the book – “The Mixed-Up Chameleon” by Eric Carle…
Thank You to An Amazing Child for hosting this Birthday Extravaganza. See all the other ideas from my fellow bloggers in the Linky below…
Available on Amazon
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