Mixing it Up with the Mixed Up Chameleon!

Posted by Feb 16, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books

Chameleons are awesome animals. They can blend in with their surroundings and change their appearance to suit their needs. Who doesn’t want to have that ability sometimes? The beauty of chameleons is that no matter how they change on the outside, they are still the same on the inside. This is such a great lesson for kids about being proud of who they truly are!

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The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle is about a chameleon who doesn’t only change colors. He goes to a zoo and sees all of these amazing animals and he wishes that he could be more like each of them. He develops different parts of the animals until he is all mixed up. When a fly goes by, the hungry chameleon can no longer catch it because he is made up of too many different animals! While all of these parts may be great for the animals they came from, the chameleon decides he is better as he was. This is a great story for kids about being happy with who you are. Kids will also learn about different animals, while being entertained by Eric Carle’s bright illustrations.

paint-mixing

Mixing up paint on a rainy day

Mixed Up Paint – For young children, this story provides an opportunity to teach kids about mixing colors. Pour paint into plastic bags, seal them and let kids mix the colors together to create new colors. This also provides a great sensory experience for kids. My daughter loved moving the paint around while making designs in it. I attached the bag to the door so she could see the light coming through the colors.

Chameleon Tongue Game – The chameleon in the book catches flies with his tongue. Kids will love trying to do the same thing with this game! Cut out small black circles or fly shapes, and attach small bits of Velcro to them. Attach the opposing piece of Velcro to the end of a party blower, and have kids blow the “tongue” out to catch the flies. See who can pick up the most flies in a given amount of time!

Make a snack as mixed up as the chameleon!

Mixed Up Snack Mix – This story is about a chameleon who is all mixed up, so why not make a snack that is mixed up? Get a bunch of trail mix ingredients (nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruits, snack crackers, yogurt covered raisins) and let kids create their own mix! Since trail mix can be customized to any taste, there should be something for everyone!

Another fun day at the zoo!

Visit a Zoo – (I know, I know, I have mentioned this a few times, but I can’t help it! We love the zoo!) The mixed up chameleon changes himself to pick up lots of traits from other animals. If you have a local zoo or animal sanctuary, take a trip as a family so your kids can check out the animals firsthand. Have kids find as many animals as possible from the book. You could also visit your local library and find other books about the animals in the story. This could be a great opportunity to teach your kids about research, while having fun checking out new books!
The Mixed-Up Chameleon Boar...Shop on Amazon

Draw Your Mixed Up Self – The chameleon picks up all of these impressive parts of other animals. What animal characteristics would your kids want to have? Why would they want these things? Have kids draw a self portrait of themselves with different animal parts. Would they want a long giraffe neck to see things far away? Would they wish for big elephant feet so they could stomp loudly? Ask them about the different parts of their portraits. You may be surprised by what you learn! Remind them that even if they had all of these new skills or parts, it is what’s on the inside that counts.

What kind of mixed up snacks did you enjoy with your kids? Did they enjoy the story? Let me know in the comments!

80 comments on “Mixing it Up with the Mixed Up Chameleon!”

  1. I loved that story when my daughter was little but we didn’t try all of those activities! I think it might not be too late though and we could try a few of them now even though she is 9. You are inspiring me to think of ways that I could do activities around the books she is enjoying now even though they are much longer, that would just give me so much more material to work with!

    • I’m so glad! I try to include activities which can be adapted for older kids as well. I will be attempting to branch out into slightly older books in the future!

  5. I’m always looking for books that teach character lessons for my little grands. This one looks great. And the idea to have them draw their mixed-up selves should inspire some creative pictures!

  11. Once again….. success! I LOVE how you take a book… and literally come up with the best activities for the kids! Going to books a million today to get some of these books!

  12. My kids and I love Eric Carle; my older daughter’s first word was apple and second book, and she used to make me read (or recite, I read it so many times I could do that) “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” whenever she was upset. I’m actually planning to get an Eric Carlesque apple tattoo to commemorate all this! Anyway, I didn’t know about this chameleon book! Excited to read them a new Eric Carle.

  15. How fun! We did an author’s study on Eric Carle and did a lot of these — trail mix, paint in baggies, and the accordion fold to draw different body parts and made a story from it… it was awesome.. and i did it with 3rd graders. I didn’t think to do it with my kids (Pre School and Toddler), but i’ll try now that we have this super long weekend 🙂

    • It is another very cute book with the same style of colorful illustrations. My daughter has actually been getting into the Hungry caterpillar again the last few days now!

    • Thank you! We love going to the zoo too! My daughter loves the sea lion exhibit at our zoo because they love to swim around the windows following the kids.

  20. My oldest used to have so much fun painting in bags… I need to pull it back out to try with my youngest again. I’ve put cardboard inside the bags too, so that I can fish it out after and let it dry for some baby-made artwork.

    • That’s awesome! I should have used cardboard! I tried paper with my daughter once, but it practically disintegrated in the bag!

  21. I remember reading this book before when I was subbing in a classroom. It’s a cute story. I like your idea of using the story to teach about mixing colors, and the mixed up snack idea.

  22. You are so creative! I love the way that you created so many wonderful activities around this book. I am totally going to buy the book and try some of these out with my 3-year-old. She’ll love it!

  23. I love watching chameleons. They are fascinating creatures. I love all Eric Carle books. You’ve come up with some awesome activities to go along with this classic!

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it. I bet it would be cool to play with it once it has dried a little! I had to throw ours away because my daughter is fascinated by opening things and taking them apart, but we may have to try that in the future!

  29. Never heard of this book before. I am definitely going to be using this in my lessons during tuitions. I may also have to steal some of your ideas for the lessons!

    Thanks for the post!

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