Grow a Chameleon Tree!
Our chameleon tree is the culmination of three different aspects of our learning – Montessori (Practical Life and Colour Tablets) and Early Reading Skills.
The practical life learning that we have been doing in the last week included hanging laundry – this really pushed Aodhan’s grip!
We have also been working on DIY colour tablets and we were ready to add an application to that learning, so I thought of using a little bit of literacy to tie it all together.
Enter, Emily Gravett’s Blue Chameleon. Honestly, this book has supplied us with HOURS of fun. When A was still a little guy, his dad could get the biggest giggles ever by making silly voices for each of the ‘friends’ the chameleon tries to cozy up to. Now, I think the book holds some nostalgic value for A as well as for us (which is super interesting from a child psychology perspective) so it is still a feature in our nightly reads.
I found some clip art to represent most of the chameleon’s friends and printed out a chameleon for each colour.
Aodhan was super keen to colour the chameleons this morning and said the cutest thing:
I am holding my crayon down at the bottom just like my daddy showed me when I was trying to make my letters
Come on kid, you are killing me!!!
After he was all finished with his colours, he added them to our dogwood branches that I had used for winter decoration. I thought he would struggle trying to pinch open the (CRAPPY!) clothespins whilst holding both the branch and the slippery piece of paper. But, as usual, he surprised me and placed them with ease. He is really proud of them and I am leaving them up behind the sofa.
I thought you might want to make your own Chameleon Tree, so I made a quick pdf of the print out. Chameleon PDF. If you do grab the PDF, kindly show some love back by liking us on Facebook. The book is surely available in most libraries.
What books do your kids feel attached to even after they have ‘moved on’ in their literary adventures?
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