Mixed-Up Chameleons

The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle is a great children's book. In this story the chameleon is bored with his life changing colors and catching flies. Then he visits the zoo! He discovers he can acquire the characteristics of any animal, just by wishing. He gathers an attribute from each animal until he is quite mixed up. However, he is so mixed up, he can't catch flies anymore! The moral of the story is to be yourself!

After we read this story in kindergarten art class, we have a good time making our own mixed up chameleons out of Super-Dough (kind of like Play-dough). We then make the chameleons mixed up using feathers, glitter, buttons, pipe cleaners, etc. Lots of these little odds and ends were donated to us by someone who thought, "What will I do with this bag of doo-dads? -- I know, I'll give them to the art teacher!" You'd be surprised what we could use.