The Mixed Up Chameleon
Student Sites
Monday
Spelling: id/ide: Students write their name and the test date on their paper. Talk about the ide and id families (rhymes). Have someone read each word and then someone else uses the word in a sentence. The last 4 words on the list are high frequency words. They should study at home every night.
Vocabulary: dull, exciting, handsome, hardly, sideways, sparkling, spotted (p. 14-15). Have students get into groups of seven. Each group gets a spell checker or dictionary and one vocabulary word that they will look up the meaning of. They have 5 minutes to come up with what the word means, put it in their own words, use it in a sentence, and if they can, act it out. Each group member must say some part of the information.
Background: Chameleons – what do you know about chameleons (they change colors)
Reading: Preview the story with a picture walk and predict what will happen.
Read the story to the students asking questions as you go. The teacher’s manual has guided comprehension questions on the bottom of each page of the story.
Discuss the story – talk about the characters, setting, events, problem, and solution.
Independent Activity: Have students fill in the story web using their book. Then they use the story web to retell the story to a friend.
Poetry: I’m Tired of Being Little (p. 14p in teacher’s manual only) – read aloud and discuss. How does the poem relate to the story The Mixed up Chameleon?
The Mixed Up Chameleon
Tuesday
Reading: Ask for a volunteer to remind you what the story, The Mixed Up Chameleon was about. Point to the story cards to help them retell the characters, setting, events, problem, and solution. Let them see the picture cards of the animals to use too.
*Choral read the story (read it all together)
Writing: Have students write about what they would wish to be…include an illustration (see sheet)
Wednesday
Reading: Have a volunteer retell the story. Let them see the picture cards of the animals to use too.
Students partner read the story and retell the story to each other
Complete the Student Graph for The Mixed Up Chameleon (see sheet) complete as a whole group using the overhead and transparency. I ask each student what their favorite animal is and then we all record it on the graph.
Thursday
Reading: Students read the story to themselves. When they are done they write in their journals about what animals they would like to be and what it would be like to be that animal.
Centers
Cool Computers: Madison Website (Educational Resources/Reading Units)
Awesome Artists: Create a chameleon habitat/Zoo Maps/color chameleon
Word Wizards: making words “chameleon”
Rockin’ Readers: Eric Carle books
Friday
Reading: Students listen to the story on tape. Go through the comprehension questions together. Talk about how to answer the questions.
