Any suggestions for songs by The Odd Socks?! Illustration Fiona Childs.
What are your favourite themes for projects? I love project based learning with a theme that feeds into cross curricular exploration and ‘socks’ is one of my faves! Socks are familiar to every student, everyone has their opinions about them and they lend themselves perfectly to creative and mathematical investigations and challenges.
As socks come in pairs they lend themselves to paired activities which, in turn, are great for deepening communication and collaboration skills. For example, designing a matching pair of socks using stickers and drawings to create a pattern. Students add elements to the design for their partner to match. To make it more challenging, students can describe what they are doing without their partner being able to see. It’s lots of fun!
Paired activity to create matching socks. Great for communication, collaboration, symmetry, shape, colour, position.
Awareness and Wellbeing Days
There are two main international awareness days that use socks as a focus: 1. #oddsocksday on November 16th as part of Anti-Bullying Week. Learn more and download resources here:
Holding a Crazy Socks or Silly Socks Day has become popular for spirit days and for awareness and fund raising events as it’s a simple but fun way to get everyone involved.
Teaching Resources
I have had a lot of fun creating a range of resources inspired by socks using the themes listed above: patterns, counting, matching, design etc. As usual they are available from the tes online shop and Teachers Pay Teachers online store (see buttons on home page). There’s a free pack and options to get all the packs in a bundle at a discounted price.
If you try them please remember to add a quick review and any pictures of the resources in action or finished work would be much appreciated! For more patterns ideas follow this Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/teacherstellingtales/patterns/
Elephant enjoying a mud bath after a dip in the river, Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo by Fiona Childs
Eight Ideas for World Elephant Day
Watch baby elephants being fed. Live footage will be beamed across the world from the Elephant Orphanage Project in Zambia by IFAW and partners Game Rangers International. Click the link to watch or set a reminder.
2. Take part in online activities Activities including colouring contests, crafts and quizzes are being organised by MEME (Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants).
3. Learn about elephants Research on https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ There’s slideshows and information on Asian and African elephants in child-friendly formats.
4. Celebrate with Elmer Download the free Elmer activity pack. It was produced for Elmer Day (May 23rd), but if you missed it, World Elephant Day is the perfect time to use it! There’s colouring, collage, model making, puzzles, games and more. Children could use the templates to make their own Elmer or create their own pattern as in the story when the elephants decorated themselves for a parade. Collage using squares is great for younger children and patchwork works well for collaborative work. I once created a large wall hanging by sewing together patches knitted by my Year 6 students.
Elmer collage using colourful squares, glue with brushes and an outline. Good for early childhood or SEND settings.A Year 6 class (10-11 year olds) knitted squares for this large wallhanging of Elmer.
6. Learn about Mosha The first elephant to receive a prosthetic foot after being injured by a landmine at just 7 months old. Mosha inspired Elephant Parade, a fantastic project to raise funds for Friends of the Asian Elephant.
Artists from around the world create beautiful designs for elephant statues that are displayed in cities and auctioned to raise funds to help elephants. Smaller replicas are produced for sale. I was so moved when parents of a class I once taught bought me one as a thank you gift at the end of the year.
Replica of Spring Blossom created for Elephant Parade by Ciska van der Meer. What a beautiful gift!
7. Design an elephant for a parade. You can submit your sketches using a form here. You can also take part in the Artbox Contest by decorating an elephant model, your design could end up on a full sized elephant in an exhibition!
8. Support Elephant Conservation Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand was the first ‘Hand Off’ project in Asia, providing a sanctuary and retirement home to elephants that have been abused and injured through logging, circus and tourist camps. As the coronavirus pandemic has affected tourism they have taken on elephants from other places where the owners are no longer able to afford to keep them. I visited there last December when I took these photos. I recommend checking out their website and following on social media, they regularly post videos great for sharing with children. How about celebrating World Elephant Day by making a donation or sponsoring an elephant?
Heart-melting stories of two of the elephants at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai
Photos of elephants I took at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, available in high resolution from Adobe Stock: elephant pairelephant portrait
We’ve rounded up our favourite factual and fiction books about chameleons. If we’ve missed one of yours please add it in the comments.
Recommended Reads about chameleons by Teachers Telling Tales.
If you would like to see more information for a book clicking on the picture will take you to the Amazon. Teachers Telling Tales are not affiliates and recommend supporting local, independent book stores where possible.
Chameleon Tales – Stories
Chameleons are such charismatic and fascinating creatures and their unique characteristics have inspired so many picture book authors and illustrators to create colourful and engaging stories.
First let’s begin with the all-time classic, The Mixed-Up Chameleon byEric Carle. A gentle, amusing story with a deeper meaning about being content with being ourselves. Fantastic for introducing vocabulary for colours, patterns, animals and body parts, this book is great for English learners.
My Colourful Chameleon by Leonie Roberts, illustrated by Mike Byrne. “The trouble is we lose her. It drives Mum round the bend! I must admit it’s really hard to spot my little friend.” A lovely book for sharing together, young children will love to find the chameleon in the illustrations.
Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett. An entertaining story that has all the feels! He can turn himself into anything and appear to fit in anywhere, but it seems that neither the swirly snail, the green grasshopper nor the stripy sock want to be friends. Will he ever find someone to talk to? Someone just like him? The subtle and witty interplay between words and illustrations makes this book enjoyable for adults to read and reread and it is a good introduction to colours and shapes for younger audiences.
The Delicious Bug by Janet Perlman is perfect for exploring ideas of friendship, cooperation and conflict resolution. Willy and Wally both catch a delicious bug at the same time. As they argue and fight, their actions lead to trouble that threatens the peace of the whole forest. Can they agree to work together and share?
Rose Williamson’s Look at Me! Look at Me! teaches children to be thankful for what they’re given in a silly and colourful way. Cammy loves to get lots of attention, but she begins to realise that showing off isn’t always worth it and that she can be happy being a regular chameleon again—at least most of the time! Beautifully illustrated by Doreen Marts.
Leon the Chameleon has a problem. When the other little chameleons turn green, yellow or blue, he turns red, purple or orange! Being different makes Leon feel lonely until one day it turns out to be very useful. As well as an engaging story and that explores feelings, it introduces basic colour theory. There is a colour wheel at the back of the book that shows primary colours and their complementary hues.
A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. Elephants are gray. Pigs are pink. Only the chameleon has no color of his own. He is purple like the heather, yellow like a lemon, even black and orange striped like a tiger! Then one day a chameleon has an idea to remain one color forever by staying on the greenest leaf he can find. But in the autumn, the leaf changes from green to yellow to red . . . and so does the chameleon. When another chameleon suggests they travel together, he learns that companionship is more important than having a color of his own. No matter where he goes with his new friend, they will always be alike. A good book for stimulating discussion.
Do You Still Love Me? by Charlotte Middleton. This story with bold, graphic illustrations is good for exploring emotions, especially for children with a new baby at home or perhaps an older sibling who they have to share attention with. Dudley, once a happy dog, finds it difficult when Anna brings home Pequito, an adorable baby chameleon.
Chamelia and Chamelia and the New Kid in Class by Ethan Long Most chameleons are famous for their amazing camouflage skills and prefer to fit in, but Chamelia the chameleon prefers to stand out. She just loves being the center of attention. But when standing out means being left out, can Chamelia learn to share the spotlight? Playfully illustrated with collages using fabric patterns and textures. There are great stories for children developing interpersonal skills in social settings.
Chameleon’s Colors is great for talking about patterns. The chameleon in the story is tired of constantly changing colors. He blends in wherever he goes and no one ever sees him. The other animals in the jungle wish that they could look different, so Chameleon sets to work painting stripes on the lion, polka-dots on the elephant using every color and pattern under the sun. But as the animals soon learn, changing their original appearance causes problems they never expected…
Tormented every morning by leopard and bullied by crocodile, the clever little chameleon decides to play a trick on them. He manages to get the better of his two oppressors without them even knowing how he did it! This is the story of why Crafty Chameleon changes colour and hides when he hears you coming.
Chameleon Truths – information texts
Chameleons! by Bianca Perez is a free book on StoryJumper and features an a-z of chameleon facts with colour photos.
Chameleon, Chameleon by Joy Cowley and Nic Bishop (Photographer) One brave chameleon ventures from the safety of his tree in search of a new home. On his journey, he meets other rain forest animals, not all of them friendly! Wonderful photographs and simple text perfect for young children is rounded out with lots of information.
Crazy About Chameleons?
Check out the Teachers Telling Tales blog post which has links to activity resources including a follow-up story to The Mixed-Up Chameleon that explores animal patterns through a quiz, an interactive pattern matching game, chameleon treasure hunt and presentation on facts about chameleons. You can also download a free chameleon maze.
“Flyaway Katie is about the ability we all have to change our mood and make ourselves feel happier. All you need is a bit of creativity and a lick of Paint!”
Author and Illustrator, Polly Dunbar
To check out the book, or purchase a copy, click on the image above
This gem of a book with its gorgeous illustrations is a fantastic resource for exploring feelings and how to manage them. It links colour beautifully with emotions as Katie transforms from feeling grey and all alone to flittery, fluttery, flighty and fizzling when she puts on her favourite clothes and paints herself in bright colours.
Let the magic begin …
Ideas
Flyaway Follow – Along
Children love listening to the story while looking at the pictures. To really engage them, develop their listening skills and involve them with the storytelling try using story element cards. TTT has created cards with the colours, body parts and clothes from the story. Children can hold up their card when they hear it mentioned in the story. This is a great way to introduce unfamiliar vocabulary and the cards can be used as a classroom resource or part of a display afterwards. Colouring an outline of Katie after the story or during a reread reinforces the vocabulary. You can get this resource here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-katie-follow-along-12168466
Flyaway Feelings
Feelings can be overwhelming for young children. If you ask them to identify feelings they generally respond with happy and sad. This book can help them to identify and describe a wider range of emotions, for example, Katie is feeling bored and lonely at the start of the story. The way it visually links feelings to colours and through the fizzing patterns is also helpful. The story leads to discussion on how we can change our moods, supporting children with learning to manage their emotions. Through sharing the colours and clothes that make them happy in circle time activities children can learn that we like different things and get to know each other better. A great way to explore this further is to create a self portrait in the style of Flyaway Katie. Resources for these activities can be found here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-feelings-self-portraits-12168474
Flyaway Creations
The colourful bird picture inspires Katie to have her magical adventure to change her mood. It is also fantastic inspiration for children to create their own art work. They could decorate birds to recreate the picture using colouring pencils, markers, paint, or collage, (see the butterfly below for detailed pattern work idea). Polly Dunbar created a beautiful bird mural with students in Singapore. http://www.pollydunbar.com/flyaway-katie.html
The fizzling patterns from the story can be recreated using a variety of brushes and texture stampers, stencils and cut out shapes. While some children will enjoy creating detailed patterns on birds, others will love the more messy approach of going outside, putting on a rain poncho and splattering the colours! A pattern like this on a large sheet/roll of paper would make a great background to display self portraits or birds. Ideas and templates for these creations are available at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-creations-12168480 Or, save and get all three Flyaway resources as bundle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-bundle-12171903
Teachers Telling Tales resource samples
Links
Examples of resources for making fizzling patterns
You can create fizzling patterns with found objects around the home or class, but there can be great deals online. For example, at the the time of writing, the 42 piece set above is only £7.49.
The smallest is just 15mm, the largest around 68cm
Their tongues are 1.5 to 2x their body length and can shoot out and capture prey in less than a second.
Their eyes can rotate 360º and look in different directions at the same time.
They can see in UV light.
Males may have facial ornamentation to make them more attractive.
And of course, they can change colour, although this is most often not as camouflage as commonly believed, but for communication (related to mood) or temperature regulation.
What do you call a group of chameleons?
Many animals have charming collective nouns, for example, a shiver of sharks or a romp of otters, but I wasn’t able to find one for chameleons. The closest is a lounge of lizards or a mess of iguanas. Here are my ideas:
Collective nouns for chameleons illustrated by Fiona Childs
The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
This charming picture book has had many a class giggling as the poor chameleon gets more and mixed-up as his wishes to be more like other animals come true.
As with the best children’s books, there is deeper learning beyond the funny story. I highly recommend reading this book module on using the story for exploring the philosophical dimensions of happiness, change and personal identity https://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/BookModule/TheMixed-upChameleon
Teaching Resources
The possibilities for fun learning inspired by the Eric Carle story and these amazing creatures are endless! I’ve had so much fun creating tens of chameleons with different patterns.
Themes in Teachers Telling Tales Chameleons resources
The Content Chameleon
This is a mini story and quiz in presentation form; the chameleon, no longer mixed-up returns to the zoo and has fun trying out animal patterns. Children guess which animals he visited, then complete colouring sheets featuring the chameleon and patterns.
Chameleons with animal patterns that feature in The Content Chameleon resource.
There are blank outlines for colouring, or tracing onto a plastic envelope for exploring pattern changing or hiding for a chameleon hunt.
An interactive presentation where children choose which chameleon matches the picture (of jellybeans or Lego, for example), then drag it on top to make it disappear.
