Toddler's Book: A color of his own 自己的颜色 by Leo Lionni

A color of his own by Leo Lionni is another classic book which I wanna own in two languages. It talks about colors (so it is a great book to introduce colors to young preschoolers), about animals, about chameleon that changes color, but the most important reason why I highly recommend this book is because it exposes our children to the idea that we're all different, yet the same. Living in a multicultural society, isn't it often that someone gets stereotyped for being different, or not conforming to normalcy? Or simply for being himself or herself? (Let's think about gender, race, disability etc).I love the way it touches on issues of conformity, identity and differences in a very subtle non-preachy manner.

This book is about a chameleon who is distressed as he, unlike all the other animals, has not got a fixed color of his own. He changes color wherever he goes. He tries to find his own color. In the end, the chameleon finds peace, but totally not a way you or I were expecting. There is no need to illustrate the moral behind the story, occasionally, I'd raise open questions like: Why is the chameleon upset? Because it doesn't has a fixed color like everybody else? Because it is different? 

J loves the chameleon. He kinda dislike iguana, he kinda has a phobia towards iguana, but he has no problem with chameleon. Weird. But I am guessing it's the fact that chameleon changes color everywhere he goes that fascinates him, and thus he loves it. I made a chameleon for him using a transparency sheet. He has been playing with it for a few hours, changing color wherever he goes. He even told me, chameleon has spots!, when he placed the 'chameleon' on the spotted floor. 

I then got inspired and created a simple worksheet for him to make record of the 'chameleon's' color changes. We brought him outdoor, the 'chameleon' changed color from white with spots to orange to green etc. 

We did a lot of activities related to colors and chameleons over a few days. I have created a few simple worksheets for him including prewriting practice, chameleon puzzle etc.

I cut the chameleon puzzle and let him assembled according to the order of the numbers. I made it fun by allowing him to secure the puzzles on soft foam board using pushpins. He loved it and requested to do it again (and I am very sure it is because of the pushpins). 

In addition to that, we downloaded worksheets from 1plus1plus1plusequals1.net.  Many of this printable pack is catered for older kids, so we have only done some of those worksheets from here. 

Sorting based on the direction (left or right) the chameleon is facing. 

I love this 'concentrating' look of his

Counting from 1 to 30 and trace the missing numbers

Cut, match and glue

Color recognition

We did a chameleon craft with printable obtained from Learn Create Love. I encourage you let your little one color this chameleon using the pattern roller brush that comes along with this book. He will be amazed seeing the pattern that appears on the chameleon. 

I now have 15 new and genuine copies of "A color of his own" in Chinese (全新正版精装版）available for sale at RM35. It's for sale in the form of "Book & Activities Pack RM35" including the following: 

• 1 x genuine hard-copy of "A color of his own" in chinese (new) 
• 1 x transparency sheet Chameleon 
• 1 x set of printables soft copy (3 pages) including printables for color recognition puzzle, prewriting practice and "I spy" what's its color. (to be emailed to you) 
• 1 x pattern roller brush 

Price is not inclusive of postage.

Transparency sheet chameleon

Roller brush