Chameleon’s are one of nature’s marvels. They have the unique ability to be able to camouflage themselves to match the appearance of their surroundings.
I remember reading about it as a child and being super jealous of this amazing adaptation. I even wrote a paper about what I’d do if I were a chameleon. I’d blend in with the wall paper and listen to conversations. I’d sneak in the closet and peak at Christmas presents. I was even as scandalous as to slip into a movie theatre and watch a PG-13 movie. Gasp! The horrors.
Much later, as an adult, I was trying to come up with a character to represent this strategy when the chameleon’s super power’s occurred to me again. I likened his ability to camouflage into his environment as being almost the same thing as a base word hiding before an inflected ending. I mean almost right?
It may be a stretch, but for whatever reason, it worked. My kids got it and used it, and the Cover It Chameleon reading strategy was born.
What is Cover it Chameleon?
Cover it Chameleon is a reading strategy that encourages children to look at whether or not a difficult word has an inflected ending. If so, it instructs them to cover the inflected endings and identify the base word. In doing so, they may be able to correctly decode the unfamiliar word.
You can grab my Cover it Chameleon poster here or by clicking on the image below.
Why is it important?
I created this strategy after noticing that inflected endings threw my kids off time and time again. We covered them in spelling words, but not all children were connecting that in reading, so I decided to create a strategy to specifically address this.
Inflected endings have an important role in the English language. They completely change words from one grammatical category to another. Inflected endings can change the tense of a word from present to past and also change a word from singular to plural. This makes the ability to identify and isolate these endings a crucial skill for beginning readers.
How to introduce it
To introduce this strategy, we first discuss what we already know about chameleons. I’ve found that most of what children know about them is that they change color. To give them a little more background knowledge we watch this short youtube clip.
I then introduce our new reading strategy, Cover it Chameleon and talk about how inflected endings like s, ed, and ing, help to camouflage words by adding themselves to the base words ending. I explain that a lot of times, familiar words are hidden inside words with inflected endings and how covering those endings can help to figure out unfamiliar words.
Before introducing this strategy it is important to have had a little bit of practice with inflected endings. I usually do spelling words with inflected endings a week or so before so they have some exposure. They specifically need to know the different sounds “ed” can make when added to a word (/t/,/ed/, and /d/).
After introducing, I write some example words on the white board and we practice covering up the ending, reading the base word and then adding them together to determine what the whole world is.
How to practice it
Since this is a strategy I created, there aren’t specific resources related to this on Pinterest. However, there are lots of different activities for practice with inflected endings on Pinterest.
- Matching game
For this game you will need to write sets of base words and words with endings on index cards (for example: run & running). Your child will need to find pairs of each to complete a match.
You can alternate turns to add some competitive fun. The winner of the game is the person with the most matches at the end.
- Add the endings
On a white board write a series of base words. Choose an inflected ending and have your child add the inflected ending (making any changed necessary including doubling or omitting letters)
To make this a little more fun, you can also make this a timed activity and see how many words your child can correctly change in a specific amount of time.
- Leveled Books
As with all strategies, the best practice is often real life application and trying it out while reading independently.
Inflected endings will not be common in lower level books. You will not likely encounter these in lower level books. You may begin to see some in level F books, but they will probably not be frequently encountered until levels G and above.
When your child does encounter them, be sure to have them take note of them regardless of whether or not they use the strategy. Often after reading, I have children go back and do point out any words with inflected endings in the text they just read.
- Roll an Ending
Provide your child with a stack of base words (can use the same ones from the matching game) and a dice. Have them roll the dice to determine the ending they need to add to a word.
If they roll a 1 or 6 they will need to add ing. if they roll a 2 or 5, they will add ed. If they roll a 3 or 4, they will add s, or es.
There will be words to which exceptions might apply. See if your child catches it and points it out first. If not, use it as a teaching opportunity.
- Infected Endings Hunt
Grab a pile of old magazines, newspapers, take out menus, or any other print material you will discard. Have your child go through and search for words with inflected endings and cut them out and sort them by ending.
To extend this activity even further, you can have them practice this strategy by covering the ending and highlighting the base word. It could also be turned into a game as your child attempts to read as many of the words as possible.
Recommended Books
Below are some of my favorite books to use while teaching this strategy. Don’t forget to check out Amazon’s used books. You can sometimes score some awesome deals that way.
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you.
If you’ve missed any of the previous strategies, you can find them here. Be sure to stay tuned tomorrow for the next strategy. And don’t forget, through June 14th, we have an amazing giveaway going on. You could win an Amazon gift card for $150! Be sure to check out the details here.
And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, where I’m pinning all kinds of great ideas for instruction!
