Mix It Up

By Hervé Tullet

A BIG shout out to Michael and Sarah Chapple for contributing ideas to this Take Away.

I appreciate your generosity!

You can view the Mix It Up text here

Reading:

This story provides the perfect opportunity to read aloud and respond to punctuation.

Writing:

I have used this as a mentor text for writing instructions to engage the audience. It provides many examples of the use of question marks.

Mathematics:

This is a great book is ideal to explore colour, shape, and pattern.

Physical Education:

This is a great opportunity for students to use movement in different ways: drawing, tracing, stepping, jumping, and leaping as well as quick decision making.

Check out the teaching ideas we have planned for you!

Go on a Word Treasure Hunt! Find how many times the word – they or little – appeared in the book?
Make a list of two letter words that you know.
Have a book look for words with the letter x as in mix.
Select two of your favourite pages and practise reading fluently.
How do you read a sentence with a question mark? Quotation marks? Full stop?
Mix it Up! explores actions such as smudge, rub and shake. Create a foldable book to show actions you do in a day.

I wonder how many spots are in this book. Make a tally chart or pictograph and record how many different coloured dots there are on a page.
Collect objects or take photographs of things you have at home that are the same as the colours in this book.
Collect ten things and sort by colour.
Using the different colours in this book, how many patterns can you create?
What wonderings do you have about colours? Record your wonderings on a T chart. See if you can answer your wonderings.

Have a go at mixing some of the colours yourself. You could put spots on a page just like in the story or mix colours on a large piece of paper.
Introduce the colour wheel to the students.
Investigate recipes. What do you need to mix up in the recipe?
What questions would you ask Hervé Tullet about this book?
Play the game “Mirror Me!” Students are to draw coloured circles on the ground facing each other. Trace around their feet in the middle. One person is the colour master and jumps to a coloured circle. Their partner has 2 seconds to match the same colour on their board otherwise their opponent wins a point. First to 10 points is the winner. Swap roles. They can include maths by keeping a tally chart of their wins.

A different version of the game above except it is played with your hands. Students use coloured paper and their hands. One person is the colour master and creates a 3-4 colour pattern while their partner copies the same pattern to stay in the game. For example: Colour Master – red, green, pink.