The wolf who wanted to change his color

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Laaemand, O. (2011). The wolf who wanted to change his color. Paris: Editions Auzou.

ISBN #978-2-7338-1945-6

The book “The Wolf Who Wanted to Change His Color” is about a wolf that just is not happy with himself. He is currently the color grey and thinks the color is too plain for him so he decides to change his color. He spends the entire story trying to become different colors by any number of means. Initially he tries on a red sweater but decides he looks far too much like Santa Clause. He eventually even goes to the extreme of plucking all of a peacock’s feathers in hopes of finding a color that works for him. After trying to be every color other than his own, he realizes one evening that he is finally happy being the way that he is… a gray wolf. Overall this book is about accepting oneself.

This book is a great book for children aged three to five. Not only do the colourful illustrations catch the eye of a young child, but the book also teaches children about accepting themselves for the way that they are in an enjoyable way. Some children may not be happy with their freckles, or with the glasses they must wear for vision, but the wolf takes the children on a journey on finding his own true self which the children can follow and identify with.

The book had some very detailed but concise illustrations. The illustrations were done by Eleonore Thuillier and she was able to capture through her drawings the essence of the dialogue on each page and tied everything nicely together. The pictures had an interesting element to them; on every page, either the background, an object, or several objects, have patterns in them; all of which are different. The mood of the pictures is happy and naturally catches the eye due to the bright contrasting colors, especially the eye`s of children.  I was drawn to this book initially by the cover itself. The cover displayed many bright colors which drew me into it. When I opened the book, all of the creativity and color that filled the pages really allowed me to enjoy the story while reading it.

Provocations: For a provocation leading up to the showing of this book, I would place a very large calendar in the front of the classroom. The calendar would be many different colors that correspond to the book itself. For example, on Monday, the wolf changes his color to green. For every Monday on the calendar I would display different shades of green. On Tuesday, the wolf tries to change his color to red so I would display every Tuesday on the calendar in different shades of red and so forth.

To build background knowledge and provoke interest within the children for this book, I would maybe do a class where we spend time talking about calendars and explain that people use them to help keep track of the months and days in the year. After our discussion, I would have all the children make their own calendar and decorate it however they choose.

First way of presenting the story: The first way I would present the story to the children would be with the use of a puppet. The puppet, which would be named in class would read the story to the children and initiate all conversation leading up to the story, during the story, and address any questions children may have after the story. Edward the puppet would engage the children to think of what color the Wolf may want to be next and how he would get to that color.

 Second way of presenting the story: The next way I would present the story, The Wolf Who Wanted to Change His Color, would be to act it out. Instead of reading the words in the book word for word, I would tell it in first person where I would be the wolf telling the story. I would provide different clothing items all different in color. Following the storyline of the book, my articles of clothing would try to portray the actual different things that make the wolf change color.

Third way of presenting the story:

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For the third way of presenting the story, I would use an overhead projector. I would make one cut out of the actual wolf. I would then trace and cut out more copies of just the wolf’s body, all different in color so they match the storyline. I would use sharpie pens to add the color and make the following details to both the “different” colors of the wolf and to the wolf himself. Using the overhead projector, I would project the images onto the white board or a white drop out depending which the class has. While telling the story, I would change the overhead projector images so they syncronize with the story being told.

Fourth way of presenting the story: For the next way of presenting this story to the class, I would use a black felt board with various pieces. The felt pieces would consist of a gray wolf, a green wolf, a red wolf, a pink wolf, a blue wolf, an orange wolf, a brown wolf, and a multi-colored wolf. Using the felt pieces, I would place them on to the board as I reach that particular part of the story.

Fifth way of presenting the story: The final way that I could tell this story would be to use a clothesline method, only attaching it to a hoola-hoop to create a circular story. I would then attach sheets of paper on to the hoola-hoop. Each paper would display the wolf being several different colors and be displayed in proper order in conjunction with the story. When presenting this method to the class, I would either stand or sit and gradually turn the hoola-hoop as the story progresses until we reach the beginning again.

First extension: One of the extensions I would use for after this story would be a discussion that revolves around feelings and how the children view themselves. Having a talk about how everyone is different would be important in any setting but directly ties in with this story making it a good time to discuss the topic. I would explain that everyone is different and has different traits which make us all unique and special in our own way. I would perhaps provide an example to give the children to more clarity on the topic. For instance, some children have freckles, and some people have big curly hair. Accepting oneself is an extremely important topic, especially when working with children, and in this case is presented in a way that they are able to easily understand.

Second extension:  Another way of extending this story would be to have an art project based strictly around colors. We could use paint and experiment mixing colors. I would allow the children to try mixing their own color and see what colors they are able to make. Once they have had time to do that, I would get new paint only having three colors, red, blue, and yellow for children and guide them through mixing. I would explain primary colors and that all colors originate from just these three colors. I would then explain that mixing the colors red and blue result in the color purple and go on to show a variety of different color mixing combinations.

Third extension: The last extension possibility for this book could be a discussion on colors and how they can coordinate to feelings and emotions. For example blue correlates to a sad or down feeling, whereas red can be related to being angry and green feeling sick.