One of our favorite Eric Carle books is The Mixed Up Chameleon. Here’s a simple fine motor activity and counting game you can make for kids inspired by the book. There’s also a free chameleon pattern to help you create your game.

“Feed Me Flies” Fine Motor and Counting Game

The Mixed Up Chameleon is such a fun story for kids! In the story a chameleon wishes he could be like all the other animals he sees and takes on their features as the story progresses. The kids love how he ends up one big, silly looking animal! But, in the end, the chameleon realizes it’s just best to be himself- especially when it comes to catching flies to eat!

For this week’s activity, I created a fun fine motor and counting game called “Feed Me Flies”. In this game kids gain fine motor practice as they feed ‘flies’ to the chameleon. Children can also practice their counting skills as they drop each fly into the container.

Materials for Game

Small black pompoms
White pipe cleaners (optional)
Small container
Tape or glue
Crayons or colored pencils
Scissors
Clothespin or tweezers
Free chameleon printable

How to Make the Game

1. For this game you’ll need a small container. We used a plastic drink mix container. You could also use a toilet paper roll and cover the bottom of it with a small piece of paper and rubber band.

2. Print out the free chameleon printable. Color in the chameleon.

3. Cut out the chameleon.

If a child is cutting it out, I’d recommend having them “bubble” cut it. Bubble cutting is where you imagine the image you’re cutting out is in a bubble so you just cut around the whole image rather than on the black lines.

4. Tape your chameleon to your container.

5. You’ll need black pompoms for this game. We made ours resemble flies by twisting small pieces of white pipe cleaner around the pompoms. This is completely optional though. Plain black pompoms work just fine!

6. Gather all your materials together (chameleon container, flies, and a clothes pin or pair of tweezers) and you’re ready to play!

How to Play the “Feed Me Flies” Game

Have your child use either a clothespin or pair of tweezers to pick up the flies one at a time and feed them to the hungry chameleon!

My 2 1/2 year old enjoyed doing this over and over for quite a while!

You can also turn it into a counting game. Using a black Sharpie, write the numbers 1-3 on a wooden block to make a die for your game. Roll the die and feed your chameleon the number of flies rolled. This was perfect for my toddler since he has been loving counting objects.