Toddler Story Time - Monkeys!

I had a lot of fun planning this week’s story time.  Monkeys!!  Ee-ee!  Oo-oo!  Last week I announced the theme at the end of story time and suggested that the little ones bring a favorite monkey.  I was so excited by how many little ones came this week with their monkey friends.  It really added to the fun of the morning! 

Books I read…

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

I had to read this book, so I did it first!  By the end of this repetitive monkey tale, all the little ones (and grownups) were saying with me, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”.  I thought about doing this story off book, but I really liked the illustrations.  It was easy to just turn the pages while saying the rhyme.

Kiki’s Blankie by Janie Bynum

Kiki loves her blankie!  It goes everywhere with her until a big wind blows it away.  Eek!  It ends up near a crocodile!  Kiki must find a way to get it back.  The illustrations are adorable and I loved that she cleaned her blankie in the washing machine upon its return! 

 Two Little Monkeys By Mem Fox

A rhyming story about two monkeys, one named Cheeky and one named Chee.  These two little monkeys have to hide from a big scary cat in a “big old tree.” It is a great read aloud book.  It was a little longer than I usually read for a last book, but the little ones were sitting so well this week that it worked! 

How it went…

We began with the action rhyme Monkey See, Monkey Do that I found from the Perry Public Library.  This little rhyme got everyone acting like little monkeys!  After jumping around for a couple verses, it ends with all the monkeys sitting down.  It was a great intro for our first book.

Monkey see, monkey do
Little monkey in the zoo
Monkey, monkey, in the tree
Can you jump around like me?
…swing your tail…clap your hands…nod your head…sit down…

After our first book, and with all monkeys safely put to bed, we all stood up and did a sweet monkey rendition of the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear poem.  The moves were simple enough for even the youngest toddlers to follow.  I found this action rhyme at Themed Storytime Ideas.

Monkey, monkey, turn around (turn around)

Monkey, monkey, touch the ground (Touch the ground)
Monkey, monkey, dance on your toes (Dance on tip toes)
Monkey, monkey, touch your nose (Touch your nose)
Monkey, monkey, give a little clap (Clap)
Monkey, monkey, take a nap! (Lay head on hands like sleeping)

Flannel Time travelled off the board this week and onto the storytelling glove.  This is a great prop for toddlers because I can hold it up high!  This week was Teasing Mr. Crocodile.  It is a set from Lakeshore Learning.   To make it even more fun, I used silly plastic peepers that slip onto your hand to make a Mr. Crocodile puppet.  I secretly put it on my hand behind my back to surprise them as Mr. Crocodile snaps at his first monkey!  It was a fun flannel story, but next time I might start with only three monkeys to shorten it up a bit. 

Teasing Mr. Crocodile

Five little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mister Crocodile:
“You can’t catch me.”
Along comes Mister Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
And SNAPS that monkey
Right out of that tree!
(Repeat counting backwards to one monkey)
…No more little monkeys
Sitting in a tree!

I looked high and low for a great monkey song and I think I found it with One Monkey Who from the Wiggles cd, Go Bananas!  Everyone danced around the room with their monkeys.  The song gets really fast at the end and super silly! 

Wow!  We needed to sit down and rest at this point so we did a couple quieter activities before our last book.  I found the fingerplay Three Little Monkeys which was super simple and super cute.  Then we sang the Itsy Bitsy Monkey (sung to the tune of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, of course).  We loved the song so much, we sang it twice!  Thanks SurLaLune Storytime for the idea!

Three Little Monkeys

Three little monkeys sitting in a tree   (hold up 3 fingers)
Eating bananas just like me   (pretend to eat a banana)
One had a frown   (make a frown face)
One had a grin   (make a smile)
One had banana all over his chin!   (rub chin)

Itsy Bitsy Monkey (To the tune of “Itsy Bitsy Spider”)

The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree   (Pretend to climb)
Down came a coconut that bopped him on the knee   (Make a fist and touch knee)
Along came his Mama, who kissed away the pain   (Give kisses!)
Then the itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the tree again   (Pretend to climb and reach way up high)

I try to occasionally highlight a nonfiction book and this week it was Monkeys by Valerie Bodden from the Amazing Animals series.  I didn’t read it, but the photos were too wonderful not to show! 

Instead of free play, we finished this week with a craft.  I drew a palm tree on a plain piece of paper and photocopied on cardstock.  I also photocopied cute little monkey heads.  (Thanks About.com for the monkey heads!) The little ones colored their trees and glued on their monkeys.  They turned out great!

Miss Sue has done this theme for Preschool too!  If you would like to see how, click HERE!