Sylvan Lake Library Blog

Monkeying Around

6-8's and 9-12's

1. Activity: Monkey Work Book
While waiting for all of the children to arrive, have monkey worksheets and coloring sheets available.

2. Game: Chopstick Relay Race
Materials:
• Two pairs of chopsticks (or popsicle sticks)
• Two bananas
• Masking tape to mark out start and end points

Instructions:
1. Divide children into two teams and have them line up behind the starting point.
2. When you say “Go”, one child from each team uses chopsticks to carry their banana to the end point where it can be dropped onto the floor.
3. They can then pick it up with their hands and run back to the starting point.
4. They then give the chopsticks to the next child in line who repeats the sequence of carrying the banana with chopsticks until the game is finished.
5. Winning team is the one who finishes the relay the quickest.

3. Activity: Barrel O’Monkeys
Have the children line up on one side of the room. Tell them that they are the monkeys trying to reach the safety of the jungle treetops on the other side of the room. However, they must pass the tiger who is standing in the middle. Pick a child to be the Tiger.
When a monkey is tagged by the tiger, he or she must link arms with him and join forces incapturing more monkeys for the monkey train. The last free monkey is the winner and can be the Tiger in the next game.

4 Activity: Group Charades
Put the children into teams.
Give each team the name and or picture of a jungle animal, insect or object without letting the other teams know what they have been given (i.e., tiger, toucan, spider, tree).
Allow a few minutes for the team members use their bodies to form the animal, insect or object.
Have the others guess what each team has formed.
Alternatively this can be done as a group activity.
Have music playing and let the children wander around the room.
Stop the music and call out a number and a jungle animal, insect, or object.
Children need to form groups of the number called out and form the animal, insect or object called out.
Example: 4 Tree – children will form groups of 4 to make a tree.

5. Activity: Monkey See, Monkey Do
Instructions:
a) This is a version of the popular group activity, “Simon Says.”
b) Children should copy your actions, but only when preceded with the expression “monkey says.”
c) Have the children stand up and face you, with lots of room around themselves so they don’t bump into each other.
d) Try to think of fun monkey things to do (e.g., monkey says, eat an imaginary banana, beat your chest like a gorilla, wave your arms in the air, go “eee-eee-eee”, etc.)

6. Craft: Wild Things: (Begin – to be finished at the final party)
Materials:
• Roll of mural paper
• Wool
• Feathers
• Crepe paper, construction paper, wrapping paper
• Aluminum (tin) foil, newspaper, fabric
• Markers, crayons, coloured pencils, glue
• Sparkles and anything you have to add to the large cut out wild things
• Children might be inclined to bring things from home for this activity if they know about it the week before.

Instructions
1. Before the session cut off 1.1 and 1.3 meter sections of paper from the large roll thinking about the height of your participants.
2. Each child needs a giant piece of paper as tall as they are. Working in pairs children will trace around each other on the paper. Think about what position you would like your wild thing to be in (e.g., running, waving, flying etc.) Each child will then make the outline into a wild picture of themselves.
3. Draw on crazy hair or fangs or big ears and feet similar to Sendak’s illustrations. Let imaginations run wild. Make the pictures come alive with glued on wool for hair or a feather headdress, a tin foil sword or belt.
4. This will be a messy project that will take at least 2 hours. Can be done over two weeks by doing planning, tracing, colouring and cutting one week and all glue activities the second week.
5. To speed things up it could be done as a group project. In groups of four have the shortest person lie down and be traced and then everyone produces one work of “wild thing” art.