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Marvelous Monkeys
(God's Animals)
by Sandra Harris

We all have fun watching the monkeys at the zoo. They make us laugh at them, and sometimes at ourselves, too. Learn about monkeys and about why we should choose our words carefully.

Characteristic: edifying others; speaking positively about others

Bible Verse: When you talk, do not say harmful things. Ephesians 4:29 a ICB

But say what people need – words that will help others become stronger. Eph. 4:29b ICB

Concepts:

Monkeys are mammals that are covered with hair/fur, usually live in trees, and usually have nails on their ten fingers and toes. They are native to the warm climates of Africa, Asia, East India, and Central and South America. They are not native to North America or Europe.

Most Central and South American monkeys belong to the Cebidae family. Cebidae comes from a Greek word meaning long-tailed monkey. Some common American monkeys include the Spider monkey, the Howler monker, the saki monkey, the Cacajao monkey, the titi monkey, the squirrel monkey, the woolly monkey the capuchin monkey and the marmoset monkeys. Unlike the others, marmosets have claws rather than nails.

Many monkeys use their tails like a fifth hand. The Spider monkey can sail 30 feet through the air by swinging from one branch to another. The Howler monkey has a bone sounding box in its throat. This amplifies its voice so that it can be heard for great distances. Most monkey live in small groups and feed on leaves and fruit.

Monkeys are a lot of fun to watch. At the zoo, the monkey exhibit can be the liveliest, and the noisiest. Monkeys like to chatter, and sometimes they even seem to be scolding each other. The Howler monkey especially has a reputation for making a lot of noise. Some people think they make a lot of unnecessary noise.

People can make unnecessary noise when they say things they shouldn’t have said. The Bible tells us to be careful about the words we say and not to say anything that will hurt someone else. Instead, we should say things that help each other.

Note: We all get tired of tattle-tales at some point, but children should understand that telling an adult when another child is doing something wrong is not bad. Although the child’s intent for telling might not be that honorable (“you’re gonna get in trouble”), an adult needs to know if a child is playing with matches, getting into the pool without supervision, leaving the playground, talking to a stranger, etc. Saying something like, “Johnny, you could really hurt yourself with these matches. I’m glad Susie told me so I could stop you before you got hurt,” and then dealing with Johnny privately can help take the air out of Susie’s sails for "getting Johnny in trouble."

Center Activities

Art Center: Make a body tracing of each child: child lies on long sheet of newsprint while another child or an adult traces around them with felt pen or crayon. Draw a t-shirt on each, then have each child draw their own face and color their body tracing. Tape tracings to the wall. Throughout the day or week, have children write or dictate something nice about each person on their body tracing in the t-shirt area.

Dramatic Play: Equip this area with telephones and encourage children to “call” each other or other family members (dad, grandma, etc.) to see how their day is going and to say something nice (I hope you’re having a wonderful day!, etc.)

Craft: Moveable Monkey

Materials:
2 paper plates and 5 brass paper fasteners (brads) per child
brown crepe paper streamer or fabric scraps
scissors
hole punch
stapler
brown, pink and black paint and brushes

Session 1:
Have children paint 2 paper plates. Allow paint to dry thoroughly.

Session 2:
Cut the rim off one paper plate (in a continuous cut) outside the indented circle line, cut the other inside the indented circle line – this will give you two flat circles, one a little larger than the other. The small circle will be the monkey’s head; the larger will be the monkey’s body. You will also have two paper rings (the outer edge of the paper plates). Cut these in half so that you have 4 half rings: these will become arms (the smaller two) and legs (the larger two). Punch a hole near one end of each arm and leg and somewhere near the outer edge of the head. Punch 5 holes on the body circle, placing them where the head, arm and legs will be attached. (All holes should be about ½ to ¾ inch from edge of paper.) Use paper fasteners to attach body parts.

Make a tail using crepe paper or fabric scraps. Attach tail to body with a stapler. Paint a face and fingernails and toenails on monkey.

Story Time: The Monkey Zoo: A Skit

Enrichment Ideas:

1. Choose two types of monkeys to study. Do a compare/contrast poster.

2. Visit a nearby playground that has monkey bars. Ask the children why they think they’re called “monkey” bars. Give them time to play.

3. Play the Gossip or Telephone game: Children sit in a circle or a line. The first child whispers a word or phrase to the next child, who whispers it to the next child, and so on. The last child says aloud what he/she heard. Is it the same word or phrase that was started? Often it isn't, and that's exactly what gossip is like.

4. Make special name tags for the children to wear. Each time a child says something nice or edifying to another child or adult, put a sticker on her/his name tag without saying why. Let the children try to guess/discover why you are putting on the stickers. If they seem completely stumped, begin giving clues such as, “It has something to do with today’s memory verse,” or “I heard some special words.”

5. Play Follow the Leader pretending to be monkeys; call the game Monkey See, Monkey Do.

6. Have children pair off and make a letter “M” with their bodies.

7. Serve bananas for snack.

8. Continue to learn and practice good manners (from the last lesson).

9. Songs and poems:
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Trees
Monkey by Nita Jones

10. Books to look for:
Caps for Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina, 4-8
I Am a Little Monkey, Francois Crozat, baby – preschool
So Say the Little Monkeys, Nancy Van Laan, 4-8
Amazing Monkeys ( A National Geographic Action Book), all ages (9-12 reading level)
Curious George books, Margret Reay and H. A. Rey, 4-8
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Eileen Christelow, 4-8
Five Kids & a Monkey Solve the Great Cupcake Caper, Nina M. Riccio, 4-8
One Monkey Too Many, Jackie Koller French, 4-8
Monkey Business, David Martin, 4-8
Monkey Trouble, David Martin, 4-8
Monkey-Monkey’s Trick, Pat McKissack, 4-8
The Monkey Book, Jan Pfloog, baby – preschool
Very First Things to Know About Monkeys, Sarah Albee, 4-8
Monkeys of Central and South America, Patricia A. Fink Martin, 9-12
The Monkey Thief, Aileen Kilgore Henderson, 9-12 (serious content)

My Favorite Books This Week:

Baby – Preschool: I Am a Little Monkey (Barron's Little... Both of the books listed above for this age range look wonderful, so I flipped a coin and this book won!

Ages 4-8 Fiction: Caps for Sale : A Tale of a Peddler,... This is a classic in children’s literature and deservedly so. It’s a favorite with my childcare kids, and I don’t think that I’ve ever read it just once. I also chose it because the monkeys are depicted doing something that real monkeys just might do!

Ages 4-8 Nonfiction: Very First Things to Know About Monkeys... I had to search through more than 200 books about monkeys to find a nonfiction book that I felt comfortable recommending, but I think I found a winner!

Just for Fun: Monkey Family Sticker Paper Dolls When I saw this book of paper dolls, I couldn’t resist sharing it with you – the dolls are so cute! They made me wish that I was a child again so that I could legitimately play with them!