Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson
One of Sarah's favourite books now is Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. It is not as well known as her Gruffalo and Gruffalo's Child but is a winner with Sarah at least. In the story a little monkey is lost and wants to find his mum. A helpful butterfly tries to help but goes through a series of silly finds for what the little monkey's mum is.
The butterfly starts her dialogue with "Hush, little monkey…" This reminds me of the song Hush Little Baby and coincidentally her words fit the tune. So, each time I read the butterfly's part I sing to the latter's tune.
Every time we come to the creature the butterfly thinks is the monkey's mum I will ask Sarah, "Is this mummy monkey?" She will enthusiastically reply, "No! that's a …." This helps get her involved along with the story.
To extend on the story you can try reading books about adults and their young. Matching adult animals and their young should be a fun game too.
You can explore those whose young look like them and those who don't, like the butterfly in the story. For older kids you can make a "Guess what animal am I?" card game. On one side have a picture of the animal and on the flip side have two or three lines describing it. You can start with the animals in the story where there are already descriptions provided and with which the children can easily identify.
For science, we can of course explore the different types of animals in the story; mammals- elephant, bird- parrot, arthropod- spider etc. Butterflies and their young is another topic you can explore with the kids.
For alphabet work, we can look at the letter M for monkey and mum. and extend on other words from there. So far, there has not been a Donaldson book that Sarah did not enjoy. The Monkey Puzzle looks set to be another addition to what we already have.
The butterfly starts her dialogue with "Hush, little monkey…" This reminds me of the song Hush Little Baby and coincidentally her words fit the tune. So, each time I read the butterfly's part I sing to the latter's tune.
Every time we come to the creature the butterfly thinks is the monkey's mum I will ask Sarah, "Is this mummy monkey?" She will enthusiastically reply, "No! that's a …." This helps get her involved along with the story.
To extend on the story you can try reading books about adults and their young. Matching adult animals and their young should be a fun game too.
You can explore those whose young look like them and those who don't, like the butterfly in the story. For older kids you can make a "Guess what animal am I?" card game. On one side have a picture of the animal and on the flip side have two or three lines describing it. You can start with the animals in the story where there are already descriptions provided and with which the children can easily identify.
For science, we can of course explore the different types of animals in the story; mammals- elephant, bird- parrot, arthropod- spider etc. Butterflies and their young is another topic you can explore with the kids.
For alphabet work, we can look at the letter M for monkey and mum. and extend on other words from there. So far, there has not been a Donaldson book that Sarah did not enjoy. The Monkey Puzzle looks set to be another addition to what we already have.
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