The day after I saw Mrs. Jump’s Barrel of Monkeys math activity, I walked into one of the first grade classrooms I work in and what did I see? A huge empty pretzel container! The teacher didn’t have a use in mind for it, but she just “couldn’t throw it away” (I think I have that problem too), so she generously let me have it and I created my own Barrel of Monkeys for a sight word game I will call, “Bananas!”
I went to our local Parent-Teacher Store and bought pre-cut monkeys and wrote sight words on their bellies. I added bananas to some of the monkeys without words and then laminated them all.
I made the small red Barrel of Monkeys for my little one to practice identifying upper and lower case letters. (I found the red container in my recycling bin that same day, placed there by Mr. Mc! What was he thinking?! He doesn’t have the habit of “saving” things like I do!)
I made the small red Barrel of Monkeys for my little one to practice identifying upper and lower case letters. (I found the red container in my recycling bin that same day, placed there by Mr. Mc! What was he thinking?! He doesn’t have the habit of “saving” things like I do!)
This game will be played just like the game, “Bang!” Or “Oops!” The children will take turns picking a monkey out of the barrel and reading the words. If they pick a monkey with a banana, they will need to say, “Bananas!” and put their monkeys back in the barrel. The goal is to have as many monkeys as you can at the end of the game. Anna over at Crazy for First Grade created her own version called, “Tweet!” and is giving it away for free because she is almost up to 100 followers!
~ Mrs. Mc
