Sara has just sent in this great post and Monkey Family story!
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Sometimes you have parents that come to you and tell you to be hard on their kids if they misbehave or don’t want to work the way you wish they would. Personally I never listen to such “permission”, even – if we are all honest – there is always that one child that makes you want to jump out of the window.
But what I always experience since teaching with Genki English is that this problem basically solves itself. The kids just come to you, wanting to participate without you having to do too much work. And that is simply because the lessons are so much fun.
I just had this one example today. One of the kids just didn’t want to do have anything to do with English today. So I just let her be and told that if she wants to join, she can come. It didn’t take long and she saw how much fun everybody had and she came to me and told me she wants to learn English now – in addition to that she was even sad that she missed the activities before and asked if she can’t repeat them.
So what exactly did this child like about the lesson? Who knows, but maybe you can get an idea for your own classes when teaching the following topic: The Monkey Family!
Monkey Family Lesson
This lesson has 60 minutes full of activities and the kids just loved them. I told the kids, that we are going to read a story today ( they love stories, especially when you tell them LIVELY).
The children should have had some lessons before already so they know some of the vocab. The lessons about “what’s your name, how are you and the disco warmup” will give you the basics for the story. So how to prepare the children for the story in the lesson?
Well, easy, you start the lesson with the disco warm up song, make sure that the kids remember the word “jump” very well (normally no problem there, since it’s one of their most favourite things to do!).
To repeat the “how are you” topic, you can use a simple, but very effective game. All you need is a piece of paper and the flashcards. You cut a small hole in the paper, put the flashcard behind it and have the kids guess which card they see (especially needed here: cold and hot).
To introduce the new vocabulary, use the software CD2 Baby Monkey Family and have the kids listen to the song. While listening to the song, play a game with the children. Put cards on the floor (near to each other, so they can reach them with their arms). Now, every time the children hear a word that is on one of the flashcards, it has to quickly tap on the right card (eg. When hearing “My name is baby monkey” in the song, they must quickly tap on the baby monkey etc.).
This is a rather quick introduction, but my experience is that the children pick up words like mum, dad, baby pretty fast.
Story Time!
Then it’s story time. As for materials to tell the story you
1. Obviously need the story,
2. I used the fantastic palm trees that Gaz made (laminated them)
3. A blue paper that serves as pond and
While telling the story really play the scenes with the tree, the pond and the cards and have the kids do the activities (like jump) themselves as well, so you actually create a little theatre play with the flashcards and own activities. I tell you the kids really loved it!
Please make sure that you tell the story very lively and not as if you are just reading from a piece of paper, that would kill the lesson. There is nothing more boring than that. Speak with different voices, high voice, low voice, loud or not, and use many gestures so that the children can understand what you are talking about. Don’ t worry about if the kids may find that silly – believe me, they don’t.
At the end of the lesson, if you still have time, use imagination worksheets. Draw the outline of the heads of the monkey family (eg outline of the head of mum) , the kids draw the faces of mum ( dad, sister, brother or baby). Later you can put them all together and make a classroom booklet.
Here is the Monkey Family story:
NARRATOR: This is the story of the monkey family.
MUM: Hello, My name is mum monkey!
DAD: Hello, I’m dad monkey!
BROTHER: Hello, I’m brother monkey!
SISTER: Hello, I’m sister monkey!
BABY: Hello, my name is baby monkey!
NARRATOR: It’s sunny and the monkey family is very hot.
The monkeys see a big tree next to a pond.
DAD: Look! A big green tree!
I’m very hot!
NARRATOR: Dad monkey jumps and jumps and sits on the tree under a leaf..
DAD: I’m not hot now!
NARRATOR: Mum monkey is hot too.
MUM: I’m very hot!
DAD: Come here!
NARRATOR: Mum monkey jumps and jumps and sits on the tree with dad monkey.
Dad: I’m not hot now!
MUM: I’m not hot now!
NARRATOR: Brother monkey is hot too.
BROTHER: I’m very hot!
MUM: Come here!
NARRATOR: Brother monkey jumps and jumps and sits on the tree with dad and mum monkey.
NARRATOR: Sister monkey is hot too!
SISTER: I’m very hot!
BROTHER: Come here!
NARRATOR: Sister monkey jumps and jumps and sits on the tree with dad, mum and brother monkey.
DAD: I’m not hot now!
And MUM: I’m not hot now!
And BROTHER: I’m not hot now!
SISTER: I’m not hot now!
NARRATOR: Baby monkey is hot too!
BABY: I’m very hot!
SISTER: Come here!
NARRATOR: Baby monkey jumps and jumps and sits on the tree with the monkey family.
NARRATOR: And then SPLASH!
They all fall into the water
DAD: I’m cold now!
MUM: I’m cold now!
BROTHER: I’m cold now!
SISTER: I’m cold now!
BABY: I’m cold now!
What do you think?
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
Hi Sara, thanks for sharing this story! Would it be OK to post this in the story section of the forum? I would hate to see it get lost in the blogs.
Sure, go ahead 🙂 I’m glad you like it
It’s the same story I tell to my little students. But With the frog family.Because the original story was writen with frogs.
Thank you.
Richard, have you got the same material for teaching spanish?
The best money I have spent this year is buying Genki English. Thank you
Thank you for the story.
Richard, would you be able to put a black and white version of the Family Tree evaluation sheet on the website please? Would be great for the kids to colour in and label if old enough.
Thank you