Library Lesson: Monkeying Around

Library Orientation: Monkeying Around

This is one of the first lessons I wrote as a teacher-librarian. The students had a blast and couldn't wait for their next visit to the library! This lesson is designed to stress the importance of book care while having fun learning in the library at the same time. It is based off of Pat Miller's Library Monkeys cards. Be sure and visit her website at: www.patmillerbooks.com.

Recommended grades:  PreK and Kindergarten

Materials:

·   pictures of my family and things I love

·   monkey puppet (hidden in bag)

·   CD “Party Like a Preschooler” by Go Fish, CD player

·   Library Monkeys picture cards by Pat Miller

·   Damaged books/pages examples

Lesson: (see the link to this lesson posted on author Pat Miller's site by clicking here)

1. Introduce myself by showing pictures of my family and things I like.
2. Tell students I have a special library guest, so they have to show him how to behave in the library because sometimes he makes poor choices. Introduce monkey puppet (hidden in bag).
3. Ask students to raise their hand if they have heard the song “5 Little Monkeys.” Have students get up and sing and dance to the song “Five Little Monkeys” by Go Fish from their CD “Party like a Preschooler.”    
   CD or digital album
4. Talk about how the monkeys made some poor choices in the song. Show picture cards about some monkeys who didn't take care of their library books using Pat Miller’s Library Monkeys. Read and discuss cards.   
   
5. Show examples of book pages with problems like the ones from Pat Miller’s Library Monkeys. Before each example, say the following chant:   
   Five Little Monkeys
   by Mandy Watson (adapted from idea by Pat Miller)
   Five little monkeys reading in bed
   One jumped up and showed what he read
   Mama took the book and this is what she said,
            “I’m so sad you ruined what you read!”
6. Tell the students they are going to go looking for a special book to take home today. As they look, they are going to echo each line of my poem as they march around a table of pre-selected and age appropriate books:
   Library Monkeys
   by Mandy Watson
   We are little monkeys. (Children echo)
   We’re looking for a book.
   When we find a good one,
   First we’ll take a look.
   If we like what we picked,
   We go and check it out.
   We read and take care of it;
   “Reading’s fun!” we shout.

Fun freebies: 

I created these bookmarks to hand out at the end of the lesson in order for my students and their families to not forget their library day. If you would like a copy, click on the image below. Enjoy!

Monkey graphics from Scrappin Doodles