DRAW A CARTOON MONKEY
Scholastic Short Reads Sample
SHORT
READS
Draw a Cartoon Monkey
Cartoons can be fun to draw! Look at this
cartoon monkey’s face. It is mostly made from
ovals and circles.
First you start with a basic face. Then you make
your monkey show its feelings. With just a few
lines, it can look angry. Change those lines and it
will look surprised!
Let’s see how it is done.
1. Draw an oval.
2. Draw a curve on top. It looks
like part of another oval!
3. Draw two small curves.
These are the ears.
4. Draw two smaller curves
inside the ears.
Procedure, 280L
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Scholastic Short Reads Sample
5. Draw two more sets of
curves. These are the eyes.
6. Add two ovals for nostrils.
Draw some hair.
It’s nearly finished.
Now it is time to have some fun
Draw a mouth.
Draw the eyebrows.
How surprising!
Eyebrows can change
a happy monkey into
a cunning one!
TM ® & © Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Photos: sides 1–2: © Bronwyn Cawley
Which one
will
you
choose?
Small changes can make a big difference in a cartoon!
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Instructions
Blue, Level 11, 280L
Text Type: Procedure
Summary: This card gives
step-by-step instructions on
how to draw a simple cartoon
monkey face with a variety of
expressions.
Themes/Ideas: drawing;
sketching; shapes; facial
expressions; faces
Text Features: heading,
subheading, introduction, bold
text, labels
Vocabulary:
• cartoon: a simple drawing
that shows features in a
funny or exaggerated way
• cunning: clever and sneaky,
skilled at tricking others
• curve: a smooth, bent line
• emotion: feeling or mood
• eyebrow: a line of hair
growing above the eye of
some mammals
• nostrils: holes in the nose
of an animal that allow air
to travel into the lungs
• oval: a rounded shape that
is not an exact circle; eggshaped
Draw a Cartoon Monkey
Focus Question: How do you draw a simple cartoon monkey?
?
PREPARE & READ
•Discuss what a cartoon is, and point out the introduction.
•Ask students to read the card.
READ CLOSELY
Text Feature
Re-read the introduction. What basic shapes does the author say will be used?
What other important information is covered in this section? 1
Illustrations and Text/Make Connections
Look closely at steps 1 and 2. How can you tell which part of the cartoon you
should draw in step 2? What might happen if all of the cartoon was drawn in
black for step 2? 2
. . . You need to draw the black section of the cartoon in step 2. The grey
oval is the one you drew in step 1. If the whole cartoon was drawn in black,
it would be hard to see which part of the cartoon you should draw in that
step.
Sequence/Draw Conclusions
See how the cartoon face builds at each step. Why would it be more difficult to
draw the eyes of the monkey before you drew the head? 2 – 6
Key Ideas and Details/Text Feature
What is the purpose of the bright red text box on the second page? Why did
the author make this subheading so bold? How is the information before this
heading different from the information that comes after it? 5
. . . The bright red text box is meant to be hard to miss. The author wants
me to see it because it is important. The information that came before this
subheading is about drawing a basic monkey face. After the heading there
are lots of ideas on how to finish the monkey face. It has moved from being
step-by-step instructions into a lot of ideas to choose from.
Make Inferences/Vocabulary
What is the purpose of the wiggly, dotted arrow on the back of the card? Why
might the author have used this instead of numbers? Find the word cunning.
By looking at the illustrations, are you able to work out what the word cunning
might mean? 5 6
Draw Conclusions
Read the last sentence on the card. What does this sentence mean? How do
the five cartoon monkeys near this sentence help explain its meaning? 7
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Short Reads Non-fiction
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4
1
5
2
6
3
7
DISCUSS
WRITE
These questions can be used for paired
discussion. Ask students to use the text to support
their reasoning. Then ask them to share their
conclusions with the group.
•Why did the author show the full body of a
monkey near the heading, instead of just the
face?
•Would you use a pencil or a pen to draw a
cartoon monkey? Why?
•Look at the mouths and eyebrows. Which
eyebrows and mouth would you choose for a
surprised monkey? Which features would you
choose for a confused monkey?
Have students choose either one of the following
options for writing, or do both.
•Follow the steps to draw your own monkey
face. Draw an arrow pointing to each part and
number the parts in the order you drew them.
Write a sentence describing which mouth and
eyebrows you chose to complete your cartoon.
(Information/Explanation)
•It is easy to draw a cartoon monkey. Write three
sentences to say why you agree or disagree with
this statement. (Opinion)
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BOX 2 Teacher’s Guide
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