Oxford Level 10
Oxford Level 11
Monkey Poems
Teaching Notes author: Thelma Page
Vocabulary chart
MONKEY POEMS
Rhymes and spelling patterns
The Chimps
growly/prowly grazing/amazing jumpy/humpy rattle/cattle shrimps/chimps
waiters/alligators seals/eels snow/know aces/faces
When You Talk to a Monkey
wise/eyes rail/tail
Eating Bananas
eat/feet
Tea with the Monkeys
Zoo/too true/you Zoo/do
Chickaboo
tree/sea no/go high/sky play/day
Tale of the Clever Monkey
unequal nibbled
You Little Monkey!
properly
My Dad’s a Gorilla
roar/floor vest/chest
Monkey Babies
swamp/chomp trees/squeeze track/snack trees/fleas
Monkey
bars/Mars gone/sun
Guided/Group reading activities
To choose and prepare poems for performance, identifying appropriate expression, tone, volume and
use of voices and other sounds.
Tale of the Clever Monkey
•Read the poem together to find out what it is about.
•Ask the children to find the words in italics, and ask: Why are these words written differently?
Discuss how some of the words in italics are sound-effect words and how others should be read
with extra emphasis.
•Choose two children to read the sound effect words: “Miaaow! Spitt! Miaaow!” each time they appear.
•Find all the words that the monkey speaks. Choose another child to read the monkey’s words.
•Ask another child to be the narrator. Discuss the right sort of expression for the narrator. Ask them to
read out the first verse.
•Read the poem, with the children reading their allotted parts.
Do the children suggest ways to read the poem with expression? Are they able to create sound effects
from the words “Miaaow” and “Spitt”? Do they notice the words that needed extra emphasis?
Independent/paired activities
•Ask the children to choose any poem in the book, and to practise reading it. Give time for them to
present it to the class.
•Ask the children to choose a short poem and learn it by heart. Ask them to say it to the class without
referring to the book.
© Oxford University Press 2014
Speaking and listening activities
To choose and prepare poems and stories for performance, identifying appropriate expression, tone,
volume and use of voice or other sounds.
Monkey Babies
•Ask: What dangers do you think there might be for monkey babies in the wild? Talk about ways in
which the mothers might protect their babies.
•Read the poem together, then talk about the “dos and don’ts” that are mentioned in the poem.
•Re-read the poem, thinking of actions that would fit each verse, e.g. for the first verse wag forefingers
as a warning.
•Ask the children to think of actions to fit “Chomp”, “Squeeze” and “Snack”.
•Try out different ways to read the poem with expression.
•Ask children to learn the poem if they can, or give them time to practise reading it, before performing
it to the class or another class.
Check that the children:
■suggest
■say
different ways to vary their expression when reading or reciting
which actions are more effective than others.
Writing
To extend knowledge and understanding of pluralisation through understanding the term ‘collective
noun’ and collecting examples – experiment with inventing other collective nouns.
The Chimps
•Enjoy reading the poem together.
•Go back to the beginning and ask the children to scan the poem for names of animals. Make a list
on a board.
•Ask: Does anyone know what a group of cattle is called? Write “herd” beside “cattle”.
•Explain that “herd” is a collective noun because it is a word for a group of things.
•Ask: What are a lot of people called, for instance, a lot of people at a football match?
•Look at the list of animals and ask the children if they know any of the collective nouns for them,
e.g. a pride of lions, an ambush of tigers, a pod of dolphins, a rookery of penguins.
•Talk about the way a collective noun often refers to qualities of the animal, e.g. pride of lions.
•Ask the children to work with a partner to think of words that might fit chimps, alligators and others
on your list, e.g. a chatter of chimps, a slither of alligators.
•Use the internet to find an alphabetical list of collective nouns for animals and birds.
Do the children understand that a collective noun represents a group? Do they suggest collective
nouns they already know? Can they suggest appropriate words for collective nouns?
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