Summer Dance Lesson 12

Summer Dance Lesson 12: In the Jungle
Activity: ‘Five Cheeky Monkeys’ (traditional)
Hold up five fingers of RH to be the monkeys. Move monkeys from side to side when teasing. Your LH manipulates the crocodile puppet and does a snapping action towards the monkeys as you say 'Along comes Mr Crocodile'. Move it closer and closer to the monkeys until 'SNAP', when the crocodile eats one of the monkeys and there are only four left in the tree. Count your remaining fingers out loud. Repeat until there are no monkeys left.
The children should naturally copy your actions. Encourage them so say 'SNAP' and to count the fingers left out loud with you.
NB: the rhyme will still work without a crocodile puppet if you don’t have one.
(spoken) Five cheeky monkeys sitting in a tree. Teasing Mr Crocodile,
(sung) Can't catch me, can't catch me. (whisper) Along comes Mr Crocodile,
Quiet as can be. (loud) SNAP!
(repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1 cheeky monkeys...)
No cheeky monkeys sitting in a tree, Along comes Mrs Crocodile,
Now where's my tea?!
Other Ideas!
Half of the circle stand and are the monkeys (so the number of monkeys in the rhyme depends on the number of children in the group). The children sitting take turns of being the crocodile. They will know when it's their turn to be the crocodile because you will give them the puppet. They walk towards the monkeys on 'Along comes Mr Crocodile' and gently 'snap' one of the monkey's hands. The chosen monkey jumps down on their bottom. Everyone counts the remaining monkeys out loud and the rhyme is repeated until there are no monkeys left.
NB: if you are unable to share props due to safe distancing, do not use the crocodile puppet. Instead, the ‘crocodile’ can use their hand without the puppet and ‘snap’ in front of a monkey’s hand, making sure to avoid physical contact. You could even make crocodile masks as a craft activity. So the ‘crocodile’ holds their mask in front of their face when it is their turn.
EYFS aims
PD (MH)
To develop finger dexterity
M (SSM), L (R) & CL (LA) & (S)
To pre-empt and join in with the words which follow a repetitive structure/pattern
CL (LA)
To develop listening and attention through distinguishing between different voices (spoken, loud, soft and singing)
CL (LA) & (S)
To encourage listening, attention and speech through rhyme and the use of a puppet
© Lucy Sparkles LTD 2020