Feed the Monster Language Game ~ Once Upon a Book

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

 

To practice identifying letter sounds, we played "Feed the Monster". The game is really simple and can be adapted to different learning levels for your tot.

To start, I used an empty tissue box to create a monster. I cut and glued features to the tissue box, using the opening for a mouth. Your tot could even help make this one day for a craft and then play the game the next day. Once the glue had dried, we gathered our letter magnets to start our game.

In my best "monster voice", I asked for certain letters. For example, I said, "I'm hungry for a letter that is at the beginning of the word COOKIE." My son found the C and "fed the monster". Then we repeated it until the monster was full. Sometimes I varied the monster requests to keep my little guy thinking.

The best part of "Feed the Monster" is that you can tailor it to your child's target learning skills. Shapes, Letters, Numbers, Sight Words, etc. would all work well!

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

Monster Songs & Fingerplays – If You’re a Monster and You Know It

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

If You're a Monster and You Know It...
When you read If You're A Monster And You Know It , you can access a free recording of the song online. My son really enjoyed listening to the song on the computer and acting out the motions to go with the words.

Five Little Monsters
(Author unknown)

Five little monsters sitting on the floor.
The first one said, "Let's knock on someone's door."
The second on said, "Let's act a little scary."
The third one said, "Why are we so hairy?"
The fourth one said, "I hear a funny sound."
The fifth one said, "There's no one else around."
Then "WHOOSH" went the wind and "EEK!" someone said
So five little monsters ran under the bed.

Monster Pokey
(Sung to the tune of "Hokey Pokey")
You put your claws in.
You put your claws out.
You put your claws in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your fangs in.
You put your fangs out.
You put your fangs in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your horns in.
You put your horns out.
You put your horns in and you shake them all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

You put your tail in.
You put your tail out.
You put your tail in and you shake it all about.
You do the Monster Pokey and you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

For this fingerplay I made some small felt monsters to place on the felt board as we sang. I left these at the felt board throughout our monster theme for my son to practice counting, singing the songs, and other imaginative play.

Ten Little Monsters
(Sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians")
One little, Two little, Three little monsters,
Four little, Five little, Six little monsters,
Seven little, Eight little, Nine little monsters
Ten monsters can't scare me.

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

Math Ideas for If You're a Monster and You Know It ~ Once Upon a Book

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

 

For our math activity to go along with If You're A Monster And You Know It , we played Roll-a-Monster. Roll-a-Monster is one of those sneaky math games where the kids don't even realize they are practicing their counting skills because they're having so much fun.

Materials:

• Craft Felt
• Scissors
• Dice
• Roll-a-Monster Printable

Mommy Prep:
Using inexpensive felt from the craft store, I prepared the shapes for our monster before playing. You could also use craft foam, but I knew the monster body parts were going to be pulling double duty on our felt board, too. My son saw me preparing the monster body parts and couldn't wait to play! I made several eyes, arms, feet, nose, mouth, and tiny triangle teeth.

Here's a peek at some of the monster body parts I made, but feel free to some up with your own fun monster shapes.

Monster Eyes...

 

Monster Body...

 

Monster Arms

 

Monster Feet

 

Tip: For gluing the eye pieces together, I used Aleene's Tacky Glue.

 

How to play the Roll-a-Monster Game:

1. Roll the dice.
2. Count the dots.
3. Look at the chart to see what monster body part to add to your monster (Download the Roll-a-Monster Game Free Printable from my blog)
4. Place the correct body part on your monster.
5. Now, it is the other person's turn.
6. If you roll a number that you've already used the body part (like feet), roll again. If you roll a number the second time, and you still can't go, then your turn is over.

 

Next Thursday I'll be back with more If You're A Monster And You Know It extension activities. See you then!

 

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

If You're a Monster and You Know It ~ Art Activity

If You're A Monster And You Know It

by Rebecca Emberley & Ed Emberley

Book Summary: Children will stomp their paws, twitch their tails, snort and growl, and wiggle and wriggle along with this bright and bold picture book twist on "If You're Happy and You Know It."

My son loved the silly monsters in this book. Multiple eyes, horns, crazy teeth...he thought they were all so fun. We decided to see if we could make our own silly monsters and we ended up with some of my favorite art he's ever produced.

Materials:

• Paper
• Paint
• Scissors
• Glue
• Collage Materials (We used our Collage Box.)

   Before you can decorate your monster, you need to make some "Splat Art". Place a few drops of paint in the middle of your paper. (Not too much! Trust me, a little goes a long way!)

Fold your paper in half and press the paint around. It works best if you push the paint toward the edge of the paper (opposite of the fold), instead of up and down the fold.

Peel it open and be surprised at your blob shape.

Repeat. Your tot WILL want to repeat this a few times. Let them dry. (This is the hard part.)

When your splat art is dry, get out your Collage Box and decorate them to look like monsters.

 

 

 

We worked all afternoon and made an entire collection. We used a little bit of teamwork when it came to specific things, like monster hands and the pair of glasses he wanted for "Green Monster" to wear. He was so pleased with his silly monsters! 

 

 

 

 

Which monster do you like best? I'm having a hard time deciding!

 

Other Monster Books:

Go Away, Big Green Monster!
There Was An Old Monster!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug!
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli
Tickle Monster

I'll be back next Thursday to share more activities to go with our Monster books!