It’s funny the things your youngest child seems to skip over in favour of other, more ‘grown up’ things. And then all of a sudden you realise that your three year old has missed out on the joys of crazy monkey songs, and is instead singing Taylor Swift songs!
The only way to fix that is to make more puppets…
Five Cheeky Monkeys…and a Crocodile!
We’ve spent the afternoon learning two crazy monkey songs and making crazy monkey (and a crocodile) puppet shows.
Our two favourite monkey songs are Five Cheeky Monkeys Swinging in a Tree and Five Cheeky Monkey’s Jumping on the Bed.
Five Cheeky Monkeys Swinging in a Tree
We made a tree for our monkeys out of a cardboard tube with some slits in the side. We made paper palm fronds and stuck it to our table with a lump of play dough. Then we made a river for the crocodile and we were ready to sing!
In case you don’t know the words, here is the version of the song we sing:
Five Cheeky Monkeys Swinging in a Tree.
Five cheeky monkeys swinging in the tree,
teasing Mr. Crocodile,
“You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”
Along came Mr. Crocodile as quiet as can be and…
Snap!
He ate him up for tea!
Four cheeky monkeys swinging in the tree…
Three cheeky monkeys swinging in the tree…
Two cheeky monkeys swinging in the tree…
One cheeky monkeys swinging in the tree,
teasing Mr. Crocodile,
“You can’t catch me… You can’t catch me!”
Along came Mr. Crocodile as quiet as can be and…
Snap!
“You missed me! You missed me!”
Five Cheeky Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Of course you can’t make monkey puppets and not sing about them jumping on the bed! So we made a little bed and had fun jumping about!
In case you don’t know this song here is an indulgent video of our puppet show. Please ignore the terrible singing, I strongly believe that we should sing with our kids, even if our singing is not so hot, so you will just have to put up with mine!
And here are the words we sing…
Five Cheeky Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Five cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor,
And the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping on the bed
Four cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed…
Three cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed…
Two cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed…
One cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed…
If you’d like your own handful of monkeys, and a crocodile, you can download the monkeys and their friend the crocodile here or click on the image below.
You can find more of our free printable puppets here!
Lynda @ all about mama says
So clever Kate – love it! My kids will love this one, including the song that goes with it (never heard that one before). So adorable :-)
Alana says
those monkeys are so cute!!!
kelly says
I love these printables! I am trying to print off the Monkey one and it wont let me print it always says there’s an error. Any suggestions?
katepickle says
hmm perhaps something happened to the file when you downloaded it. Have you try downloading it again?
If that is no good send me an email via the contact form and I’ll sort something out :)
Alisha says
Love, love, love these!!! Thank you so much for sharing…can’t wait to print them for my sweet little niece and nephew since my two “babies” are 12 and 17!
Linda C says
I don’t get to say thanks nearly as much as I’d like or should but thank you again for such simple, creative and fun things to do with the kids – I’m off to do this with Miss 2 now since we have a rare few hours of just us :)
Vikki says
I love these printables. This is my favourite song!! In our version the crocodile gets the monkey – “oh dear me” is the last line :)
Debs says
Aww, so adorable! Love these! And the tree you made for the monkeys was great, we’ll have to make that too. Cute video by the way :)
Rowena says
Hi Kate,
Do you mind if we print these out & make up at our little playgroup here in Australia?
Thanks,
Rowena
katepickle says
That’s fine Rowena.
It’s ok for teachers and others to use any of my printables with their class or group, just as long as they don’t print them to sell ;)
Hope you enjoy them!
Ali says
These are fantastic…. and the video is gorgeous.
Bek @ Just For Daisy says
So cute! My cheeky monkey’s will love these! Pinning now… printing when we have a printer ;)
[email protected] says
I tweeted this, I hope you don’t mind! Mt son and daughter love this book and now we can act it out! Hooray!
Tiffany
Ness @ One Perfect Day says
You already know how much R and I LOVE your printables, right? Well 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed is one of his favourite songs! He’ll go crazy for these. We used to sing the monkeys and crocodile song but I’d forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Renèe @ adventuresathomewithmum says
I feel deprived :-/ I have never heard that monkey in the tree song… Very cute, ill have to teach Dimples with these adorable print outs
Thanks for sharing
[email protected] says
They are the cutest monkeys ever! My little girl has just started making monkey sounds so these will be great for her. Thanks!
Kate says
These are adorable! The girls are going to love them :-)
Chelsea says
What FUN! My boys would love these… printing off this afternoon :-) Thanks so much for sharing!!
Kirsty says
Hi there
My daughter is at daycare in the mornings and just starting singing the monkeys and the crocodile song so she’ll just love these printables!
Aimee says
Thanks so much for these – my daughter LOVES them!
Janette says
Many Thanks for these printable’s Kate….just love them all. The printer, laminater and scissors have been working hard. As will my voice box soon as I sing with my children x
Adele Wilkes says
To end the song our group sings…. One cheeky doctor jumping on the bed, he fell off and bumped his head. Mummy phoned the monkeys, and the monkeys said, ‘that’s what you get for jumping on the bed’.
Melissa says
Thank you! The kids I work with will love it. They already really look forward to “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” Instead of Mamma called the Dr. I insert there name. They love hearing their name called….
Katie says
Thank you so much for creating these. I am using them as cupcake toppers at a monkey themed baby shower and making some extras for my boys. They are adorable!!
Deebi27 says
Too cute #2…thank YOU!
Cynthia Ford says
Could I get your email so I can ask you some questions about your monkeys? :)
katepickle says
You can find a contact form and information here – https://picklebums.com/contact/