Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Grumpy Monkey will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of feelings, taking ownership and empathy, this Grumpy Monkey picture book by Suzanne Lang is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Grumpy Monkey Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Grumpy Monkey. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Grumpy Monkey reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
GRUMPY MONKEY SUMMARY
Jim Panzee wakes up one morning feeling grumpy. He is very confused and doesn’t know why he feels this way. The other animals in the jungle try to cheer him up, but Jim keeps insisting that he is not grumpy.
Eventually, the other animals push Jim too far trying to make him happy, and he explodes and runs off. It isn’t until he finally admits that he is feeling grumpy, that he begins to feel better.
Boys and girls will love hearing this funny book about identifying emotions and realizing that it is okay to be grumpy.
GRUMPY MONKEY LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Grumpy Monkey, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Grumpy Monkey reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- making connections
- identifying theme, message and moral
- analyzing illustrations
- ask and answer questions
- sequencing
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- feelings
- taking ownership
- empathy
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper nouns
- contractions
- verb tense
GRUMPY MONKEY ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Grumpy Monkey?
- Lexile® Measure: AD460L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.5-2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Suzanne Lang. It was illustrated by Max Lang.
What genre is Grumpy Monkey?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
