Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

What: Active Song, Pretend Play Song

Why: This song uses simple repetition and rhyming to promote cognitive skills like counting, memorization and cause and effect. Thematically, the song deals with social relationships and actions/reactions, or natural consequences. In the choreography you see here, a child will work on fine motor skills using simple hand gestures. You may choose to extend the exercise to include gross motor skills by encouraging the child to jump on any safe, soft surface. Using exaggerated facial expressions will encourage the child to mirror emotions and their corresponding social cues (frown and finger shaking for anger, sad face and hand to head for pain.)

How:



Five little 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 little monkeys . . .

Who: Elizabeth Broder-Oldach contributed this song. Elizabeth attended the University of Maryland and received a B.A. in Theater and a B.A. in English Literature. She has been teaching early childhood classes at Imagination Stage for two years and was recently hired full time as their Access Coordinator. Elizabeth spent the last year as an Assistant Teacher at Kingsbury Day School, a school for students with literacy based learning disabilities, and has just finished her second year teaching with Young Playwrights’ Theater.