You and your children can mimic monkeys in a number of games and activities.
Monkeys are small, curious animals that have inspired many games, films, books, toys and other media. Compiling a number of monkey-themed games and activities sets an agenda for hours of entertainment, especially for children. These games encourage dexterity and movements that mimic these active primates.
Barrel of Monkeys
This classic game features several plastic, flat monkeys with hooked hands and tails. The object of the game is to link as many monkeys to form a chain leading out of their barrel. You cannot use your hands to hang the monkeys from each other, but must maneuver the first monkey in the chain to hook all the subsequent monkeys out of the barrel. The person to form the longest chain wins. Many toy companies make their own version of this game.
Jungle-Themed Old Maid
Create a deck of cards using images of bananas, trees and other things found in the jungle. Make a matching pair for each image and one image of a monkey as the "Old Maid" card. Players draw one card from any other player's hand each turn and lay down pairs of cards but never announce they have the "Old Maid" monkey card. Laying down all the pairs ends the game. The winner has the most sets of pairs, while the loser is the last player holding the monkey card.
Jousting Banana Tournament
Hold a tournament in which two players sword-fight using unpeeled bananas. Players may only hit each other's bananas, but not any part of the opponent's body. Players battle with one banana-sword until destroying his opponent's banana-sword, which means the winner turns the loser's sword into mush or severing it into pieces. You can choose to continue jousting rounds with two players battling at once until one only banana-warrior remains out of the other players.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
This game is structured the same as "Simon Says." One player is the lead monkey. This player calls out, "Monkey says..." and chooses an action for the other players to perform. The lead monkey also calls out an action without saying, "Monkey says," first. In this case, the lead monkey says, "Monkey didn't say [the action]," and participants that did the illegal action are "out." The last remaining player wins.
Tags: lead monkey, down pairs, each other, games activities, monkey card, Monkey says, other players