Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins Read-Aloud Activities

Make and support predictions about an informational picture book using cover and illustration clues.

Answer comprehension questions about dangerous animals using details and examples from the text.

Determine whether statements about the text are true or false and correct false statements using text evidence.

Convert a data table into a bar graph and use size data to solve comparison problems.

Identify and define new content-specific vocabulary encountered while reading.

Project the book under a document camera while reading aloud, since the teacher-tips page notes the illustrations are necessary to understanding the story and many activities reference them directly.

Spread the 25 activities across a week or more rather than one sitting, matching the included teacher-tips guidance that the set is not intended to be completed in a single day.

Assign the two bar-graph pages and the Animal Size Showdown page together as a short data unit, since all three reuse the same animal-size data table.

Use the two True or False versions to differentiate: the bubble-only version for students who need a simpler check, and the correct-the-false-statement version for students ready to write evidence-based corrections.

Predicting and confirming — students use cover art and illustrations to predict content, then check their predictions against the text.

Text-evidence comprehension — Thinking About the Text and Thinking Beyond the Text prompts require answers supported by examples from the story.

Vocabulary in context — word scramble, Who Am I?, crossword and New Vocabulary tasks build content vocabulary from the book's animal profiles.

Data interpretation — students convert an animal-size data table into two bar graphs and use it to solve comparison problems on the Animal Size Showdown page.

True/false evaluation and correction — students judge factual statements against the text and rewrite false ones accurately.