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Creative Teaching Ideas for

SUMMER OF THE MONKEYS

by Wilson Rawls (1976)


ON THIS PAGE: LitWits hands-on activity ideas and instructions, teaching topics, learning links, and more. Scroll on!

Printables for purchase

About the story


Trekking through an Ozark dry riverbed, Jay Berry Lee is shocked to discover a tree full of escaped circus monkeys! Turns out there’s a big reward for their return! Jay Berry has a dream of owning a pony and a .22 rifle, so he sets out to trap the monkeys and earn the cash. But his twin sister Daisy, and her invisible friend the Old Man of the Mountains, are always on his mind, and with good reason.

This is much more than a boy-wants-pony tale. In Summer of the Monkeys, Jay Berry gets what he wants, but gives it up for a greater good—and ends up with something better.
 
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Hands-on Fun

Making a plan . . .


There are many ideas in this Hands-on Fun section—don't feel you have to do them all! Go with whatever works best for you and your kids. If you want to focus on a particular teaching point, our Takeaway Topics section can help you narrow down the activity options. And you can enhance discussions during any activity with audiovisual aids from Learning Links or story objects from Prop Ideas.

You might find our narrative arc worksheet helpful for sequencing your activities, teaching the important concept of the arc, and helping kids learn how Wilson Rawls put Summer of the Monkeys together.
Narrative arc worksheet & other printables

Before the Berry Roots

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

Jay Berry’s family lives at the edge of the Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma, “smack dab in the middle of the Cherokee Nation.” The family came by the land as it had “just been opened up for settlement,” and Grandpa (an “honest trader”) had obtained it by bartering with a Cherokee Indian.  The territory became Oklahoma in 1907, but Wilson Rawls, sensitive to its history, constantly reminds us that the land is Cherokee.

We know how important place is, individually and culturally, so we taught some of the history of the Cherokee nation there, and of the “land runs” of the late 1800s. We also showed  images of the Ozarks near Tahlequah, where Jay and Grandpa went to the library, and shared some selected facts about the settlement of the Ozarks. 

We also had the kids find Tahlequah on an 1892 map, and trace the Illinois river, on our setting worksheet.
Setting worksheet & other printables

A Healer’s Face

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

In the story, Daisy has made Christ’s face from the dark red clay of the Ozark mountains, using robin’s egg shells for the eyes (hatched-out shells, of course), and moss for the hair.  It’s one of the treasures in her playhouse, and its “growing hair” draws people from miles around. Jay Berry remembers the face — perhaps because Christ is known as a great healer — as he tells his sister of his wish for her, come true.

This project lets kids make something a character made herself. It also recreates a thematic symbol from the story, leading to a conversation about carekeeping  while the kids work. 

SUPPLIES & DIRECTIONS

Distribute chunks of red clay on pieces of cardboard, and additional pieces of cardboard for a working surface. Have the kids mold the clay into an oval and pinch features into place. Then hand out dried moss for the hair and faux robin’s eggs (or blue play-dough) for the eyes.
PRINTABLES SET

Monkey Traps

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

Jay Berry tries so many ways to trap those monkeys, it made us want to try our own hand at it.  So we provided an assortment of boxes, baskets, bowls, colanders, string, sticks, branches with leaves, yarn, and netting, and set the kids loose in pairs to design their traps.

While they worked we played old circus music in the background, which kept the mood festive. The kids had a fabulous time getting creative! Each trap had a unique design, and a wind-up monkey we found online helped us test them.

It didn’t matter if the traps were effective or not — after all, Jay Berry’s weren’t; it was caring, not trapping, that brought the monkeys to him. But the kids got to do something the main character did, experiment and work creatively in teams, and have a ton of fun “being Jay Berry.”
PRINTABLES SET

BookBites: Musclebuilder Pie

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.” We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:

  • it’s important to a plot point
  • it has thematic significance
  • it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location
 Grandma takes care of Jay Berry’s belly by serving him her huckleberry pie, but she feeds his mind as well:  it’s while he’s stuffing his face that she clues him in about Daisy’s pain. He doesn’t want to hear about it, really — he thinks he can’t do anything about it, and anyway he has ponies, guns, and monkeys on his mind.  But later, with those words and more in his heart, he takes care of Daisy in a very big, beautiful way.

As a tribute to the setting and the theme of caring, we served huckleberry pie that “would put muscles on a grapevine,” and then we made you a cute label so you can turn any berry pie, or single-serving boxes of berry pie, into Grandma's special recipe. :) It's in our printables.

While the kids ate (and flexed their biceps to test the promise), we listened to “Sally Goodin” and Ozark Mountain folk songs.

As a take-home for the kids, we packed them each a sack of old-fashioned candy from Grandpa’s “big old country store,” just as he always did for Jay Berry and Daisy.
Pie label & other printables

Cover Art

A LitWits activity 

Because the imagery in this story is so rich and realistic, we wanted to turn the author’s words into visual art. We asked the kids to think of a scene from “the bottoms” that would best illustrate the title, and draw it as a cover for the book. They didn’t have to refer to the book — whatever stood out in their minds would be an excellent choice. (By the way, we tried providing scenic ideas by Googling  "Ozark bottoms."  Don't do that.) 

Then they filled in their drawings with colored pencil or watercolor paint, whichever they preferred.  While they worked, we went through our Learning Links and talked about the similarities between simians and humans.



SUPPLIES
We used the art to decorate pocket folders for storing worksheets; if you’d like to do the same, add pocket folders to the list of supplies.
Template & other printables

Humdingers

A LitWits activity

This story is full of slang used by kids in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in rural areas like the Ozarks. To understand what they mean, we worked as a class to come up with a list of these words and phrases, then talked about their definitions. Then we had the kids write some creative dialogue between two characters in Summer of the Monkeys, using as many of the slang words and phrases as they could.

We have a worksheet for this activity, if you'd like to use that. :)
Vocabulary worksheet & other printables

Printables Previews

The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.

Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
DETAILS

The LitWits Kit

Pack up for the field trip!

A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies you pack up and give to each child right before you begin your "field trip" through the story.  You might be doing one-off projects as you read through the book together, or you might do everything in this guide from top to bottom after the book has been read. However you explore this book in LitWitty ways, kids love the anticipation of opening their kit.

If you'd like to build LitWits Kits for your kids, you could easily arrange the items in a bag, basket, or story-relevant container.  Honestly, it's just as much fun to create a kit as it is to open one!

To make it all the more fun, our printables for many books include special "story packaging" for certain activity supplies, including BookBites. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book. 
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway Topics

Why we chose this book for a "field trip"
We loved this book when it first came out because, in the end, Jay Berry comes through for his sister. Maybe we loved that idea because we had two brothers ourselves, and wanted to believe they too would give up a horse--or a '65 Mustang-- if either of us had a bum leg. We're SURE they WOULD HAVE, but fortunately, we got to soak up that idea through Jay Berry, instead of real life.  His loving but non-sappy sacrifice, along with the concomitant lessons of helping and healing, made this book an easy choice for one of our experiential workshops. And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below.

In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun!

Happy teaching,
Becky & Jenny

The Ozarks


Wilson Rawls grew up in the Ozarks, and his childhood memories, and familiarity with speech patterns, are what help make this story so believable.  He's also sensitive to the fact that the Ozarks had long been Cherokee land. In fact, he writes that the Berrys lived "smack dab in the middle of the Cherokee Nation," and  that Grandpa had obtained it by bartering with a Cherokee Indian. So this story gives us a thoughtful opportunity to explore the setting with that history in mind, and to share some important facts.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  daisies or wildflower props; red clay used in “A Healer’s Face” project, audiovisual aids, BookBites snack, geography and vocabulary worksheets
PRINTABLES SET

Caretaking


Everyone in this story takes good care of each other, beginning with Grandpa’s gift of the farm to Mama and Papa. Daisy takes care of the wild animals, her brother, and Rowdy; Grandpa and Grandma help take care of Jay. The Old Man of the Mountains’ sole job is to take care of the hills, to “look out for everything.” Jimbo the chimp takes care of the monkeys, and after the storm, Jay takes care of him--and wins his trust.  In the end, it's not trapping but caring that brings home the monkeys--and the money to take care of Daisy's leg. So it's Jay, looking out for his sister after all, who takes home the caretaking prize--and our hearts.

Hands-on connections in this guide: medical props (medicine, nurse’s cap), “A Healer’s Face” project;  BookBites snack, ribbons and shaving mug props
PRINTABLES SET

Simian Connections

Jay Berry wants to catch the monkeys for the reward — but they’re a lot trickier than he expected. Their cleverness adds to the adventure and humor of the story, but it also shows us how similar to humans they are. Jay Berry describes the chimpanzee, at first, as looking just like a small boy. The chimp holds an apple “like I would,” likes some human foods (and beverages), somersaults in glee, “laughs,” spies on Jay Berry, uses fingers and tools, is “polite,” and even scratches his head while he thinks. There are many expressions, emotions, and behaviors that Jimbo and the monkeys seem to share with us, so there's lots of opportunities for conversations about empathy and ethics here.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  “Monkey Traps” activity, “Cover Art” project, props used/enjoyed by both species (apples and coconuts, ribbons)
PRINTABLES SET
Summer of the Monkeys is chock-full of wonderful topics to explore, from Ozark folklore to circus history to fairy rings and more. Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life. 

Learning Links

Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.


About the Book & Author

Story Supplements

Beyond the Book

PRINTABLES SET

Prop Ideas

When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments.

Below is an overview of the display we put together for our live workshop, and under that we've given more details. You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read. 

Sometimes we create a printable prop; click to see the list for this book.
PRINTABLES SET
PROPS

  • Jay Berry’s old straw hat
  • a tree branch festooned with Daisy’s hair ribbons
  • the face of Christ and cross covered in tin foil, made by Daisy as some of her playhouse treasures
  • Daisy’s ointments (salves, castor oil, peroxide, etc - never mind our labels; we're reusing bottles from All Creatures Great and Small ! :)
  • the cowbell they kept “on the jumping old thing”
  • the “wild mountain flowers peeking from the tin cans” (including daisies) – also symbolic of cheerful Daisy herself
  • the “snow white shaving mug with a fancy design on it” for Papa
  • two foods monkeys love – apples and coconuts – and berries to represent Jay Berry
  • part of Daisy’s nursing uniform

LitWitty Shareables



Great Quotes

"Papa," I asked, "how can you help a wish?"

"Oh, there are a lot of ways," Papa said. "Hard work, faith, patience, and determination. I think prayer and really believing in your wish can help more than anything else.” 
*
When I saw my little sister kneeling in the center of that snow-white circle, and that old crutch laying on the ground beside her, I forgot about ponies and .22s. I wanted my little sister to get that old leg of hers fixed up. I wanted that more than anything I had ever wanted in my life. That was going to be my wish.
*
“It’s not good for a boy to want something with all his heart and then be disappointed. Things like that can hurt for a long time.” 
*
I’d been living around Mama for fourteen years; and a boy can learn a lot about his mama in that length of time.
*
“You know, an old man like me can teach a young boy like you all the good things in life. But it takes a young boy like you to teach an old man like me to appreciate all the good things in life. I guess that’s what life’s all about.” 

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Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
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*We hope we've inspired you!  If you're feeling a little overwhelmed (we hear that sometimes), remember, you're LitWitting whether you do a lot or a little. You can't go wrong!  The learning is happening, trust us. Just take the pressure off and do what works for your kids, time, and budget.  It's all about inspiring kids to read for fun, so they want to read more—because kids who read more great books learn more great things.

Now get ready for a bunch of wide-eyed kids having “aha!” moments . . . and you, grinning ear to ear because your kids are happily engaged with a great book.

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LitWits teaching ideas and materials for Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
Copyright 2015 by LitWits Workshops, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
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