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The Five Little Monkeys preschool board game offers lots of suspense and laughter for all players. The game, which was published in 2007 by University Games, was inspired by Eileen Christelow’s 1989 award winning children’s picture book of the same name. Both the book and the game are additional methods to enjoy the fun found in the well known and timeless rhyme about five little monkeys jumping on a bed!
The full first verse is as follows:
“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!”
The board game brings the above verse to life by including its main features; not only monkeys jumping on a bed, but also falling off! Children love these exciting elements to the game.
The Five Little Monkeys game consists of a board with a bed placed in center of a circular spaced path, 24 monkeys, 20 tokens, and a spinner. The object of the game is to be the first player to collect 4 different tokens while moving along the path, and to have at least 4 monkeys of his color on the bed.
To begin, each player chooses a color of monkey, and puts one of these six monkeys on the start space. The others are set to his side. Players then take turns spinning the spinner and moving around the board (and bed) accordingly. A player may land on 4 different action spaces, or spaces marked with a 1, 2, or 3.
The four action spaces and tokens comprise of Take a bath, Put on PJs, Brush teeth, or Go to bed. When a player lands on any of these spaces he acts out the action, and takes the matching token if he hasn’t already collected one. If the player lands on one of the numbered spaces, he puts that number of monkeys on the bed.
After each player’s turn, the red post on the bed is pushed down. What this button will do is always a surprise! It will either do nothing, or activate the bed to ‘jump’! Any monkeys that fall off of the bed at this time need to be returned to their players and can be placed back on again. If a monkey falls over, but not off the bed, the monkey is positioned back up and stays on the bed for another ‘jump’! (After the ‘jump’, players need to remember to push down the yellow part of the bed to reactivate the special spring in the bed, so the push of the red bedpost will unexpectedly release it again throughout the game.)
The unpredictable jump of the bed is such a fun part for children. They won’t even realize how much they are learning by taking turns, moving around the board, collecting tokens, and counting monkeys to put on the bed. They anxiously wait to be surprised by the ‘jumping monkeys’!
Enjoying the game and book together (and then munching on banana splits afterwards), make for a great night of fun and games!
(The game (and book) can be found on sites like eBay or on Amazon)
