Monster Theme

All kids love a Monster Theme whatever their age!

Young ones will enjoy listening to stories of 'make believe' monsters and making one of their own.

Older children can delve back in time and discover about weird and wonderful monsters from long ago.

Scroll down and begin your motivating Monster Theme!

AND there are some useful print-outs to help you along the way.

Literacy Activities

Here we go!

Let's start with a Monster Theme book

If you should want to purchase this book, just click on the image.

I love this book because it not only lends itself to the Monster Theme that you are about to embark on, but it also opens doors for discussion about subjects such as race and colour,

So start by reading this book to the children and then have a class discussion about Monsters.

Ask the children if they have ever seen a monster and if so ask them to describe what it looked like, what it said and perhaps where it came from.

Ask them if they are afraid of monsters and how they would behave if they ever met one?

Would they run away or be brave enough to ask it questions?

Martin was green. Do they think that all Monsters are this colour?

What do the children think Martin felt like when he found himself in the class with all these humans?

Do they think he was at ease being there or did he feel like an outsider with no friends?

Have the children ever felt like that and what did they do to make themselves feel better?

Do they think Martin had a family? If so WHERE were they? And WHO were they

What do they think the children in the story thought of this green monster that arrived in their school?

Brainstorm as many 'MONSTER descriptive words as they can think of and make a class list to use in a later activity.

Start them off with the word 'gruesome'

Writing Activities

1. Get the children to imagine that they had a 'pet monster' and draw a picture of it.

Label the different parts of their monster.

Make up a very simple 3 or 4 line rhyming chant and put it in a speech bubble on their picture.

eg I am a monster.

Who are you?

I love to dance

Will you dance too?

2. Ask the kids to write a description of their Pet Monster [drawn earlier] starting with the head and working their way down the body until they get to the feet.

They must include size, colour and shape in their description.

They might like to refer to the list they compiled earlier.

Then working with a partner and back to back. One of the pair reads their description of their monster to their partner who draws what they hear! They then swap roles.

Who's was the best likeness?

3. Ask the kids to write a simple story in which they discover a monster and the 2 of them have an adventure together.

The monster could be a friendly one or a not so friendly one!

Where did they go and what did they do?

4. Martin has asked if they would like to return to his 'monster land for a holiday.

What would the children pack in their suitcase?

Draw or write what they would take and why.

[Download a printable here ]

5. Get the children to write a list of all the green things they can think of and, if they want to, draw a picture of each object.

They could start by drawing Martin!

6. Find and write as many Monstrous Words as they can find.

They can use dictionaries and the words must have more than 10 letters They could start with the initial letter of their own name.

All the words could be collated, put on a class list and displayed.

Older children could put them in alphabetical order!

7.Read, How to catch a Monster by Adam Wallace

If you would like to buy this book click on image

Discuss the different ways the child in the story tries to trap the monster

Which traps failed and why.?

Suggest that their Pet Monster runs away and they have to devise a plan to catch it!

Discuss with partner or group their ideas for a trap

Brainstorm series of questions

What do you know about your monster?
What would make it hard to catch?
What are your plans for how to catch your monster?

Next get them to complete a Monster Fact Sheet for my Monster trap.

You can click here to get your download

Older children might like to try out their design and make one out of recyclables or junk!

8. Make a Missing Monster poster for your monster.

Click here for a download

Monster Theme Maths Activities

Maths becomes much more exciting when monsters are involved!

So scroll down and find some MONSTER MATHS problems for your Monster Theme!

1. MONSTER MATHS FACTS

Return to your Pet Monster from your Literacy Activities and fill in the following facts about it.

For download click here]

My monster is --------m tall

My monster weighs ---------- kgs

My monster is -------- years old

My monster lives for ----------years

It sleeps for --------- hours per day

Its foot size is size---------

AND

Number of eyes, hands, feet noses and mouths and anything else it has more than one of!

Older children could compare their own measurements with their monsters.

2. A MONSTERS DAY

Make a chart for your Monsters daily activities.

eg: 7am My monster gets up

9am It goes to school

10 30 am It has a break and a play etc etc

3. MONSTER CALCULATIONS

Challenge the children to make up some sums using monstrous numbers. Get them to estimate their result before calculating the answer

For download click here

Monster Theme Science

1 MAKE SOME MONSTER SLIME!

Things you will need:

250g white pvc glue
food colouring
1 tbsp baking powder
1/12 - 2 tbsp contact lens saline solution

What to do:

1 Put the glue in a bowl and add the food colouring

2 Mix well and add the baking powder.

3. Then slowly pour in the saline solution until you get the consistency you need.

4. Sore in lidded container or zip lock bag.

Monster eyes could be added to your monster to make it REALLY scary!

2 GROW A MONSTER BALLOON

This is a great science experiment to do with your kids for their Monster theme. By mixing baking soda with vinegar which causes a chemical reaction you can inflate your monster balloon without using any' puff' at all!

I dare you to go ahead and have a go!

You will need:

A largish balloon
A funnel
An empty soda bottle
1/4 - 1/2 cup of white vinegar
1 - 2 tsp of baking powder

What to do:

1. First draw a monster face on your balloon

2. Then stretch the neck of your balloon over the neck of the funnel and pour in the baking powder

3. Next pour the vinegar into the empty bottle.

4. Now carefully transfer the neck of the balloon from the funnel to the neck of the bottle without allowing the baking powder to drop into the bottle.

5. Carefully lift the main part of the balloon up and allow the powder to fall into the vinegar through the neck of the bottle.

6. WOW watch that Monster Balloon grow!

After the experiment you can discuss with the children what they think happened. Get them to feel the bottle. Has it become warmer? Why do they think this is? What do they think might happen if they add another teaspoon of baking powder?

Older children might like to record what they saw happen and write down their own explanations.

Monster History

1 Challenge the children to find out about monsters from bygone days.

2. Tel them stories about giants and dragons from folk tales and ask them to find out from which period they were set and from which part of the world they originated.

Monster Theme Arty-Crafty

There are so many arty crafty monster theme things you can do but I have chosen just a few fun ones that you might like to have a go at. Scroll down and find out more.

1 MAKE A MONSTER COLLAGE

Look at the picture above as a starter for your ideas.

Get the kids to either draw lots of different monster pictures for themselves OR look for and print off pictures of gruesome creatures on the internet.

It might be a good idea to make a large class monster collage pooling together the artistic drawings of the children with the printed versions from the web.

Mount it in a corridor so the whole school can admire their work!

2. DESIGN AND MAKE A MONSTER MASK.

Allow the kids to design and make a monster mask.

Older ones might like to choose one of the creatures they found out about in their history lesson.

Younger children could just let their imagination fly and design a really scary monster! Or perhaps one not so scary!

Afterwards they could make up and act out a short play using their masks.

3. MONSTER CONSEQUENCES

In groups of 4 or 5, one child draws the head of a monster on a piece of A5 paper They then fold over the top to conceal the drawing and pass it on to the next child.

No 2 child secretly draws the body and arms [if any] of the monster and once again folds over the top and passes it on to the third child.

No.3 draws the legs, folds it again and passes it to the 4th child who thinks of a name for the monster and writes it at the bottom

If there are 5 in the group the 5th child gets to open it up if there are only 4 children in the group the one who wrote the name opens it up to reveal their unique made up

MONSTER!

Change round next time so that the one who opened it up or wrote the name gets a chance to do some drawing.

4. MAKE A 3D MONSTER

Allow the kids to rummage through the junk material box in the classroom and make a 3D monster out of recyclable materials.

It may be a good idea to get them to work together in a group

This not only gets them to share and discuss their ideas but it also helps develop their team building skills. AND makes the materials go a lot further!!

Monster Music and Songs!

If you fancy some atmospheric music for your monster theme play some of the Pier Gynt Suite to the children.

They could make some accompanying MONSTER MUSIC with percussion instruments.

SUPER SONGS for MONSTERS!

1. Puff the Magic Dragon { see U tube]

2. 5 Little Monsters jumping on the bed

3. The Monster Shuffle [see u tube]

4. Monsters Stomp!

5. 10 Little Monsters

6. If you ever see a Monster

7. If you're a Monster and you know it wave your arms.

7. We re going on a Monster Hunt.

Want the words for the above songs? Click HERE!

Monster Stories

Monster stories are great to read at any time! So take a look at the list below and have some fun reading to your kids even though you may not be doing the Monster Theme!

1. The BFG by Roald Dahl [8-12yrs]

2. How to catch a Dragon by Adam Wallace [ 4-7yrs ]

3. How to catch a Monster by Adam Wallace [ 4-8yrs]

4. Today I m a Monster by Agnes Green [ 2-6yrs ]

5. Monster Trouble by Lane Fredrickson [ 4-8yrs]

6. Iron Man by Ted Hughes [7-9yrs]

7. Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak [4-8yrs]

8. My Monster and Me Nadiya Hussain [3-5yrs]

If you do fancy buying one of the above, just click on the book name and you'll be taken to the Amazon site!

Thank you for looking at my Monster Theme page. I hope you found something fun to do with your kids and hope to see you back again soon!

Why not have a peak at the

Dinosaur for Kids page-------- or even