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speech and language teaching concepts for Grumpy Monkey in speech therapy​
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/gr/ initial
/f/ initial
/j/ initial (“George”)
/n/ initial
/sh/ initial

Themes:

kindness
friendship
acceptance

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary

Grumpy Monkey

By Suzanne Lang

Jim the chimpanzee is in a terrible mood for no good reason. His friends can’t understand it–how can he be in a bad mood when it’s SUCH a beautiful day? They have lots of suggestions for how to make him feel better. But Jim can’t take all the advice…and has a BIT of a meltdown. Could it be that he just needs a day to feel grumpy?

This quirky book about kindness can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional topics like friendship and feelings. It is also great for targeting inferencing! It is filled with the following sounds to address in therapy: /gr/, /sh/, /j/, /n/.  Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Grumpy Monkey in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

theme/message
character analysis
sequencing
illustration study
inferencing
social/emotional
verbs (action)
verbs (regular and irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state)
text features
repetitive text

Sequencing:

order of each friend trying to cheer Jim up

Vocabulary:

confused, grumpy, hunched, bunched, frown

Character Analysis:

Jim realizes that is okay to feel grumpy through the validation of his friend Norman.

Social/Emotional:

kindness
feelings
friendship
facial expressions and body language

Jim’s friends try to help him feel happy.
It is ok to feel grumpy sometimes.

Grammar:

verbs (action)
verbs (regular and irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state)

Text Features:

font size
word spacing

Inferencing:

How do you know that Jim is grumpy?
What tells you that Jim’s friends are all happy?
How does Jim feel at the end of the story when Norman feels grumpy too?
Is it okay to feel grumpy sometimes?