Good Night Gorilla (or Quiet)

We actually used these ideas during Q week for Quiet, but you could use them for G week as well. We had a fun time with this great book "Goodnight Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann. There are not many words in the book but the kids love it. The gorilla sneaks around behind the zookeeper and opens up all the animal's cages as he's saying good night to them.

   

 

• Paint your own gorillas!
  1. After reading the story, we painted our own gorillas. The little wood cutouts were at Michael's for $0.29 each and the little foam brushes worked perfectly.
  2. Once they dried we added googly eyes (googly eyes make everything more fun) and a popsicle stick. Then we used our little gorillas to read through the story again.
• Zookeeper Locks & Keys
  1. My 3-year-old’s favorite part was when I pulled out the locks and keys. The gorilla in the story opens the locked cages with keys, so I collected a few locks that have color coordinating keys.
  2. Once he figured out how to get the key in and turn it the right way, he absolutely loved doing it over and over again.

Snack Idea: Bananas! (If you notice in the pictures, the little mouse is pulling a banana around with him on every page!)