In this activity, children use pom-poms (or cotton balls) and pipe cleaners to create their own pom-pom monkey friend! They can also create several pom-pom monkeys to hook together – just like the game “Barrel of Monkeys”. This activity is great for a rainy day.

What You Will Need:

• Pom-poms (if you don’t have pom-poms, cotton balls can also work). Use one for the head and one for the body. If you have smaller pom-poms, use them for ears!
• Felt, fabric or paper for creating faces and ears. Googly eyes are an option too if you have some around your home!
• Pipe cleaners for monkey’s arms, legs and tail.
• Thick craft glue or glue gun (use of a glue gun should be done by an adult).
• Paper, scissors, markers or crayons, etc.

Process: 

• Glue the two larger pom-poms together. One will be the head and one will be the body.
• Cut pipe cleaners to the desired length for arms, legs and tail.
• Glue arms to the side of the “body” pom-pom, legs to the bottom and tail to the back.
• Bend the pipe cleaners to create hook-like feet and hands and a curly monkey tail. This way if you create more monkeys, you can get them to “hook” together.
• Give your monkey a face! If you don’t have small pom-poms to add as ears, don’t worry! Create ears and a face by cutting out small pieces of fabric, felt, or paper and gluing them to the head. Draw on your monkey’s face using markers, crayons, etc. If you have googly eyes, go ahead and add them!

Tips: Remember the game “Barrel of Monkeys”? If you create more than one monkey, you can re-create this game by seeing how many monkeys you can pick up by getting them to hook together. You may also choose to create a monkey chain as a decoration!