Curious George Activities for the Kindergarten Classroom

Curious George, that lovable but mischievous monkey, finds his way into kindergarten classes across the country every year. Students will enjoy reading stories about Curious George and discovering all the ways he gets into trouble. Once students are laughing along with Curious George and his mishaps, they’ll be on board to enjoy more monkey-like fun throughout the classroom.

Read the original “Curious George” by H.A. Rey to kindergarteners. Give students a sheet of paper with a drawing of helium balloons floating in the air. Have students draw themselves holding onto the balloons much like Curious George in the story. Beneath the balloons, students should draw a place they would like to visit. As students illustrate their pages, go around the room and write the name of their place on the bottom of the page. Hang pictures on a class bulletin board or bind into a class book to keep in the classroom library.

Cut out paper bananas and hide them around the room. Have students hunt for the bananas Curious George left behind. As a class, count how many bananas were found. Variation: If students are ready to count by fives or tens, staple bananas into bunches of fives or tens before hiding them around the room. Option: Have Curious George leave behind balloons or yellow hats when students need a change of pace from bananas.

Make a Curious George alphabet book. Assign each student a letter of the alphabet and write this letter on a sheet of blank paper. Have students illustrate their page by drawing objects that starts with their letter and include Curious George in their drawing. For example, Curious George might be stacking apples for the letter A or holding a bunch of balloons for the letter B. Bind student pages into a class book.

Most kindergartners will agree that Curious George is very curious. Have students use their own curiosity and questioning skills with this game. Get a large yellow hat and hide an object inside the hat. Tell students they are to try and guess what is hidden inside the hat by asking yes and no questions such as, “Is it something you eat?” You may want to let a few students feel the outside of the hat and describe what they feel to classmates to get things started. Option: Have one student take the yellow hat home each night to hide something inside. The next day, that student gets to host “What’s in My Hat?" Hint: If you don’t have access to a yellow hat, draw an outline of a yellow hat on an old pillowcase.

Draw four to five individual banana outlines on a sheet of paper. Photocopy the banana outlines on yellow paper and send home a few sheets with each student. When students read a book at home, they write their name and the title of the book on a banana to bring back to school. Set up a bulletin board display with an outline of a tree and leaves. When students bring back bananas filled out with the titles of books they have read, staple them on the tree. Celebrate your growing readers each week by counting the reading bananas.

Write a class story about Curious George coming to visit your school. Have students make up a story about Curious George’s adventure while an adult writes the story on blank pieces of paper. Encourage students to use their names in the story. Students might say, “Curious George went over to Tyler’s desk looking for a blue crayon. When he opened the box, crayons fell all over the floor.” Provide time for students to illustrate story pages before binding into a class book.

Make banana bread to enjoy with your kindergartners. If you have an oven available at school, have students help mix the bread dough. An easy recipe calls for three or four ripe bananas smashed well in a bowl. Add 1/3 cup melted butter. Mix in 1 cup sugar, 1 beaten egg and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Stir in 1 tsp. baking soda and a pinch of salt. Slowly stir in 1 ½ cups flour. Pour into a greased bread loaf pan and bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Cool, slice and enjoy with students.