Hello teachers, librarians, and reading specialists:

Many years ago, dedicated ed ucators---just like you---started me off on my journey both as a writer and a reader. I may not remember all the titles of the books they shared with me, but rest assured their belief in the power of words to change the world remains with me today. I hope that you will find the information included here helpful, as you inspire the young people in your lives to become 'hooked' on books!

In addition to the classroom discussion and activity guides for my books, you can access a QUICK PICK FROM THE MIXED-UP CREATIVE WRITING FILES OF DIANNE OCHILTREE, when you click here.

Pet Project: write a story about your favorite pet---real or imagined! NEW!!

November is Family Stories Month! Click here to read this literacy activity article. 

For a list of helpful websites click here.  

Idea Files

To access a lesson plan developed by an elementary school teacher in Virginia using CATS ADD UP! to teach subtraction concepts, click here. 

Just a few ideas on ways to use TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE in your classroom…

TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE is a story but it's also a 'story problem' that can be translated into a series of simple math equations. After reading the book, you might go back through the stanzas and ask your students what are the math equations in each scene? Write them on the black board or a large newsprint pad. After all the equations, ask what do all the equations have in common? (The number ten. Even though the left side of the equation has different numbers to add, the answer is always ten.)

TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE is a picture book, but it also may be used as a finger play rhyme. You might choose to read the text while another person counts out the groups of monkeys in each stanza on his or her fingers…which, of course, always adds up to ten. On subsequent readings, all students in your class might be encouraged to count along with the finger play.

After reading TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE once, very young children might be encouraged to look at the illustrations, find and count out all the monkeys in each two-page spread to make sure that all ten monkeys are there. You might ask if there are other groups of animals they can count? (Yes, you will find groups of ants, rabbits, frogs and birds, for example, throughout the book's illustrations.) Do the other groups of animals always add up to ten, too? (No, these groups add up to different numbers.)

After reading TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE to your students, ask them to recall the things the monkeys do in their jungle jamboree. Do they sound fun? Obviously, they are things that the author thought her imaginary monkeys would find fun. But what if YOU wrote a story about animals having a jungle jamboree? What kind of fun things would YOUR ten animals do when they met? Would you write about monkeys, or about other jungle animals? Where would your animals meet up: in the jungle…or would they like to meet someplace else, like at a shopping mall, playground, neighborhood park, school cafeteria, town library, birthday party in your backyard, roller skating rink, etc.? You can brainstorm different animals as main characters and different places for the jamborees to take place and all the fun things that they might do. Write the students' ideas down on a blackboard or large writing tablet as they come up. Using your group brainstorm session as a creative jumping-off point, ask your students to write their own 'jamboree' stories. Their stories can rhyme or not rhyme; the animals might or might not have to add up to ten. Kids could illustrate their stories, if they wish.

The monkeys in TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE are imaginary. But real monkeys live all over the world, in several different environments. There is incredible variety in the primate family. After reading the book, remind students that these are imaginary monkeys. What if they were real monkeys…would they do any of the same things? What couldn't a real monkey do? Talk about the many types of real monkeys, where they live and how they live. Ask students to choose a particular species of monkey to write about. What do they think a group of these real monkeys would do when they got together for a jamboree?

Real monkeys live all over the world, and sadly, some are endangered species. While reading about the plight of monkeys whose territorial journeys were disrupted by the destruction of jungle forests, as well as 'burn and slash' farming methods, I was inspired to begin writing the manuscript that evolved into TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE. Reading the picture book to young children can be the start of a discussion about how real monkeys travel in troops, and how their fate is tied up with the jungle in which they live. For more information about ways young people can become aware of the importance of preserving all living creatures and conserving primate habitats, you can go to www.janegoodall.org; look for the "Roots and Shoots" program area.

The illustrator of TEN MONKEY JAMBOREE, Anne-Sophie Lanquetin, lives in Paris, France. She tells me that she asked a friend who speaks English to read my manuscript aloud and at the same time, act out all the things that the monkeys do in their jungle jamboree. She took photos of her friend clicking sticks, swinging palm leaves, hanging by her knees, etc., and did sketches for the book illustrations from that. After reading the story to the students once, you could ask them to stand up and "monkey around"…acting out what the monkeys do throughout the text, as you read it a second time.

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