This is the strategy that makes me sentimental.

My youngest baby was and sort of still is, quite the chunk. One of her nicknames as a baby was Chunky Monkey. So, when I think of this strategy, all those adorable baby rolls come to mind and I just about melt.

I mean, is there anything cuter than a chunky baby?

However, her supreme cuteness and adorable leg rolls truly have nothing to do with this strategy. This strategy is yet another piece of the puzzle that unlocks so many words for new readers.

Who is Chunky Monkey?

Chunky Monkey is the next natural step after Stretchy Snake. As your child becomes more fluent in sounding out words, they will begin to notice chunks of words that the recognize. For example, two common chunks are at and an.

Chunky Monkey teachs students to identify those chunks and use them to help decode the words.

You can grab my Chunky Monkey poster here or by clicking on the image below.

Why is it important?

As students written language knowledge increases, they will begin to recognize larger and larger chunks including 3 letter words and endings. Recognizing these larger chunks is crucial to helping them learn to decode multi-syllable words.

Their growing knowledge of words and word families literally makes reading easier for them! And as I’ve pointed out before, the less time they spend figuring out words the more fluent they become. The more fluent they become, the more time and energy they have to devote to comprehension.

How to introduce it

I once saw another teacher introduce this in a fun way and took it on myself. To introduce this I let students guess what I was drawing. I’m no artist by any means, but after a couple of minutes it becomes pretty obvious I’m drawing a monkey.

I introduce chunky monkey, and then we talk about exactly what a chunk is. I point out how the work chunky has “chunk” in it, which is actually a word chunk too. We then talk about how Chunky Monkey’s job is to remind us to break up words and I do a quick easy example like hat. We identify the chunk, “at.” We then continue with bigger words like into, catch, batman, and so on. We practice quite a bit the first day to get used to “chunking.”

I also have a super cute Curious George stuffed animal that serves as our Chunky Monkey mascot. When introducing this strategy, I break him out to serve as visual reminder. I used to let the kids read with him, or use him to point out the chunks.

How to practice it

As always you can find lots of resources for Chunky Monkey on Pinterest. However, I have a few I created that I have found to be really fun and keep beginning readers engaged.

• Find the chunkThis game is very simple and easy to set up. On a white board, write about ten words with hidden chunks in them. Your child needs to find the chunk, circle it, and then use it to decode the word.

Just like with the Stretchy Snake game, I make a simple T-chart at the bottom to keep score.         It’s another fun and easy way to motivate with a simple competition.

• Chunk HuntThis is a fun activity that can be done many different ways. You can use old magazines or worksheets and cut out words with chunks. You can look at environmental print and point out chunks you see, like when ordering at a resturant or shopping at the grocery store.You can also call out words in the car, and as your child what chunk they think the word contains (be sure to pick words where you can clearly hear the chunk). There are many different ways to incorporate “chunk hunts” into your every day life.
• Level C-E BooksAs the levels increase, your child will be challenged with bigger and harder words. You will find that the level C books may contain a few small words with chunks, but as the levels increase there are more and more.Be sure to point them out to your child as they read. Or, after reading go on a “chunk hunt” in the book and identify the chunks you find.

• Matching Game Here’s another fun and easy matching game. On index cards, write a series of chunks and then words they can be found in. For example, one card might say, at and the match might say that.

Playing simply requires finding the corresponding matches.

• Chunk Go FishThis is another simple game. On a set of index cards, create deck of at least 24 cards containing three sets of words with chunks. The object of the game is to find 3 pairs of words that contain a chunk. For example, that, chat & hat.When it’s your turn you attempt to find a match to one of the chunks in your hand. If the other player doesn’t have one you will have to “go fish.”

Recommended Books

Below are some of my favorite books to use while teaching this strategy. Don’t forget to check out Amazon’s used books. You can sometimes score some awesome deals that way.

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

If you’ve missed any of the previous strategies, you can find them here. Be sure to stay tuned tomorrow for the next strategy. And don’t forget, through June 14^th, we have an amazing giveaway going on. You could win an Amazon gift card for $150! Be sure to check out the details here.

And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, where I’m pinning all kinds of great ideas for instruction!