The Mess Monster: Cut and Tell

"Monsters!" is the theme of next month's Family Story Time so I am in the process of gathering and creating storytelling activities that feature monsters. For this cut and tell story I first drew a symmetrical monster figure and then wrote a story to go with it.

The Mess Monster

Linda A. Meuse

(Notes from the Story Room)

Joe's mom came downstairs, turned off the TV and said, "Joe, go upstairs and clean your room. It is a mess!" "Aw, mom," replied Joe, "can't I do it later?" "No," she said, "Do it now."

With a sigh Joe went upstairs to clean his room. He didn't think it was messy for he knew where everything was. As he entered he had to go around a pile of dirty clothes and step over toys on the floor. (Cut from 1 to 2) "Well, maybe it could use a little cleaning up after all," thought Joe. He went back and forth across his room picking up toys and clothes as he went along. (Cut from 2 to 3) He was pulling some dirty socks from under the bed (Cut from 3 to 4) when he heard a noise. He thought it came from his pile of dirty underwear so he went across the room to investigate but he couldn't find anything when he got there. (Cut from 4 to 5) He picked up the pile of underwear and headed over to the hamper. As he dumped his underwear in, he heard the noise again near his toy box. He picked up the rest of his toys walking around the room. (Cut from 5 to 6). As he put his toys in the box he saw it. Joe reached down and grabbed it. "Gotcha!" shouted Joe as he picked up the little creature. "Why you're no bigger than a piece of paper!" (Cut out 7) said Joe, "What are you?" "My name is Sibley," it replied, "I am a mess monster. I hide in messy rooms and nibble on toys. No one ever notices me because the room is such a mess. Please put me down. I would like to go now that everything has been put away." Joe put Sibley down and the little monster ran quickly out of his room.

From then on, Joe always kept his room neat and clean. Well, maybe not always. Well, maybe sometimes. If any of his toys looked like something had been chewing on it, then Joe knew that it was time to clean his room.

Sibley - The Mess Monster

 I added sticker eyes. You can also make eyes by drawing them or using a hole punch.

This is the template with cutting sequence that I made.

The story with the photos is also available as a Google document here.

Library Quine is this week's Flannel Friday host. The roundup can be found at Loons and Quines at Librarytime.

All things Flannel Friday can be found here.