Curious George Quotes

Curious George books are some of the most beloved stories for young children. They are appealing on many levels but the reason that children love them is that they are predictable and familiar. There are recurring quotations in each book and, when using the stories as a shared experience in class, the children can participate in each story. Curious George quotes abound in every book and provide a basis for many discussions.

Choose any of the books to read to the students and soon they will join in with the word "curious" as you hesitate before it each time. Of course this sets up the perfect opportunity to discuss what the word means.

In every Curious George story we meet "the man in the yellow hat".

In the first book, Curious George, George is up a tree and sees the man. The man also sees George, and puts his hat on the ground. Ask your students if they can guess what happens next. Provide students with paper, crayons, markers, yellow scraps of paper and ask them to draw their version of the yellow hat.

Ask students where they think the man in the yellow hat lives? What is his name? Does he have any relatives? Invite your class to make up a life story for this character. Provide them with a hat cut from yellow construction paper and ask them to use their imagination and describe the man, his family , his house and his job.

"George was a little sad, but he was still curious." (Curious George p. 8)

There is a recurring theme of feelings in each of the books. Sometimes George is sad, sometimes scared, sometimes happy and so on. After reading one of the books ask the students to record how George felt at the beginning of the story, how he felt in the middle of the story, and how he felt at the end of the story.

"You are lucky to have four hands," he (the cook) said."You can do things twice as quickly". (Curious George and the Pizza p.12-13 and Curious George Takes a Job p.17)

Discuss with your students what this quote means. Provide them with paper, crayons, markers and ask them to show George using his 'four' hands to do things easily e.g. ride a bike, wash and dry dishes at the same time,washing windows, making pizzas etc.

"From the kitchen he got a big box of soap powder and poured all the powder over the ink." (The Complete Adventures of Curious George)

Ask your students to draw a picture to show what happened next! Discuss the meaning of "consequences." Your students will quickly realize that the consequences that George suffers are in direct relationship to his curiosity. Ask students to tell of their own experiences when they have been curious about something, and what were the consequences.

Provide students with papers with large spider web outlines. Have them print the name George in the middle of the web and then, in each section, print a characteristic of George - curious, clever, good, naughty, funny etc.Have volunteers share with the class.

For more advanced students ask them to find each of the characteristics in a quote in one of the books. For example:

"George was curious. Could he make a pizza, too?"

In the book, Curious George Goes to the Circus, ( p.11) we read "George wanted to get into the act."

Ask your students to make a filmstrip of the events that happened next. Provide them with a narrow roll of paper e.g. an adding machine tape,pencils and crayons, and ask them to make a series of pictures illustrating the sequence of events. Attach a toilet roll middle to each end and 'roll up' the strip. The children can then unroll the paper as they retell the story.

Finally, see what related Curious George quotes your students can find on their own. Guide them as they begin to ask questions of one another. In the end, they will begin to appreciate these stories in an entirely new light.