"Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head." So goes the famous children’s bedtime rhyme. Although some children prefer re-enacting the story by jumping on the bed, University Games created a safer version. The Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed board game pairs the classic children’s rhyme with both typical board game play and charade-style actions.
Place one monkey for each player on the starting square. The other five monkeys for each player start in front of the players.
Place one monkey on the bed at the beginning of your turn. University Games recommends the youngest player start, followed by the next youngest, and so on.
Flick the spinner to choose randomly the number of spaces to move. Move your monkey that many spaces on the game board.
Perform the indicated action on the game board. The actions include bathing, dressing in pajamas, teeth-brushing and going to bed. Act out the actions similar to charades. Once the action is completed, place the corresponding action token in front of you. If you land on an action space you already have a token for, perform the action and the rest of the steps as usual, but do not take a token.
Place one monkey on the bed at the end of your turn. If you landed on a space with a picture of monkeys and a number instead of an action, place the number of monkeys indicated on the bed. If you do not have that many monkeys left, put all your monkeys on the bed.
Press the red bedpost to end your turn. Pushing the bedpost not only indicates the end of your turn but it also triggers a random action. Occasionally, the bed will shake. If your monkeys fall off, put them back in front of you. If they fall over but do not fall off the bed, set them up right again.
As you move around the game board, if you pass the start square, place another monkey on the bed. Repeat steps 2 through 5 until someone has all four action tokens and a minimum of four monkeys on the bed, winning the game.