I teach the audience to sing the chorus along with me. I hand five participants a slip of paper with one of the five paragraphs representing the fates of each of the monkeys and stand them up front in order of the verse. The audience and I clap hands for each "whap ".

(Everyone sings these four lines together throughout story)

There were 5 little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(Participant 1 reads)

One monkey smoked cigarettes
Made him cough and wheeze
Rotted out his lungs
He could no longer breathe

(Everyone talks these next two lines together throughout story)

And... whap!
That was the end of that monkey!

Now there's 4 little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(Participant 2 reads)

One monkey smoked cigars
Sucked in lots of smoke
Destroyed his heart
And gave that monkey a stroke

And... whap!
That was the end of that monkey!

Now there's 3 little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(Participant 3 reads)

One monkey smoked a pipe
He'd puff away all day
What he thought looked cool
Rotted his tongue away.

And... whap!
That was the end of that monkey!

Now there's 2 little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(Participant 4 reads)

One monkey used chew
To save his heart, mouth and lungs
But it ate away his stomach,
Throat, bladder and gums!

And... whap!
That was the end of that monkey!

Now there's 1 little monkey
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(Participant 5 reads)

The last monkey felt safe
Since he didn't smoke or chew
But the second hand smoke
Did him in too.

And... whap!
That was the end of that monkey!

Now there's no little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' "It can't hurt me!"

(I talk alone)

So if you want to live long
And really act cool
Stay away from tobacco
or...
It will make a monkey out of you!

Or - as the monkeys say
(I scratch my armpit and make chimpanzee noises)
"hoo hoo hoo hoo - ouch!"

(Everyone sings)

"Cause there's no more monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Laughing about tobacco
Sayin' it can't hurt me!"

(I talk alone)

You gotta watch out for that tobacco or it will get ya!
And you'll be pushin' up daisies.

Note: I have also created overhead projector shadow puppets for this story featuring a tree with five monkeys who are each whisked off the image as they get "whapped." At the last line, flowers grow up from the bottom of the tree. I stand next to the screen and a co-worker handles the shadow puppets for me as I tell the story.