Certainly it works to change it to children, but a lot of children do not see the connotations. To them it is simply about monkeys. If I told a class of 2-4 year olds we couldn't sing that song because we would be calling them and/or their Black or mixed race friends "monkeys" because of their ethnicity they would not understand it and we would be planting that seed of difference in their minds. To them, their friends are their friends, no colour seen and they'd want to be "monkeys," too! It reminds me of Craig Ferguson, on late night tv. He uses a lot of common endearments from Scotland calling his whole audience his "cheeky monkeys" and means nothing racist whatsoever.