Easy fun with letters using Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book activities
Did you have a favorite children’s book growing up? Or maybe one you read to your kids now? In our house, an absolute favorite was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault. And now the book is a favorite for my kids, too! If you’ve never heard of it, check it out. Whether this is your first time reading it or it’s already one of your favorite, try these fun learning activities that your kids will love!
A told B and B told C
First, start by reading the books to your kids. You can read it as many times as you’d like, but if your kids are anything like our toddler, you’ll be reading the book on repeat. After the first few times through the book, read it with the purpose of emphasizing a single aspect. First, point out all the colors. Another time through, talk about all the shapes. And then, read it to find all the letters.
As you try these activities, you’ll be reverting back to the book often enough that you’ll want to have it handy. We recommend leaving it out where your kids can see it and get to it themselves.
Try a video
After reading the book, you can try a video to get your kids even more interested. For instance, we used to love listening to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song that you can find here. Then, you can also try a video of a read along with basic animations. There are several good options on Youtube, but here’s one we like.
As a side note: If your child asks to watch something or you need to distract them for a few minutes to get things done, look up book read alongs on Youtube. There’s lots of great books on there, and it’s also a good alternative to TV. This is what we use for screen time instead of TV shows.
Fun with letters craft
Materials needed
- Green, brown, and yellow construction paper
- ABC stickers
- Glue stick
- Scissors
Make the shapes
After talking through all the shapes you and your kids see in the book, you’ll start by cutting them out. If your child is pretty good with scissors, you can draw the shapes on the paper for them to cut out. Or you can cut them out yourself. This may be a good time to practice scissors skills along with practicing shapes. First, you will need about 5-8 green triangles of all different sizes. Next, cut out three brown rectangles for the tree trunk. Lastly, two brown circles will be the coconuts.
Piecing the tree together
Next, you’ll have them glue together the coconut tree. First, let them use a glue stick to put glue on the back of the shape. Start with the tree trunk, then the leaves, and finally the coconuts. Importantly, keep checking back to the book to look at the tree and the shapes they used there.
As they are working on putting their shapes together, you can offer as much guidance as you think is needed. Younger children will probably need more assistance if you want an identifiable tree. Here’s our example of assisted vs unassisted:
Working on vocabulary
While they are making their tree, this is a great opportunity to talk them through what they’re doing. Especially try using positional words such “next to”, “on top of”, or “behind”. Also try using contrasting words describing the tree. For example, ask them if their tree is tall or short. And keep referring back to the book if they have questions about the shapes or the tree as a whole.
Adding the ABCs
Finally, you’ll have them add the alphabet stickers to their tree. Again, you can offer as much or as little assistance as you see fit for this step. Younger children may need some practice putting stickers on paper, so you may want to try on a scrap piece of paper first. We even found cute animal ABC stickers that my son loved.
The final product
While my son didn’t necessarily care how similar his tree looked to the one in the book, he did make the connection. After putting the stickers on, he told me that the letters were falling out of the coconut tree. Like many activities we do here, the final product isn’t nearly as important as the process and what they learned while doing it. However, that doesn’t stop us from putting in on the refrigerator (even if you can’t tell it’s a coconut tree).
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom…It’s a Full Moon!
What are some of your favorite children books we can do activities with?
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