Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is the perfect book to use with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students during the back to school season! I’m sharing the STEM activities that keep my students engaged while working on their names, recognizing the alphabet, fun crafts, comprehension skills, and more!
Okay, so the truth is that I had absolutely no plans of creating a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom resource. Once, we got started on this book study though I just couldn’t help it! This book is so much fun. I kind of giggle thinking about how the first time I read this book I didn’t really get it. If that’s you – head straight to over to youtube and watch the Scholastic video. I started getting into a rhythm when I read the book and my kindergarten students went wild for it!
I couldn’t find what I wanted on TPT so piece by piece I added more and more activities to my resource on TPT until it ended up being a huge 160+ page product. You can click on the cover below to pick one up.
I wanted to review every fun activity included so you will know what you are getting. Although this unit can be used any time of the year – (and if you haven’t studied this book – do so now!) I like to teach it sometime between August and October. The major focus is the alphabet, letter recognition, matching uppercase/lowercase letters, and name recognition.
I usually spend a week covering the book. We start by just reading to the part when x,y,z go up the coconut tree. Students talk with a partner about a prediction of what will happen next in the story.
I like to tell students that if they didn’t get it right, they weren’t “wrong” – the author just surprised them. We talk about using all of the clues to come up with a viable prediction! 🙂
One fun activity are these magnet mats. I laminated mine and will use them year after year by just placing them on top of a cookie sheet and setting out a box of magnet letters.
(The EDITABLE black and white labels that you see on my tub from the Dollar Tree pictured above are available in my TPT store. You can click the photo below.)
My students loved these magnet mats. In the past, I had always used cookie sheets and magnet letters but giving them a focus with a mat took things to a new level. Students were much more engaged at that center.
I had my supplies laid out for my craft and STEM activity. Let’s start with the craft. I just love how different all of these turned out. In the resource, you will find templates for both a smaller and large coconut tree. I had originally planned on letting my students make very large trees until I realized how much construction paper this would use. I decided to make one large and spell out the word “Kindergarten”. (The colorful grade level letters are included in the resource.)
It’s a little hard to tell how large this actually is so here is another for reference.
I cut out the leaves, coconuts, and trunk pieces using the templates in the resource. I wanted my students to make their coconut trees as long or as short as they wanted to. Here is what they came up with:
Aren’t they adorable? I had an old version of the book that was missing a few pages so I decided to actually take the time to cut out the letters in the book for my students. It took forever. I actually had to make letters out of other letters because I was missing one here or there. I’ve made it much easier for you by including colorful alphabet letters in the resource.
I’m planning on letting my students practice writing numbers on the tree trunks tomorrow. They will start with a 1 on the bottom piece and continue writing each number as they continue up the tree. (I will pre-write the numbers for my lower students and let them trace over mine.)
The STEM activity was so much fun! In the resource you will find a letter to parents asking for supplies, detailed explanations, classroom photos, and printables for students to plan and execute their designs. Here is a sneak peek of some of my students’ work!
This truly was one of my favorite activities I’ve ever done with kindergarten students!
My students loved making the coconut name bracelets. It was so much fun that they didn’t even realize they were working on identifying the letters in their names, making sure the first letter was capital and the others were lowercase and arranging the letters in the correct order. The girls and BOYS all loved their bracelets and were so proud to wear them. In the resource you will find the letters and “charms” along with a more detailed explanation.
There are lots of other printables and activities included – too many for me to list here.
***Look for an upcoming blog post with some of the center activities included and find out how the coconut treat recipe in the resource worked out!
Click on any of the photos below to grab your copy!
You can read my next post about some of our center activities and our coconut tasting activity by clicking here!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom -Coconut Treat Tasting and Center Activities
If you like this resource, head over here to read about all of the fun activities to go along with my favorite book – The Gruffalo!
Happy Teaching and Mommying this week!
