Party of 5: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Activity

One of our favorite books to read lately has been Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. I enjoy reading it to Dylan, Jake and Emma just as much as they enjoy listening to it. The premise behind the book is that the lowercase letters are climbing to the top of the coconut tree and once they all get up the tree, it's so heavy the tree tips and the letters all fall out. They brush themselves off with the help of their parents (the uppercase letters) and try again. It's really a cute book and a great way to introduce letter recognition to preschoolers and young school aged children.

I decided to use this book as an inspiration for an art project a few weeks ago. The materials are simple, the project is not messy and they turn out adorable!

Here's what you need:

- construction paper (green, brown, and white)

- foam alphabet stickers*

- scissors

- glue stick

* If you can't find sticky foam letters you could use alphabet stickers or even print letters on the computer cut those out and glue them on.

For the project:

We began the project by rereading the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

First, I assisted them in cutting out brown paper to represent the tree trunk. I asked them if they wanted a straight or curved/tipped over tree. Next I cut green leaves and small brown circles for the coconuts. They glued everything onto their white paper. Then they cut out a green strip to represent the grass for the bottom of their pictures and they used their glue sticks to glue that on as well.

After we finished the trees, we talked about all the letters in the alphabet. We pulled out the foam letters from the box and put them in alphabetical order singing the alphabet song along the way.

Once we made sure we had all the letters I passed them out. They removed the paper backs and stuck them on and off the tree. I loved how each of their pictures represents a different part of the story.