Another great Fun Friday activity for Kindergarten! This blog maps out a whole day of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities. You can do all the activities or pick and choose which activities would work best for you and your class. We have created an adorable free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom packet to help you save time, but you don’t need the printables to enjoy this day.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Circle Time Activities
To get students ready for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Day, play an alphabet game during circle time. Before students come to the carpet, place capital letter cards in a circle on the carpet where students usually sit. Then, give each student a lowercase letter card (make sure they match the ones you put on the carpet). Students then find the letter that matches their card and sits in that spot. Students hold both the capital and the lowercase letters they have. Next the teacher calls out letters, and students stand up when they hear the letter they are holding. If you want great alphabet cards, we have created some. Read our Alphabet Cards blog to learn more alphabet games to play with these cards.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Reading Activities
Story Time
Now it’s time for the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story! This book is written by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault. The characters in this book are the alphabet. The lowercase letters start to climb a coconut tree in alphabetical order. But before z can climb the tree, they all fall out. When we read the story, we pause a few times and ask questions such as “What letters have climbed up the tree so far?” and “What happened to the letters?” after they fall out the tree. You can purchase this super cute story from Amazon by clicking on the link below.
Retell Activity
After reading and discussing the book with your students, we say, “Now let’s create our own coconut tree with letters so we can retell the story.” Each student gets the following: 1 orange 9x12in sheet of construction paper, 1 light brown 6x2in rectangle for the trunk, 4 or 5 green 4.5x2in rectangles for the leaves, and 3 or 4 dark 1.5×1.5in brown squares for the coconuts. Sizes don’t need to be exact. Model how to snip the corners to create the coconut tree and give each student a page of letters to cut out. You may want to use the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree template and letter page from the packet and follow the steps to create a coconut tree. Then pass out the letters for students to cut out. Next show the students how to retell the story by moving the letters up the alphabet tree. Keep their letters in a baggie so they can retell the story over and over. Even though we start this activity together, because of students’ varied gross motor abilities, they may finish at different times. There are great videos of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on Youtube that students can watch while waiting for others to finish.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Writing Activities
During writing workshop, reread the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book. Next lead a discussion of what letters climbed the coconut tree. After students discuss, model how to complete the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom writing template. Show students how to draw a coconut tree, then have them add any four letters they would like climbing their tree. Have them write the letters they put in their picture in the boxes to complete the sentence. If you are short on time, we added a second writing template with a tree already in the picture area for you to use.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Math Activities
There are some great Chicka Chicka Boom Boom math activities. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 123 is a wonderful related book that is about numbers climbing up an apple tree. Our students loved listening to this story! Another idea is to give students a handful of letter manipulatives and count them or put them on a ten frame. You can also give them cut out paper coconuts to count, compare, or put on a ten frame. Or use the Coconut Numbers ten frame math page in our packet.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Science Activities
For Science, bring in a coconut or some coconut shavings. Have students use their 5 senses to investigate the coconut. As students sit on the learning carpet, show them the coconut, pass it around and then go over questions to use their senses; What does the coconut look like? How does the coconut smell? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? and finally, How does the coconut taste? If you have our free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom packet, model how to complete the 5 senses page.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Snack
Create this great Chicka Chicka Boom Boom snack! All you need are apples and bananas to create a coconut tree. We added olives (or use grapes) for coconuts and alphabet crackers to add a little more fun. In our classes, parents were always asking how they could help, so we asked them to slice up the apples for this snack. Model how to arrange the banana, sliced apples and olives to make a coconut tree. Then add a few alphabet crackers. Your students will love creating and eating this snack!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Printables
We have created some fantastic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities pdf printables and they are FREE. These pages are for Reading, Writing, Math, and Science. If you try these activities in your classroom or at home, we’d love to hear from you. Please comment below and tell us all about it.
These activities can be for kindergarten or preschool. We did these activities at the beginning of the year in kindergarten. For Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities for preschool, we recommend doing these once your kids are comfortable with quite a few letters.
Looking for more Fun Friday ideas for Kindergarten? Read our blog, Make Every Friday Fun With Fun Activities for Kindergarten.
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4 Responses
Thanks! These are great!!!
We’re so glad you like these activities!
Thank you so much for coming up with these activities! My students will love them!
You are welcome, Kristin. 😊