C is for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: Library Notes

The parent (uppercase) letters are all looking for their little ones (lowercase letters) in this imaginative tale of letters who all climbed up a coconut tree and subsequently fell out.  The anthropomorphized letters are poetically and descriptively portrayed characters in this popular children's book written by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom makes for a great chant.  It can be read with a lot of attitude and made into quite a fun and interactive text that is beneficial for use in a variety of literacy activities in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening.

1. Read the book. Read it again in a different voice.  Read it again in yet another voice. Try a booming voice, a squeaky voice, an educator's voice, a worried voice and so on. Have fun!  Be animated! Keep the rhythm of the text. Match your inflections to the words.  Go up when there are are questions and intensify when their is bolded or capitalized text.  I have also seen the story does as a song.  Why not?  Get out some shakers, drums and other instruments and sing along.

2. Discuss the style of the writing.  Did you notice the use of rhyming words like I, cry and tie?  The text has numerous quotes, questions and exclamations to be found. All the alphabetic characters are in bold to mark them as the letter names and help them be located easily. The pace is quick and animated.

3.  Do ABC Activities that go along with the book.  These activities likely include ABCs of all sorts....foam letters, sparkly stickers, magnets, letter tiles, cut out sandpaper ABCs and so on.                                                                                         - Using them in bins with other sensory items is an option.                                        - Matching them to letters and words on a handout is an option.                                - Finding words in your environment that start with each of the letters is also an           option.  There are many options.                                                                              - You could have the children try to catch the letters as they fall down from the tree     to the ground and label which ones they caught.                                                      - You can attach them to clothes pegs and clip the letter onto the correct                     alphabetical card. For example, clip a 'T' on a tree picture and a C on a coconut.   - The fallen letters can be put sorted back into their correct order.                               - The alphabet can be traced out using stencils.                                                         - The letters can be personalized to form the child's name.  

4. Other Ideas. In this book the author used phrases like 'dare double dare' and 'you can't catch me!' How would your child respond to these phrases? What did the letters do?  Was it all in fun like the games two truths and a lie or tag?  What other games could we play that connect to the book?  Maybe bowling with a coconut? Maybe dramatic play being medical professionals to help patch up the letters or teacher/student to teach the letters?  You could reach into a bag and guess the letter by its shape or guess what the item inside is and which letter that item begins with.  You could go on a letter hunt and fill up a card with letters or play Alphabet Bingo.

5.  Crafts. Crafts that connect to this would be to make a coconut tree with paper plate branches and construction paper,  painting coconut circles or making the circles with bingo dabbers.  ABCs can be glue on to complete the scene.  You can do circle art and include round coconuts, the sun and the moon.  You can do fancy letter art, perhaps for the first letter of your name and decorate it with craft materials.  Make a tissue paper coconut tree and put glue along the bottom and sprinkle on sand. Decorate coconut shells as drums to beat as you retell the story.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom uses numerous adjectives which can be located and discussed.  It also uses phonetic made up words like "skit skat skoodle doot, flip, flop, flee" just for the fun sound they create. Be sure to find treasures like these in the books you read as they are building blocks for learning and add to the inherent value of the story itself.  Trust this has been helpful!  Have a terrific day!






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