Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is a beloved book that teaches kids the alphabet from the younger grades. 📖 I have found this book to be a wonderful asset while teaching my kids 🧒the alphabet.
The great thing about this book is that it has inspired me to create engaging activities and exercises that not only entertain my children but also teach them about the alphabet and new words.
Fun and Exciting Activities for Kids
In the next section, I’ll be listing several fun, exciting, engaging, and informative exercises and activities inspired by Chicka Chicka Boom Boom that you can do with your kids while teaching them the alphabet. 🔤
I used my children as test subjects while formulating these activities and will include tips that will help you customize these activities based on your kids’ interests. Hopefully, you find these activities helpful in teaching your kids the alphabet and introducing them to new words.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Name Activity
Let me tell you that this is one of the top activities that your kids will absolutely love.
Steps:
- On a piece of paper, draw a coconut tree 🌴and draw twenty-six circles around the tree.
- In these circles, write the one letter in uppercase and lowercase. Ask your child to take a colored pencil ✏️, highlighter, or even a sticker to mark the letters in their first name.
Pro Tip:
Once my child had marked the letters in their name, I asked them to write them in the tree itself. I also asked them to count the number of letters in their name and write the number 🔢 in the tree. You can do the same.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Soup
I love cooking and try to incorporate my children into it as much as possible. With this activity, I was able to incorporate a learning lesson with cooking, and my kids loved it.
What you need:
To make the alphabet soup, you require- roasted chicken 🍗, diced onion, diced carrots, diced celery stalks, and alphabet pasta 🍝.
Steps:
- Fill a pot with water and put the roasted chicken in it. Let it simmer for an hour.
- Add the diced carrots, celery, onion, and pasta to the water after removing the chicken and let it cook until the vegetables are soft and the pasta is thoroughly cooked.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pro Tip:
Cooking with kids helps develop their motor skills and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Try to involve your children while you cook or prepare for a meal.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Anchor Chart
In Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, the letters get hurt after falling from the coconut tree. Before you move on to the next page with the solution, ask your child or children to give possible solutions to this problem.
My daughter suggested that rather than climb the coconut tree, the letters could play somewhere safe.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Inspired Banana Snack
If your kid loves bananas 🍌, then this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired snack is perfect for them.
What you need:
To make this snack, you’ll require a ripe banana, kiwi, raisins, and alphabet cereal.
Steps:
- Peel the banana and slice it lengthwise into small pieces. Place it on the plate.
- Peel a kiwi and slice it into several segments. Assemble these kiwi segments on top of the banana to resemble a coconut tree.
- Place the raisins on the kiwi segments to represent coconut fruit.
- Scatter the alphabet cereal on the plate.
Ask your child to assemble the letters in alphabetical order on the banana. My daughter loved the fruit combination.
Pro Tip:
As they assemble the words, ask your child to say the words out loud to develop their oral abilities.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Five Sense Challenge
With your children, play the five senses challenge using a coconut. I asked my children to describe the exterior of the coconut, how it felt, the sounds it made, what it smelled like, and what its edible part tasted like.
During this process, I learned that my children loved the taste of coconut 🥥.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Sensory Bin
The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired sensory bin will allow your child to act out the actions as they read the book aloud.
What you need:
To make this bin, you’ll need wooden or magnetic uppercase and lowercase alphabets 🔤, green felt fabric, paper rolls, leaves cut from construction paper, tape, and scissors ✂️.
Steps:
- Give your child a baking sheet and ask them to assemble all of the uppercase alphabets in alphabetical order on it.
- While your child does that, create a coconut tree using the paper towel roll and leaves cut from construction paper.
- In a shallow container, place the felt fabric in the bottom and place the coconut tree🥥. Ask your child to assemble the lowercase alphabets in the bin.
Now, as you read the book out loud, ask your child to pick the alphabet in question. Repeat the exercise with uppercase alphabets as well.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Inspired Alphabet Slime
Prepare or buy green-colored slime and mix wooden alphabets into it. As you read through the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with your child 🚸, ask them to look for the letters in the slime.
This exercise will help your child recognize sounds and letters. My children loved looking through the slime for letters as they found the texture of the slime very satisfying.
Pro Tip:
While making your own slime, I’ll refrain from using glitter if you don’t want to see specks of glitter everywhere for the next year.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Coconut Float Test
On a piece of paper, ask your child to write whether they think that a coconut will float in water or not. Then, fill a large container and drop the coconut🥥 in it. Record the results. Were your children right or not?
Pro Tip:
My children were not aware of the concept of buoyancy. Therefore, I chose to explain the concept before carrying out this experiment.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Play Set
Once I made this play set, I used it multiple times while my kids were learning the alphabet, as it helped them practice letter recognition.
What you need:
To make this play set, you’ll require empty paper rolls, construction paper, glue, a paper bowl, scissors, a paintbrush 🖌️, wooden letters, and green and brown paint 🎨.
Steps:
- Paint the paper bowl in green and the paper roll brown. Glue them together once dried.
- Use the scissors to cut leaves of various shapes from green construction paper. Glue them outside the bowl. Your play set is ready to play with.
As you and your children read the book, they can reenact the words with this play set. With this activity, you are helping your child’s observational and motor skills.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Sound Game
On a piece of paper, draw twenty-six unique yet identifiable items that start with different letters. On another sheet of paper, write the alphabet 🔤.
Ask your child to say one letter at a time and pick the item on the next sheet that starts from that letter. You can also ask your child to identify each item on the page and pick the letter from which the word starts.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 123 Coconut Counting Worksheet
Using Photoshop or any other photo editing software, create a coconut counting worksheet.🔢
Steps:
- Divide the worksheet into four rows and two columns. In the corner of each box, insert another table with 2 rows and 5 columns.
- Place a generic drawing of a coconut tree in each box but with a different number of coconuts.
- Print this worksheet out and ask your child to draw the number of coconuts in each photo. My kids had a lot of fun while working through this sheet.
Pro Tip:
I also ask my kids to write the number of coconuts on the corner of each box. You can do so as well.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Bean Bag Toss
This activity was very successful at engaging my children as it was a combination of playtime and learning.
What you need:
To make this game, you’ll require cardboard, scissors ✂️, colorful markers, EPS beads, and ziplock bags.
Steps:
- Take a medium-size zip lock bag and fill it with EPS beads (bean bag chair filling). Seal the bags properly with tape. You can use colorful tape. Make 3 to 4 bags or even more if several children will be playing.
- To create the cardboard letter stands, trace the shape of a large keyhole on the cardboard twenty-six times. Write the uppercase and lowercase alphabet in each keyhole. Cut the keyholes. Once this is done, you can attach a piece of cardboard or foam to the back of the keyhole to help it stand.
- In your backyard, assemble the keyholes in a random order. Your game is ready.
As you read a letter out loud, ask your child to identify it with the help of the bean bag. This activity is super fun and challenging and fosters healthy competition.
Pro Tip:
When playing this game with an older kid, I’d recommend that you ask them to make words as they play the game. Start with two-letter words and then move up in difficulty. Even the adults can join in.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Writing Activities
This activity is very easy for the parents as you only have to provide your kids with art supplies and a blank sheet of paper to draw on.
I started this activity by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at least 2 to 3 times and then asked my children to draw a coconut tree, like the one mentioned in the story. Also, ask them to write 4 to 5 of their favorite letters on the tree.
Pro Tip:
Instead of writing random letters, you can also ask your child to write the letters in their name.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Dice Game
To play this game, on a piece of paper with a coconut tree, draw 13 coconuts 🥥 and write the numbers 0 through 12 on it. Take two dice and ask your child to roll them.
During the first round of the game, ask your children to add the numbers, and in the second, ask them to subtract. Use any toy or paperweight to mark the correct answers.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Inspired Celery and Kiwi Snack
This snack is a spin on the banana snack and requires celery, kiwi, raisins, peanut butter 🥜, and alphabet cereal. Although the ingredients differ, both snacks have the same purpose.
Steps:
- Slice the kiwi into segments.
- Spread the peanut butter 🥜 on a celery stalk.
- Assemble the plate by placing the celery stalk in the center of the plate, then place the kiwi segments around the stalk and scatter the alphabet on the plate.
Pro Tip:
Since my son is allergic to peanut butter, I opted for his favorite chocolate 🍫spread. You should do the same. I also ask my son to spread and decorate his plate as it develops fine motor skills.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Matching Game
Help your child learn the uppercase and lowercase alphabets with this alphabet matching game. My children were fans of this show and quickly learned to identify the alphabet.
What you need:
To make this game, you’ll require- scissors ✂️, a paper towel roll, color dot labels, a sharpie, green construction paper, and tape.
Steps:
- Cut the green paper in the shape of coconut leaves and paste them on top of the paper towel roll.
- Then write the entire alphabet in uppercase around the towel roll.
- On the color dot labels, write the lowercase letters.
Once you are done with this, ask your child to paste the dots to match them to the upper case letters.
Pro Tip:
I asked my child to say the letters aloud as they pasted it on the towel. You can ask your child to do the same.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Play Dough Activity
For this activity, you’ll require brown buttons of different sizes, wooden uppercase and lowercase alphabets, and green and brown play dough.
With your child, read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom out loud a few times and then ask your child to play with this assortment of items. My child used the playdough to make a tree and then placed the alphabet on it.
Pro Tip:
You can also ask your child to make two-letter or three-letter words as they stick the letters on the dough and write those words on a piece of paper.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Necklace Craft
When you read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to your children to teach them the alphabet, you can create this necklace📿craft. My daughter loved walking around with her necklace afterward.
What you need:
For this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired necklace craft, you’ll require a marker, construction paper, and a toy bead necklace.
Steps:
- Write the first letter of your child’s name in a big and bold manner on construction paper and cut it.
- Use a punch hole and punch a hole at the top of the letter.
- Open the necklace and make it go through that hole. Your necklace is ready to be decorated.
- Ask your child to decorate the letter using stickers and crayons.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Board Game
In order to make this board game for my kids, I used Photoshop.
Steps I followed:
- On a blank template, make twenty-eight circles ⭕ of varying sizes in the shape of a ‘S.’
- Leaving the first and last circle blank, write the entire alphabet in random order.
- In the first circle, write ‘Ready Set Go,’ and in the last circle, write ‘I made it to the coconut tree.’
- Once I had printed this sheet and given it to my child, I provided them with wooden or magnetic letters and asked them to place them in the right spot on the paper.
My children had a lot of fun playing this game.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Counting Mat
Yet another interesting activity-
Steps:
- On a piece of paper, draw a coconut tree.
- Take 10 to 12 stick-it notes and write the numbers 1 through 10 on them in any order.
- Stick this stack of notes on the corner of the sheets.
- Provide your kids 👪 with marbles or small pom poms and a pair of tongs.
- Ask them to use the tongs to place marbles/ pom poms on the sheet corresponding to the number written on the sticky notes.
- This activity will help your child count and use their fine motor skills.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Toss Game
Using brown and green construction paper, create a large coconut tree and write the numbers 1 through 10 on it. Make bean bags made with ESP beads. Ask your child to throw the bean bag on the tree and say the number out loud on which it lands.
Pro Tip:
You can make the game more challenging for your kids by asking them to jump as many times as the number their bean bag landed on while counting to that number. My kids were fans of this game.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Inspired Graham Cracker and Green Apple Snack
What you need:
To create this snack plate, you’ll require green apple 🍏, graham crackers, and alphabet cereal 🔤. Cut the green apple into segments.
Steps:
- Place three to four graham crackers in a line on the plate.
- Then, place the apple slices around the top graham cracker and scatter alphabets on the plate.
Pro Tip:
I ask my son to decorate his plate as it develops fine motor skills. You can also replace the graham cracker with the pretzel.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter Hunt
Fill a large container with either kinetic sand or normal (child-safe) sand. Mix magnetic uppercase and lowercase letters into the container with sand.
Ask your child to sort through the sand and assemble the letters in alphabetical order on the fridge
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Balloon Activity
What you need:
For this exercise, you’ll require twenty-six balloons for the twenty-six alphabets, paper, and markers.
Steps:
- On twenty-six pieces of paper, write one alphabet 🔤each in the uppercase. Then, fold the papers into tiny squares.
- Take a balloon, place one piece of paper in it, blow in the balloons, and tie them properly.
- On another sheet of paper 📜, write the alphabet in the lowercase.
Now, ask your children to pop the balloons and match the lowercase and uppercase letters with each other.
Pro Tip:
As your child matches the letters, ask them to say it out loud. I also involved my kids in the preparation of this activity by asking them to write the letters in lower and uppercase.
Conclusion
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is an amazing book 📚 that has helped several generations of parents teach their kids about the alphabet 🔤in a fun way.
As you all know, I involve my kids in these activities before I recommend them to other people, and they had such a fun time with many of these activities as it didn’t feel like they were learning.
I hope that you have similar results with your kids. Leave a comment down below on your favorite Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired game and activities.
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)