Our Chicka Boom Room

Will There Be Enough Room?

This unit is always a favorite...of mine and the munchkins!

We always begin with a reading of the story, which is so very interactive and fun.  Then we use our pocket chart to practice the repetitive text, one-to-one reading, and sight word recognition.  It reinforces alphabet letters, too, as we add different letters to our blow up tree.

It's always funny when our tree gets too full of letters and...

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!

We take some time to make our own little Chicka Chicka Tree.  We fill it with all sorts of letters, just like in the story.

We also have fun searching for and working with letters throughout this unit.

Whether it be our letter bingo game...

Or the sand box filled with letters at the science center...

Or the fun little letter games we created at center time...

The munchkins had tons of fun with letters!

But we also learned all about the coconut tree...

Its life cycle...

It's many parts...

And what all those parts do for the tree.

We practiced several math concepts too.

Like patterning at the math center...

And working on patterning jobs at center time...

We also counted coconuts into the coconut tree...

And some of those malted milk balls coconuts were soooo yummy!

We enjoyed listening to the story on tape...

And getting our paints out to make our own version of the Chicka Chicka Tree.

But probably the most fun was the recipe!!

We made the Chicka Chicka tree!

It was complete with roots, trunk, leaves, coconuts and letters!

Chicka, Chicka!

Boom! Boom!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Chicka Boom Room Part Two

More From the Coconut Tree

Our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit provided us with so much learning fun, especially in the area of math and science. 

One of the favorites among the munchkins was our "Counting Coconuts" activities.  We used malted milk balls coconuts to practice creating sets, adding and basic counting skills (with the added perk of eating the manipulatives when we were done!).

The munchkins enjoyed creating a counting book, too.  This book allowed them to use their counting skills and their emerging reading skills.

Counting Coconuts

One coconut on the coconut tree... and then some!

Everyone enjoyed working hard to create Chicka Boom patterns too.

Choosing and placing which shapes to use...

and coloring so they looked just right!

 

Some chose to make A-B patterns.

Others chose A-B-C.

Still others chose A-A-B.

And we can't forget the fun we had learning all about the parts of the coconut tree.  The munchkins were so good at naming and labeling each part and even telling what each part's job was. 

Our big floor puzzle was helpful.

And we used what we learned from it to make one of our own!

And as if we hadn't created enough of a Chicka Boom Room, the munchkins also had the opportunity to explore all sorts of games and activities on their own at our classroom centers. 

Searching for letters (and recording which ones were found) at the Reading Center...

Exploring where coconuts (and other foods) come from at the World Center...

Labeling different plant parts at the Science Center...

Exploring shapes...

And patterning at the Math Center...

But of course there was also eating...

We had soooo many different versions of "coconuts" and letters at our Snack Center. 



But probably the most fun, which is usually the case, was our main recipe day when we all created an edible Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree (thanks to the wonderful ideas at Making Learning Fun).

Chicka Chicka....BOOM! BOOM!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.