READ: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with language development activities for Preschoolers

by Lauren Barnett, MA, CCC-SLP Update: June 2023

We are starting our Parents and Preschoolers READ series with a classic! Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr and John Archambault is a cute, rhyming story of the little letters trying to all climb up a coconut tree.

While there is a bit of mischievousness 😏 in this story, it has great repetitions of the names of the letters and is a must read for all preschoolers!

We decided that we would have the letters in our names "climb" our tree!

First, we got to experience a Mystery Bag. This is a favorite for my own children and many of my therapy clients. Anything in a bag is more exciting than if it's just placed on the table! You'll need brown or white lunch bags, the letters in your child's name (we used a craft cutting machine, but you can print them out on plain paper and cut them out), and for later you'll need yarn and tape!

I filled the bag with the letters in their names! They got to dump out the letters and put them in the correct order. Little W is still working on the spelling of his name, so this is a great activity for him right now!

Spelling Our Names

After we correctly spelled our names we took our letters outside. We used the rough bark on the tree to keep our letters secured! Just a note, even a light breeze blew them right off! So, grab that tape and tape the letters on if you need to!

Letters on the Tree!

After we finished our names (and they spelled out both their blog names - Big Sister and Little W, as well as their real names!), we took the letters inside for our final activity!

Taping our Letters onto Yarn

We laid out the letters one more time and taped them to a long piece of yarn. I then tied the yarn to our chandelier. They loved seeing their names dangle over the dinner table!!

Our Name Mobile!

This was a super fun set of activities that both of my children enjoyed!

If you are not interested in having your child's name hanging in your dining room, you could tape the letters with the yarn going sideways like a pendant garland and hang it across their bedroom door! Or pin up the ends on the wall in their room! So many possibilities!!

Each time they look at it, they will remember the fun but also have a positive experience with letter recognition and books!

We grabbed the Chick Chicka 1-2-3 by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson. It is the same cute, rhyming pattern but with numbers 1 through 20 then the 10s numbers to 100! It's great, too!!

We also did a bonus video with this one. We found the movie version of the book while we were at the library.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ... The Movie

It was a great way to end our day!

Want these for your own home collection? You can purchase them on Amazon. Or grab them at your local library!!

Happy Reading!

-Lauren :)

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