T is for Trees (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom)

Oh I just LOVE the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  :-)  The kids really get into it and I hear them repeating parts of the book throughout the day. 

Some of the activities we did with a palm/coconut tree in mind:

This of course was when the letters all fell out of the tree.  :-)  Great book to reread!  A very simple letter formation activity we did along with our book.

www.makinglearningfun.com has the patterns to many of these paper plate stencils.  :-)

I chose to put uppercase alphabet magnets up on our magnet board because my young student was here and he's not developed in letter formation yet.  Capital letters are much easier to write.

Chicka Chicka Trees

Another activity I would have loved to do with a large class!  They would all be so different.

From left to right, 5 yrs, 2 yrs (he did ANOTHER project-actually two projects today!), and 4 yrs. We added extra fine motor with snipping the edge of the leaves and ripping the paper for the trunk.

I find that ripping paper is difficult for toddler and preschoolers so I have gotten into a habit of snipping the one side of the paper I wish for them to rip.  Works nicely.

Beginning Sound and Font Sort

A simple activity I created in Print Shop. 

A close up of one of the trees.  Sorry about the color...it really was a brown trunk!

This one really didn't have a connection except the letter portion of the Chicka Chicka book.  But I was interested in seeing how capable they would be.

The task was to use only the side of their hands to create sticks and curves to spell their name.  A little more difficult than I expected.  :-)  But they seemed to enjoy it.  And of course...

FREE EXPLORATION!

And we painted some more!

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/ has a series of easel painting visual "how to's".  Nice every once in awhile.  Good for following directions.  But, of course, there was opportunity for free exploration.  We even got a cowboy falling out of the sky!  :-D

And look who painted with us!  Wow!  :-)  His paper is a bit lower than what the other two would have had.  Theirs would have been up there with the palm tree "how-to" sheet.