Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!

So the school year started and I'll admit... I kinda missed being a teacher.  I don't miss back to school night or beginning of the year assessments but I do miss some of the cute beginning of the year projects that we did in Kindergarten!

One of my favorites was anything related to the book  Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!  I've read this book to the girls before but just recently they have been really excited about  it!   So I thought it was a perfect time to get out my "Beginning of School" box and have fun with them!

1) Interactive Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!
I taped a cup to the top of a paper towel tube and covered it with green leaves and coconuts (green and brown paper) to make a coconut tree.  Then I got out some plastic letters from my classroom days.  The girls liked having the letters climb up the tree and go into the cup then they would tip the tree over and have all the letter fall out...just like the book!  The girls got tired of holding the tree up all the time (the cup got top heavy when they filled them up with letters) so I cut holes in the bottom of a shirt box to hold the coconut trees for them!

2) Make a Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom Tree!
Next, I had the girls make their own coconut tree on blue construction paper.  I already had the brown trunk, coconuts and leaves cut out.  The girls glued the pieces on the blue paper and put letter stickers all over.

3) Interactive Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! Tree on the fridge
This, by far, was my favorite thing to play with!  I made a huge coconut tree that I taped on the side of the fridge and the girls used the magnetic fridge letters to "re-create" the book!