Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of those books that’s simply perfect for back-to-school time. However, just because it’s the beginning of the year does not mean you can’t add a little substance to your read-aloud lessons. Check out these engaging Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities for kindergarten.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities: Reading Comprehension
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is one of my favorite read-alouds for the beginning of the school year. It’s a great way to set the stage for alphabet instruction using an engaging story. The lowercase letters climb up a coconut tree until the tree gets overloaded and the letters fall out. The uppercase letters then come to the rescue!
After reading the story together as a class, you can incorporate many different elements of reading comprehension into your classroom activities.
1. Predicting
An important comprehension skill that our students can practice is making predictions. As the letters keep going up the tree in the story, you can take a moment to have students predict what will happen to the tree.
They can write and/or illustrate their predictions on this printable activity. After finishing the stories, students can reflect on their predictions and write what actually happened to the tree.
2. Retelling
Another way to help students build their comprehension is with a retelling activity. This activity can be done as a whole group with students helping along the way. If students forget the order of the activities from the story, no problem! You can simply go back into the text and check to see if you were right. (Checking for text evidence is another important skill to practice!)
Once the story retelling cards are placed in order, students can turn and talk to their partner and orally retell the story. If they forget, they can simply glance at the board to get a reminder.
Then students can independently complete their own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom retelling activity. Again, the board is there for additional support if needed! (I love these sweet pictures that a teacher sent my way.)
3. Problem and Solution
Students can also improve their comprehension skills by discussing the problem and solution in the story. This is another important part of thinking like a reader!
Students can come up with possible solutions to solve the problem of the letters getting hurt in the story.
Since it is the beginning of the year, it is quite normal to get an illustrated response without words from your kindergarteners. You don’t need to force words because, as we know through interactive writing and writers workshop, it won’t be long before students are adding words to go along with their illustrations.
Just continue to model writing without asking students to copy a sentence. If the only writing students do is copying your sentences, the students will develop a dependence upon you, the teacher. Patience is best as students learn how to express their own thoughts in writing.
4. Vocabulary
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom also has new vocabulary words that you can explore with your students! They can learn about synonyms and antonyms, and then practice using each vocabulary word in a sentence.
You can find all the activities above in a set of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Comprehension Activities.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities: Science, Math, and More
In addition to reading comprehension practice, you can incorporate Chicka Chicka Boom Boom into other parts of your school day.
1. Coconut Investigation
Your students will love this coconut investigation where they experiment to see if a coconut would float! First, students can predict the outcome. They can document their predictions on a class graph.
Then it’s time to test it out! Add the coconut to a clear bin of water so students can easily see the coconut floating.
Students can then record and respond after the investigation is finished.
2. Coconut Taste Test and Survey
Another fun activity to do with your class after reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a coconut taste test!
Students can use their five senses to make observations about the coconut. You can record what the students share about how it looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sounds.
After tasting the coconut, students can complete a survey about whether or not they liked the taste. As you analyze the results of the survey, students can practice their counting skills to see how many students liked coconut and how many students didn’t.
3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Directed Drawing
A directed drawing activity is great practice with fine motor skills and following directions. Your students can draw the coconut tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. They always turn out so cute!
4. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Centers
Finally, you can incorporate the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story into your centers routine. These activities are perfect for the back-to-school season. They’re a great way to introduce your students to centers rotations.
These themed literacy and math activities are a great way to keep your students engaged during centers time!
You can find all of these extension activities in a set of Science, Math and More! Activities for August and September.
More Engaging Activities for Read-Alouds
I hope you love these Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities as much as I do. We have found that by engaging our students in activities that take our daily read-aloud from a passive activity to an interactive activity, we see tremendous growth in our readers. As an added bonus, the students LOVE this time of day!
You can find some year-long bundles for the type of activities you see above. When you grab multiple activities within bundles, you save a lot of time and money! Just click below to take a closer look at all of the read-aloud activities included in each set.
- Reading Comprehension | Kindergarten and First Grade: Engaging Readers: SET ONE YEAR LONG BUNDLE
- Reading Comprehension | Kindergarten and First Grade: Engaging Readers: SET TWO YEAR LONG BUNDLE
If you are interested in connecting your read-alouds to science and math practice, take a closer look at the activities in these bundles.
- Science, Math, & More | Kindergarten and First Grade SET ONE YEAR LONG BUNDLE
- Science, Math, & More | Kindergarten and First Grade SETTWO YEAR LONG BUNDLE
Save These Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these fun Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities for kindergarten whenever you need them!
Free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activity
You can download this free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activity to use in your kindergarten classroom! Just fill out the form below and I’ll send it directly to your inbox.
