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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault is one of our favorite stories in class. This is a great story when introducing the alphabet, reviewing letters, or if you just want a silly story to read! This week we are learning about the canopy layer of the rainforest, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was one of the recommended stories this week in our Experience Preschool teacher guide. With each topic you will see a story corner in the teacher guide. This is a recommended book that goes along with the topic of the day. There are chances to review the story throughout the week.
In Week Three, Lesson 14 of our Explore the Rainforest unit our topic was Coconuts. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom during circle time, sang the alphabet song and laughed at the silly letters in the story. Later on we completed our creative art project, where we made a Coconut Tree. For this art project the children were given a craft stick, a green napkin, letter pasta (they loved this), background paper, glue, scissors and markers. We talked about different foods that grow on trees, why they think coconuts fall from trees and what type of tree they saw in the inspiration photo. Some of the children chose to use the scissors to cut palm leaves from the napkin and some tore the napkin instead of using the scissors. As a teacher it is fun to sit out the materials and watch what they choose to do with them!
Every kiddo that sat down to do this could not wait to use the pasta. We talked about what letters they saw in the bowl and what letters they were going to use. They immediately related the letter pasta to our story! By making these coconut trees, there comprehension of the story was improved. They related the tree and the art process to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom because their tree now had letters in and around it, just like the coconut tree in the story.
"A told B, and B told C, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree."
It is fun to be able to relate artwork to stories that we are reading. We have read this story several times in class, it is one that I always sit out in September as we are starting school and going over the alphabet letters. This book was my grandma's that she used to have in her own preschool classroom. Many students have been able to enjoy this story through the years. By making coconut trees, it not only went with our topic, Coconuts, but it also went with the recommended story and we were able to comprehend our reading in a new way.
Every child is an artist, and I loved seeing how different their trees turned out and how they chose to use the materials that they were provided with. We had a fun week learning all about the canopy layer of the rainforest. We completed upside-down art, learned that Dart Frogs are poisonous, sloths are slow, and we learned just how big a green anaconda can be! I offer a lot of hands-on experiences in my preschool classroom because I believe that is the best way for them to learn. They learn by doing, being involved in the learning process, and getting to explore different materials that relate to our learning. The Experience Curriculum makes it easy to implement hands-on lessons in our preschool classroom. It is fun to implement your own lesson plans in with the ones that you are already given to take the learning even further.
We have just one week left with our Explore the Rainforest unit.
Until next week!
