Tot School: Chicka Chicka

I just recently found this site and love the concept. This is our first week participating in Tot School, so I decided to do a Chicka Chicka Boom theme for the week. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123 throughout the week. Our activities involved the alphabet and counting to 5.

I created the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tot Book. I found the template at 1+1+1= 1. I did add a few more items to customize it for my daughter. I had Izzie work with the Tot Book everyday. Her favorite activity was matching the clothespins to the correct color Coconut Tree.

Izzie made a hand print coconut tree.

I laminated the tree and placed it on the refrigerator. While I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Izzie placed the alphabet magnets on her coconut tree. She did really well identifying the letters.

Izzie is having a hard time matching up capital and lower-case letters; therefore, I made her a flashcard set. I found the flashcards here and I laminated them, then cut them in half, so now she can use it as a game to match up the capital and lower-case letters.

Izzie worked her wooden alphabet puzzle. She can work this puzzle very quickly, but I wanted her to really identify the letters. Therefore, I would ask, "Izzie, where is the letter M?" and she would find the letter that I asked for...she identified all the letters correctly!

We also worked on the "Alphabet Song". There are several cute ABC songs on YouTube. This was Izzie's favorite.

I found this idea here. To reinforce letter identification, Izzie looked through magazines to find each letter of the alphabet. I then cut out the letters for her and she glued the letters on her coconut tree that she had colored.

To reinforce number identification and counting skills, we did several activities.

I found this idea here. Izzie had to put the correct number of stickers in each square on the dots. She of course had to match the sticker color to the correct dot color too! She enjoyed counting the stickers over and over in each square. She was a little confuse with the zero concept.

Izzie also worked with her self-correcting number puzzle (bought at Wal-mart for $4). I focused on numbers 1-5, but the puzzle goes to number 25.

Izzie also worked her wooden number puzzle, which she can work very fast, but I wanted her to really focus and identify the numbers when asked. I would ask, "Izzie where is number 3?" and she would find the number 3. She was able to identify all the numbers correctly and can hold up the correct number of fingers for 1-5. She hasn't gotten the concept of using two hands for numbers.

Chicka Chicka treat, which I found the idea here. However, instead of using celery, I used a banana. Izzie loved her treat!

We also played in backyard with a coconut. Izzie didn't care for the texture of the shell, but had a great time tossing the coconut like a ball and shaking it to hear the milk.

We then cracked the coconut opened and ate it...

I made a coconut tree out of foam, so Izzie could play with it using her foam letters, while taking her bath.

In addition, Izzie watched Chicka Chicka ABC and Chicka Chicka 123 on DVD that we checked out from the library. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom can also be watched on YouTube.

For more inspiring Tot School ideas, please click here.