Storybook Week 2: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was written by Bill Martin, Jr., and John Archambault and was illustrated by Lois Ehlert. This is another classic children's book, one that many people call the best storybook for children under six. It should be readily available at the library, on Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com, or in brick and mortar book shops. We have the DVD as part of the Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics. (I do not get any benefit from recommending these sites, books, or DVDs - they are simply things that I have used and liked.)

1. Coconut Tree Craft

Arts and Crafts/Story Interest


Read the book or watch the DVD together. Use this simple Coconut Tree Craft from DLTK's Growing Together website.

Adjust for toddlers and younger preschoolers by cutting and/or pasting for them.


For older children or those who have an interest, look up coconut tree facts and pictures to learn more. Show them on the map where coconut trees mostly grow. Here at 4to40.com are some facts about coconuts.

2.  Letters Come Tumbling Down

Story Interest

For this activity, you will need a foam, magnet, or other set of letters of the alphabet. Use the coconut tree craft you made in Activity 1. With your child, play out the story with these letters. Have A ask B to go up the tree. March or skip the letters up the tree and set them in the branches or leaves or on the top of the tree. When they have all gotten up the tree, make them tumble down!

For a toddler: 

Make a big deal of the tumbling down part. Shake the paper tree until the letters fall down. Pick up the letters again and repeat the activity. This will be even more fun for a toddler if you get a box or container and tape or glue the picture of the tree inside the container. It will become another way for toddlers to play the clean-up-dump-out-clean-up-dump-out game. (I know my toddler loves this game!)

3. Be a Letter

Dramatizing/Sensory Activity

Use your own and your child's bodies to form letters of the alphabet on the floor. Your child may like to stand up and form the shape of a letter as best she can on her own in order to act out part of the story. It would be even better to have someone on hand to take pictures of this activity.

For a toddler:

Try forming the letter A by standing with legs apart and arms overhead with palms together. Say, "A! I'm the letter A!" See if your toddler can imitate you. Take pictures!

4.  Who Wrote the Book?
Language Arts

For this activity, you will need the book physically on hand. You may also want to have other books written by Bill Martin, Jr., or illustrated by Lois Ehlert to look at. There are many books by these two at the library.

For a preschooler or kindergartner: Open to the title page and tell your child that this is called the title page, and that every book has one. Show them what information is on the title page.

Tell them that the person who wrote the words in the book is the author. Give them the author's name. If you have other Bill Martin, Jr., books, show those to your child and point out his name on each of the title pages.

Explain how the person who drew (or created) the pictures in the book is called the illustrator. If you have other Lois Ehlert books on hand, show them to your child and point out her name on the title pages.

Ask, "Who is the author of this book?", pointing to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Ask, "Who illustrated this book?"

For a toddler or baby: Read and show books by Bill Martin, Jr., or illustrated by Lois Ehlert. Continue as long as it holds your baby's or toddler's interest. Keep the books near to look at them and read from them throughout the next week or two.

5. Cook a Coconut

Cooking/Sensory Activity

CDKitchen has an Easiest Coconut Pie recipe that children can help with. Older children can help with all of the recipe; younger children can pour or toss in the shredded coconut. The Homemade Baby Food website says that coconuts are not a common allergenic food and has more information on babies and coconut. According to that site, coconuts are not related to peanut or tree nut allergies but are related to latex allergies. Please use your pediatrician's guidance to determine what your baby can safely eat.

If you can find one and have the money in your grocery budget, it would be very helpful to buy a real coconut so your child can handle it, look inside (once an adult cuts it for them), and compare the shredded coconut to the whole coconut. Chowhound has some readers' ideas for using a whole coconut.