Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Dear Families,

It may be snowy as can be outside, but the Owls are thinking of a symbol of warm places – coconut trees! We have begun a new unit centered around a favorite children’s alphabet book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Junior and John Archambault. In this fun, rhyming book, the lower-case letters of the alphabet climb up a coconut tree only to weigh it down and then fall out.

This book is familiar to many of the children. It’s familiarity, combined with its repetitive nature, make this an excellent book for the children to participate in during read-alouds. We also listened to the book being read by Ray Charles on CD. Being able to chime in during book reading supports young children in having fun with books as well as learning to make connections between spoken words and written text. Rhyming books that play with words, such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, support children’s phonological awareness (or the awareness of the sounds in spoken language).

We have decided to turn the tree that we began making during our study of Tu B’Shevat into a coconut tree. This was a fun way to transition between units. We spent a lot of time working on our tree this week, and were excited to finally display it in the Dramatic Play Area. We used rollers and textured brush to paint the trunk and branches brown. It took two coats of paint to cover the tree! This was a wonderful way for the children to practice identifying the parts of the tree that we had studied during our preparations for Tu B’Shevat. The children were curious about painting inside the large cardboard tube that we are using as a tree trunk. When Nicholas did this, he remarked that he was making sap, because he knows that trees have sap inside. Finally, we had to tape many green leaves on our tree. Long-term projects such as this one help the children build meta-cognitive and organizational skills, as they learn to break down large ideas into sequential steps.

One highlight of the week as a fun new game – Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bingo. The children had a great time finding the various letters of the alphabet on their bingo mats, and shouting out bingo when they got three letters in a row! This was a fun way to practice identifying letters. As we said the name of each letter called, we practiced making its sound, and even thought of a few words beginning with that letter.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom has been a fun way to introduce the children to lower-case letters. We worked together on a large new puzzle with lower-case letters, and hung up a new alphabet poster in the book corner displaying lower-case letters. The children also played a new teacher-made matching game during our Free Play Time on Wednesday, matching upper-case to lower-case letters.

The weather has had us cooped up inside, but we have found some fun ways to move around indoors. We have been working hard to practice positional vocabulary words (up, down, next to, in front of, under, behind, etc.) and to continue to build spatial awareness. We’ve done puzzles, and figured out where to put the pieces. We’ve also played many a round of Simon Says, and moved our bodies under tables, behind friends, in front of teachers, etc. “I Spy” has also been a great way to work on these skills, as the children have tracked down toys hidden under tables, behind furniture, and even inside of other toys.

We have also been busy building the children’s writing skills this week. Dictation experiences are important to children’s writing and language development, as they see their words printed and then hear them read back to them. We have begun to use blank label stickers to offer children the opportunity to have their words written down. Journal writing, which we do once a week, is another opportunity for children to have their words recorded. This week, we read the children’s journals aloud at Circle Time. It was heart-warming to hear them all complement each other’s work.

We wish you all the best for the weekend ahead, and we wish for a little less snow next week!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Larissa and Morah Kate