Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Tree

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of our favorite books.  It's silly, it teaches the alphabet, and kids love it.  When my husband and I first made the decision to  homeschool our children a friend of mine who homeschools her four kids pointed me in the direction of Confessions of a Homeschooler.  It was the first blog I ever followed, and I have gotten so much inspiration from Erica.  One of the many ideas I have implemented in my own home is the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree.

Back when I did home preschool with JZ and now that I am doing it with J-Bug, at the end of every letter unit we hang that letter on the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree. 

Both boys love seeing the letters fill our tree, and when they walk by the tree they spontaneously name the letters and sometimes the sounds.  They also like to trace the letters with their fingers.

It is a simple and fun way to add a visual to our studio (homeschool room/art studio).

They can see the fruits of their hard work and studying as the tree fills up throughout the year.

They even like to show off our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree to visitors.

In Erica's post, she linked to the tree she bought from Amazon.  You could buy one yourself or do what we did and make your own.

Supplies:

• Cricut machine
• green cardstock
• brown paper
• lighter brown
• chalk
• laminator
• thumbtacks

I free handed the palm branches on green cardstock then used scissors to randomly cut slits on the bottom side of each branch.  I cut oval shapes out of brown paper for the coconuts.  Using a lighter brown I drew several trunk pieces to stack along the wall, making each one smaller than the next.  After all the parts were cut out I used chalk to add highlights and shadowing.  This sounds more complicated than it is.  Really I just outlined each piece with chalk.  For the tree trunk I only used chalk on the bottom edge.

After applying the chalk I laminated each piece and trimmed them.  Then JZ and I used thumbtacks to attach the tree to the wall.  I cut the letters out with my Cricut machine.  You could also print some from your computer or buy foam letters.

Our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom alphabet tree is such a fun addition to our studio!  If you don't have the wall space, consider buying a table top version.

For more home preschool ideas follow my Preschool Ideas board on Pinterest.