I have started to try to teach Monkey his letters and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a great book to help do just that. Written by Bill Martin Jr & John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert the story is all about the letters of the alphabet racing one another up the coconut tree. A rhyming story which allows the child to call out the letters as you go. Monkey loves the book because its bright, colourful and punchy.
I wanted to bring the story alive a bit more and decided to try and replicate the coconut tree and the letters. I had seen an official softie version of them on Amazon but it was quite expensive. So I raided my craft cupboard and along with buying some small wooden letters and created something similar for under £10.
First wrap the kitchen roll tube in brown felt, I used double sided tape to secure it but any sort of glue would do. I coloured the wooden letters in with sharpies trying to match as closely as possible the colour of the letter to the colour of the one in the book.
I then cut two different size leaf shapes in green felt. I tried to replicate palm leaves! Again using double sided tape to attach the top of the leaves to the tube.
It really is as simple as that! As we read through the book Monkey will pretend to walk the letters up the trunk (tube) and into the top as if they are sitting in the coconut tree. We also match the letters to the pictures in the book.
Although the book covers the whole of the lowercase alphabet it only has a few upper case letters, however for Monkey’s set I made both lower and uppercase letters, so that we can get more use out of it as his knowledge progresses.
What do you use to bring stories alive for your little ones?
18 Responses
Love this idea! This is not only simple to make, but you can also take this (and the book) along with you anywhere you go for something to keep your child entertained! Xx 🙂
A brilliant activity and so so simple! Thanks for sharing! Angela xx
What a great idea! Love how creative you are xx #KidsCorner
Definitely going to get this book as I’m trying to get Little Miss interested in learning all the letters – at the moment she is only really keen on her first name initial! Thanks for sharing.
Wow, you really made the story come to life! Your tree looks just like the book. You come up with such creative ideas. #KidsCorner
That’s a lovely way to bring a story to life and learn hands on. #Kidscorner
What a fantastic idea, finding such fun in learning #KidsCorner
Great idea, never thought of using it as a busy bag 😉 thank you x
Aw thank you xx
That’s a good start 🙂 hope it proves useful 🙂 thank you for stopping by x
Aw thank you Becky xx
You are so clever, you put me to shame! Thanks for sharing in #KidsCorner x
Aw thanks love and thank you for hosting xx
Ah you have inspired me to start thinking more about the books we are reading and come up with some activities thankyou another great idea. Thankyou for sharing on #kidscorner
Thank you for hosting 🙂 xx
Wow I am so in awe of your craft skills this is fabulous – I’m not sure I could do it, but it is such a wonderful idea – thanks for linking up to #kltr
PS – loving the new design!!
Back again. This is one of my favourite blog posts of all time! Thanks for sharing! I love the name of the book too! Great new header/template and a lovely new look overall! – Angela
This is fantastic. What a talented lady you are. The book looks fantastic for teaching little ones letters and also colours as well! Will definitely be adding this to Rowan’s list of books to get.
Laura #KLTR