Boom Boom!  You've  all read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to you children right?  There are so many activities out there for this book, but I thought I'd make a quick post about a simple one that can stay out for the students and reinforces the idea of capital and lower case letters.

Turn your file cabinet to the wider side so it faces out to the room (yeah, that ugly thing that takes up too much space in your classroom) and use some construction paper to make a tree with the kids. Make it the height of the cabinet so it will be big enough.

Now pull out all those magnetic letters you have laying around with no place to go. Stick the capital letters on the left hand side of the tree and the lower case on the right, like they've fallen off the tree.

Now when your reading the book and you get to the part of the book that sings:
"Skit, scat, scoodle-doot,
Flip, flop, flee.
Everybody running to the coconut tree.
Mamas and papas and uncles and aunts
Hug their little dears
Then dust their pants.
“Help us up,” cried A, B, C.Skit, scat, scoodle-doot,
Flip, flop, flee.
Everybody running to the coconut tree.
Mamas and papas and uncles and aunts
Hug their little dears
Then dust their pants.
“Help us up,” cried A, B, C."

Invite the children to come up and help the mamas and papas and uncles and aunts find their little children who've fallen off the tree. Depending on the class size you may need to let them take turns, but with a small enough class you can work together.

That's it. It's a quick idea that worked out well and I thought I'd share it. I've this tree set up in different ways all the time, sometimes to encourage reading, others letter recognition. It's always up and the kids have the option to meander over to it during any of the morning activities.  Enjoy!