Beginning next week, our class is starting a new unit to learn letters through Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.  This wonderful alphabet story has a catchy rhythm, and before long, your child will be reciting the book to you!  The premise of this story is how the lower case letters of the alphabet come out to play by climbing a coconut tree.  However, as more and more letters climb up, the tree slumps and eventually… chicka chicka boom boom!  Down all the letters fall, skinning knees and bumping heads along the way.  The mama’s and papa’s – or the uppercase letters – come to the rescue, until the lower case letters choose to begin their climb once again. 

           Throughout next week, we will be listening to the story, acting it out, and learning our letters.  Our projects will include making coconut trees, decorating letters and even using real coconut!  We will be playing games like counting coconuts on a tree, Chicka Chicka Bingo and “Barrels of Monkeys”!  I also recommend the DVD of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123 – they are great musical versions of the book!

           Starting the week after Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, our class will begin studying all of the letters!  Each week we will learn a new letter of the alphabet (in order).  Some activities we will be doing are:

•  “Walking the letters” (literally walking on a poster-board sized letter to get a feel for how it is formed and use out kinesthetic skills)
• Reading poems that have the letter’s sound in them
• Discussing what words begin with that letter
• Tracing/writing our letter of the week (sometimes in marker, sometimes in shaving cream or rice!)
• Decorating letters with objects beginning with the letter sound (i.e. apple stickers/stamps on the A)
• Sounding out letters together in familiar words

 We are all very excited to begin learning our letter names and sounds!  The study of letters will also be a nice introduction for when we beginning Writer’s Workshop next month.  Stay tuned for more news soon