Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree Craft:Offer enough materials for one per person (children and adults). Use construction paper cut outs for tree and cocoanuts, or offer a blank sheet of paper to draw a tree. Children can color their trees, and glue coconuts and leaves to tree. The youngest children can pat the glued pieces. Older children can write letters or something that looks like a letter. If they know how to write their name, they can write those letters on their tree. Encourage adults to describe and talk about what their children have drawn and made.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: As you make things with your children, you can take opportunities to support their awareness of letters. With your preschoolers, help them write the letters in their name, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect. For younger children, talking about shapes, like the shapes of the cocoanuts or the shapes in the leaves, is the beginning of letter knowledge because children recognize letters by their shapes. Enjoy!
Submitted by Katie Ringenbach, Bucks County (PA) Public Library