Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Retell Literacy Center Activity

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Create your own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten.

This is how I created a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students.

Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom too.

It’s one of my favorite literacy centers and we usually introduce Chicka Chicka Boom Boom early on in the school year. A couple of weeks into school is the perfect time to bring out this literacy activity.

Students are familiar with these letters and most are working on recognizing lowercase letters.

They read they act, they use lots of great vocabulary and are developing fantastic reading habits all while continuing to build their love of reading.

My kinders get to choose the book(s) they want to retell while they are at this literacy center. This one is usually a favorite.

What’s in my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom retell set

Here are the props I gathered rather inexpensively (and you can too) to bring the book alive once we knew it by heart.

I took one of each lowercase letter from our manipulative letter stash that we had in the abc center. These were magnetic letters but any kind of lowercase letters will work.

I printed a coconut tree with a polka dot border and laminate it and rubber cemented it to a small, cheap magnetic cookie tray.

The tiny trees were randomly found in a collection of plastic dinosaur toys I had. They deserved to live here instead of our playtime materials. {wink}

How to make your own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom retell activity

If you plan to make this a year-long literacy center, I highly recommend that you read the Retell Literacy Center Directions for more details and making everything run smooth.

Because you can make this kindergarten activity yourself and once you and your students are hooked on retelling you’ll want to make this a year-long thing.

Here are the materials you’ll need… (may include affiliate book links to Amazon)

Materials

Magnetic letters a-z (check your classroom stash or pick up these)
Small, magnetic cookie sheet
Laminated coconut tree printable (free download)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Book by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Mini palm trees (optional)

What to do

Take your book copy and props and place them together. A container like an open basket, a book bin or a large Ziploc bag will work!

If you don’t want to create a magnetic surface and magnets, like I did, then you might like this Coconut Tree and Letters Printable alternative.

But all they need to do is have the book and the materials and use the props to tell as much as they can:

about the story
from the story
with the story (following along)

Encourage kinders to use as many words from the text as they can remember. Students will often successfully put the letters on in order following the book as a guide.

More resources

But here are a few more 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' free resources I've found in case you are looking to put together something a little different:

This Chicka Chicka Boom Boom free name pokey pinning page is a great companion activity for the beginning of the year.

Connect your literature to math and extend the book by playing this Coconut Roll and Cover game independently or in partners.

Are you still working on names in your classroom? Then make a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired class book.

And if you want an alternative way to cover the book again before you release it to the retell center, then show a video like this one just to help the text stick!

Conclusion

There you have it – how to make a Chicka Chicka retell activity for your class. I love that it doesn’t require much to get it done. {wink}

If you like this activity, check out this list of 20 more famous stories that are great for retelling in kindergarten. Most of them are just as simple to pull together and I’ve found all of the downloadable resources for you.

Other books that are great for retelling in kindergarten

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Retell Literacy Center Activity