Chicka Chicka Boom Tot Bag

My next tot bag is based on another favorite book of ours - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. I told myself that I was only going to create tot bags for the board books that I own but this book was truly begging for me to create something. So here is the big reveal.....Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tot Bag....

I could have went on and on with activities for this book but I had to stop. Before I write what is in my bag, I want to make sure that you know - in no way am I suggesting teaching the alphabet to toddlers. I just wanted to expose my little one to letters in a fun way. I do not expect him to master the alphabet with these activities. All files and links will be at the bottom of this post.

The idea behind a tot bag is to have everything contained in a ziplock bag or rubbermaid box. I plan on adding letters to our rainbow rice bin - our bin is bigger than shown but I wanted to include this activity in my post. I have small magnetic letters as well as the big ones shown. I will add them to our bin for Kaleb to search them out. Underneath it is a puzzle that I found in my files. I printed it, laminated it, and glued magnets onto the back for our cookie sheet magnet board. Having it magnetic will reduce the stress of the puzzle moving around while assembling. The puzzle comes from Alphabet Learning Tree Printables but I am unable to find a link. If you know where I got this (I would love to give the proper credit) or would like the puzzle, let me know.

I made palm tree for a bowling game. I already had a set of bowling pins but this could easily be made with milk jugs or water bottles. I wanted to create these tot bags with whatever supplies I had on hand. I love the idea of using an actual coconut for the bowling ball. This will probably be added later since I am going to use these in the upcoming school year.

I printed a palm tree for our cookie sheet. Kaleb will play with the magnetic letters to retell the story. I also made magnetic letter puzzles from fun foam. I only made the letters of his name. I did not want to overwhelm him with all of the letters of the alphabet. These letter puzzles are only two pieces and each letter of his name is a different color.

These are rag letters on a smaller scale (about 3 inches each). I have made rag letters before but my original ones were large. I wanted to make a small set that could fit in a ziplock. Again, I only made the letters of my children's names (I had to make both or it would have caused problems), These are relatively simple to make and they only took me less than an hour to put together. We will use these to play games. I will probably add other letters later.

And my absolute favorite item of our tot bag - a homemade felt palm tree. I stressed over this part of the project. I knew I truly wanted a palm tree of my own with letters but we don't have teacher stores here and I was sure I didn't want to spend the money. I searched and searched for a pattern but could not find one so I created my own palm tree by guessing. I used all materials I had on hand to make this - it isn't perfect but I love it. The tree is basically a cylinder - I wanted to taper it at the top but didn't. I filled it half with lentils that I had in the kitchen and stuffing. The lentils make it sturdy since I am making these bags for a toddler. I cut letters from felt and added velcro to the back to make them stick better. Again, I only cut out the letters of my children's names but my older child has already asked for the other letters (guess what I am doing tonight). I also thought to use the rag letters I made, which is possible as well (so you only have to make one set of letters). I hope you enjoyed my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tot Bag as much as I have enjoyed making it. My wish is that these encourage you to make your own for your children. If you have any questions, or ideas for another book based tot bag, I would love to hear from you. I have more tot bags in the works....next one The Napping House by Audrey Wood. If you have any suggestions, I would love them.


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom links

Kiz Club  here is where you will find the upper and lower case alphabet puzzles in both color and black/white.

Kiz Club you can find the printable palm tree and the letter templates that I used for the magnetic cookie sheet. I used these letters for my felt tree.

Making Learning Fun there is so much here for this story - play dough mats, clip cards, etc... I used the palm tree template to make my bowling game.

Happy Together this is tutorial for the rag letters - she has upper case, lower case and numbers too. These are easy to make, if you need the template for my letters which are a smaller scale, let me know. I can't find the link so I don't feel right to post it.

Em Culver I found this picture of a homemade palm tree after I created mine. Hers is so much better.

Hostess with the Mostess this is where the palm tree bowling idea came from.

Other Chicka Ideas not included in the tot bag

Dmiller 317 this is a Chicka Chicka glogster, an online poster with activities to do an a mini movie. I really want to try to make one of these. They look cool.

Lightning Bug Lit has a Chicka Chicka sensory bin.

Sweet Serendipity created a paper towel tube palm tree for retelling the story.

The Teacher Express make a felt palm tree for a felt board instead.

Over the Big Moon has two part printable alphabet puzzles.

My Pinterest board for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (for some reason I haven't been able to add the interest button on my blog, still working on it though).