Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

First, I wanted to post a video follow-up from last week’s Family Prayer Book. Beverly and David are learning their prayers. They both can say the Shema in English. Sorry the video is so dark. I don’t have a video camera. I made this video on my camera and this was how it came out. I thought about doing it somewhere else with better lighting, but then decided not to. The kids did an awesome job.

This week we are Five-In-A-Rowing the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, and illustrated by Lois Ehlert. Frankly, I wouldn’t have gotten all the hype around this book if I hadn’t heard it sung. My children love books they can sing. (In fact their favorite book is He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands marvelously illustrated by Kadir Nelson.)

You can sing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in several different ways:

• My personal favorite. Okay, I like this one the best because it fits in my voice range.

• The kid’s favorite. And, I admit the one with the best, most fun graphics.

• Or, if you prefer. You can rap it ~

We are creating a lapbook. I can’t decide if I like lapbooking or not. There are not a lot of lapbooks for preschoolers available on the Internet. I have had to create my own. There is a lot of planning and work involved in deciding what you are going to do. I also like full page color sheets because the kids are just learning pencil control and coloring small details is difficult for them. So, I have put a page with a self-adhesive fastener to trap the kid’s full page art work in each of the two books we have done so far. But, what I do love about lap books is that they are easy to put away. We school on our dining room table and when school is over, I can stash the crayon caddy and the lapbooks quickly and have my dining room back.

To introduce the book and the coconut tree, we ate labouyi. I had to special order the star anise. The kids had been telling me to make this for weeks. I don’t know. I am not sure it was what they expected. Beverly told me the labouyi (porridge) in Haiti was better. I tried to give it to them warm, but they told me it was supposed to be fret (cold). I kept thinking about the movie Little Orphan Annie. Doesn’t Carol Burnett have a line that goes something like, “And, we’re not having hot mash for breakfast today. We’re having cold mash.” All the little girls groan their disgust. Whatever! David and Beverly both ate it and want me to make it again.

Random photos of our week:

The cover: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Paper Craft available on-line from DLTK’s Growing Together. I made my own letters. Beverly and I are using Writing Road to Reading to learn to write her lower case phonograms. Using that method, the letters a, c, d and f are all written by starting with your pencil in the same/similar position. Beverly can write all four letters. Both kids can match all four letters with the sound(s) they make. We are singing the primary sound the letter makes to the tune of Skip To My Lou.

David pasted these letters climbing up the coconut tree.

 Inside Flap: Long ago I purchased Little Bitty Baby Learns Hebrew and Little Bitty Baby Learn Greek. We used them to paste the kid’s names in Hebrew and Greek to the inside flap of their lapbook. The title of the page includes Creole phrases asking “What’s your name?” and “How are you called?” The English translation is in parenthesis. The kids have been practicing answering this common question.

Beverly has claimed the Hebrew letter lamed. Every time she sees it she squeals, “Lamed pou Beverly!”

Random photos of the younger kids hard at work:

I usually “do hair” on Saturday morning. I want Beverly to look nice for church on Sunday. But, this Saturday morning the whole family went to an open house and pancake feed at my husband’s work site. Then, Beverly was blessed to be able to go to an auction with her Dad. It was her first auction (usually David gets to go) and her first Daddy and me date. Those things were more important than hair looking beautiful. Monday Marissa had voice lessons. So, by Tuesday, her style was 11 days old and looking it. Our morning started by picking out her old braids. Isn’t she beautiful? Her hair looks short, but when you stretch it out, it is about 3 inches long.

Last, it was Crazy Hat Day at school today and no one told the teacher. This is just how Beverly and David showed up when I told them it was time for school.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Corduroy Lapbook
• What a Day
• Children’s Books
• Hard-working Books