Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Crafts for Kids

10+ awesome Chicka Chicka Boom Boom crafts for kids. Perfect for any fan of the popular children's book!

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Hyperlexic kids love letters. That's a fact. They'll happily play with ABC toys all day long and love to read alphabet books non-stop, especially as a toddler and preschooler. 

So it's probably not surprising that the popular children's book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is a top favorite among hyperlexic kids. 

The book is, after all, a story about the letters of the alphabet racing each other up the coconut tree. It essentially brings the letters of the alphabet to life and makes learning the alphabet fun.

This particular book is so well-loved by hyperlexic kids that I've seen hyperlexic kids dress up as the coconut tree with letters for Halloween or book days at school. So when I say they love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I mean they reeeeeeally love it.

If your little one is obsessed with the book too, then you're going to love these Chicka Chicka Boom Boom crafts for kids. 

The bonus here is that many of the crafts listed below can double up as a toy for extra hours of play. Yep, that means lots and lots of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter learning to keep your hyperlexic kid busy for hours. There's even a cute idea that you could use to decorate your child's room. So let's dig in and check out these Chicka Chicka Boom Boom craft ideas!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Crafts for Kids

1. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Stamping Art from School Time Snippets - Grab some letters stamps and some paint for this art project. Then stamp the letters racing up the coconut tree.

2. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom DIY Name Artwork from Crafting Cheerfully - This DIY name art is so cute! It would be a great project to work on with your child. Then you can hang it up in their bedroom or in a play room. It does come with a free printable as well.

3. Coconut Tree Printable Craft from Learn Create Love (pictured) - Feel like you suck at drawing coconut trees? No worries...this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom inspired craft comes with a free printable template! Then you can use paint, markers, crayons, or whatever you want to decorate it. 

4. Cardboard Tube Coconut Trees from Life, Crafting, & Mom Life - Grab some cardboard tubes and decorate them with letters. Then add some leaves. That's it. A super easy coconut alphabet tree craft.

5. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Puffy Paint Letters from Oh So Savvy Mom - You could do this activity while you read through the book. Simply paint each letter as it goes up the tree. There are free printables to go with this craft.

6. Giant Coconut Tree Craft for the Fridge from Lalymom - This craft/activity is perfect if your kid loves magnetic letters. Together with your child, you could create a giant coconut tree to put on your fridge so that the magnetic letters can race to the top of the tree. But if you have a hyperlexic child, then I'm pretty sure you'll never be able to remove the tree from your fridge haha...

7. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Name Craft from Toddler Approved (pictured) - If your hyperlexic kid can resist the temptation to add ALLLL the letters, then they might enjoy this name craft. Or maybe they'll want to spell something else under or on the tree...like giant number words or something. I could see my son doing that if he did a craft like this when he was little!

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Shape Tree Craft from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten - You'll have to scroll down to find this craft as there are lots of other book inspired ideas here. All you need to do is cut some green and brown construction paper into different shapes: triangles, squares, and rectangles. Then let your kid assemble and glue the shapes to form a coconut tree. Then add some alphabet stickers to finish it off.

9. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Magnetic Alphabet Tree from Pre-K Pages - Here's another craft that doubles up as a toy that hyperlexic kids will adore! They could help you make the tree by wrapping the cans in contact paper, gluing construction paper in place, or by painting the cans...lots of possibilities here! 

10. Newspaper Coconut Tree Craft from No Time for Flash Cards - This Chicka Chicka Boom Boom craft involves painting some newspaper. They'll eventually be the leaves of the coconut tree. Pair the newspaper leaves with a cardboard tube and some letters stickers and voila!

11. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree Craft from I Heart Crafty Things (pictured) - This craft uses foam alphabet stickers and green cupcake liners for the leaves of the tree. It would be a great craft for working on cutting and pasting skills too.

12. Handprint Coconut Tree Craft from Love to Teach - If your kid is okay with the texture and feel of paint and doesn't mind getting messy, then this handprint craft could be a lot of fun. Then add some alphabet stickers and it would be the perfect craft to complement the book.

13. Handprint Coconut Tree (& Loads of Other Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Activities) from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten - You'll have to scroll down a bit to find this particular craft. But yes, it's another handprint one. Remember, if your kid doesn't like paint, you could always adapt this craft. For instance, you could trace their hands instead on painting.

14. Footprint Coconut Trees by Moments of Mommyhood - Here's another print art project, but instead of using hands, it uses feet to make the leaves of the coconut tree. Be sure to add some alphabet stickers too once it's all dry.

So which of these Chicka Chicka Boom Boom crafts for kids did you like the most?

Easy Shamrock Suncatcher Craft

Shamrock suncatcher that kids can make for St. Patrick's Day.

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When it comes to crafts, I love using contact paper. The sensory experience of using contact paper by itself is awesome (just ask my three year old). 

But we I love to combine it with transparent materials to make quick and easy suncatchers.

Here's a super simple (and great last minute) shamrock craft for St. Patrick's Day that's perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

Easy Shamrock Craft Idea: Make a Shamrock Suncatcher!

Contact paper suncatchers are seriously fun to make. Versatile too! I mean we've made a Pokeball, a shark, giant Christmas lights...the list goes on and on.

So obviously we need to cover every season and holiday, right? haha

The full tutorial for this shamrock suncatcher is over on CBC Parents and you can easily substitute the green material we used (psst...read the full tutorial to find out what it is exactly) for tissue paper instead.

{Click here to read the full tutorial on CBC Parents}

Glue & Salt Ornaments {Easy Christmas Craft}

Looking for easy Christmas ornament crafts for kids? Try making some glue and salt ornaments with this simple tutorial.

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One Christmas, I stocked up on clear plastic ornaments when they were half price. I wasn't sure what to do with them at the time, but I figured that I would eventually come up with some kind of Christmas ornament craft for kids.

Well, I finally did and the results are beautiful.

Christmas Ornament Craft Idea for Preschool

See the thing is we have never tried the whole glue, salt, and watercolor art process before.

Shocking, I know.

So my youngest son (who was four years old at the time) and I had fun experimenting with this method to make some pretty glue and salt ornaments for the Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun and they turned out great!

Some of the ornaments were painted, but most were left plain white, like below.

The process is fun, but a wee bit messy. The bonus is you end up with a Christmas ornament keepsake that you can keep for years.

You can get the full tutorial for this Christmas ornament craft over on CBC Parents.

{Click here to get the full details at CBC Parents.}

Giant Christmas Light Suncatchers {Christmas Craft for Kids}

You're going to love this easy Christmas craft for kids. Make an entire string of Christmas light suncatchers to decorate your window this holiday season! Great for kids of all ages and all abilities.

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When it comes to Christmas crafts for kids, I always aim for something that's easy to make and will last a long time.

I also try to brainstorm crafts that are great for a wide range of ages and abilities so that my kids can make them together. It's a bonus if my kids can collaborate on the same craft too.

Well, these giant Christmas light suncatchers happen to do all of that!

It's a perfect craft for kids of all ages and all abilities to make. For instance, toddlers will love ripping the tissue paper for these suncatchers, while older kids can do this entire Christmas light craft independently. They can even opt to use scissors if they want to work on some additional fine motor skills.

Everyone can make one, two, or more of these lights and then they can combine all their hard work into making one big long string of lights to decorate the house with. Or, they could collaborate on each individual light bulb together.

I promise that these Christmas suncatchers are super easy to make. They even use items that you can find at the dollar store, making it an inexpensive craft too.

A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.

Make Giant Christmas Light Suncatchers to Decorate Your House!

I love decorating for Christmas, especially with homemade Christmas decorations and ornaments. Every year, I decorate our tree with some of the homemade ornaments that I made when I was in school. And I absolutely treasure every single one of them!

My hope is that my kids will make some Christmas decorations and ornaments that they will love for years, even when they're grown adults.

Thankfully, these giant Christmas light suncatchers are made with contact paper so they'll hopefully last many years. (2024 edit: these suncatchers are still going strong 9 years later!)

Like I've mentioned earlier, this suncatcher craft is great for a variety of ages, works on fine motor skills, and looks so beautiful hanging in the windows. Trust me, the pictures just don't do this Christmas lights craft justice! Plus, photographing around a grand piano is challenging so that's why some of the angles are weird, okay?

What You'll Need for these Christmas Suncatchers

As I've touched on above, kids of all ages - toddlers, preschoolers, and up - can make this Christmas craft. Don't worry, adults are allowed too! I wouldn't leave you out like that...

Here's what you'll need to make your own DIY Christmas suncatchers:

• Clear contact paper - You can pick this up at Dollarama. It's usually called vinyl book protector there. It's what we use for all of our contact paper projects around here. How much you need will depend on (a) how big you want to make them and (b) how many you want to make.

• Tissue paper in a variety of colors, cut into squares or torn into small pieces - We used blue, green, red, and pink for the bulbs and gold for the bases of the light bulbs, as that is what we had on hand. Feel free to use whatever colors you have on hand or can find at the dollar store.

• Black permanent marker - To draw the outline of the bulbs.

• Scissors - To cut the tissue paper into small pieces (if you're not interested in ripping/tearing) and to cut the final bulb out when it's fully covered with tissue paper.

• Tape - You'll need this to hang up your finished suncatchers, but you might also want to use some tape to keep the contact paper in place while crafting. More on that below.

Once you've gathered all of your materials, you'll first need to do a little prep work in order to make these Christmas light suncatchers.

How to Make this Christmas Light Craft

On the non-sticky side of the contact paper, draw a large light bulb shape with the permanent marker. Repeat until you have the number of bulbs you want to make. We made eight giant light bulbs using just over one roll of contact paper. Eight happens to fit perfectly across our front window (as you will see in a bit).

Once your light bulbs are drawn, tape the contact paper to a flat surface with the sticky side up. Then remove the cover from the sticky side. Now it's officially time to turn them into colorful Christmas lights!

Encourage your kids to cover the entire light bulb shape on the sticky surface of the contact paper. Continue until the entire light bulb shape is covered. You or your child can either use scissors to cut the tissue paper into small pieces or you can let the kids rip the tissue paper into smaller pieces. My boys always enjoy ripping tissue paper (and it's great for fine motor skills!) so we went that route.

Once the light is covered with tissue paper, it's time to cut it out. Depending on the age and abilities of your child, you can either cut it out for them or encourage them to follow the lines and cut it out themselves.

However, before cutting, you may want to cover the tissue paper side with an additional piece of contact paper to seal everything in. But this step is optional. Personally, I find it works great without having to cover both sides of the craft with contact paper. Plus, it uses fewer materials!

Now that you've finished one light bulb, it's time to repeat the process for a second, third, fourth, etc. light bulb.

Or, if you have multiple children (or are a teacher with a full classroom!), each child could make their own light bulbs.

After all of your light bulbs are assembled and cut, it's time to decorate your window! Simply tape each light bulb up on a window with two pieces of tape, one at the base and one at the top, like so:

I arranged ours in the front window and the look fantastic hung up in a row. It's almost as if they're a string of real Christmas lights! And, as you can see, we chose to make big lights since we have a huge window out front to decorate.

I think they look beautiful! So, what do you think? Are you going to try making these giant Christmas light suncatchers with your kids?

How to Make Pokeballs

Easy DIY pokeballs for kids. Find out how to make a pokeball with this quick tutorial.

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We've fully embraced the world of Pokemon in our house. And have for years.

Since things are a little Pokemon-obsessed around here from time to time, I thought it would be fun to let the kids make DIY pokeballs, as we've already designed our own Pokemon cards.

These homemade pokeballs make a great craft for older kids and are an awesome homemade toy for encouraging imaginative play. But I could see them making a great party favor for a Pokemon themed birthday as well.

How to Make a Pokeball - A Super Easy DIY!

Here's what we used to make our DIY pokeballs:

• Styrofoam balls - Pick a size that will fit comfortably in your child's hands.

• Permanent markers

I started off by making the regular Pokeballs for the kids. Then six year old J made one of this own as well, but of course, it disappeared by the time I could take pictures. His turned out really great though!

So depending on the age of your child, they could certainly make their own Pokeballs as well. It would be a great craft for kids who really love Pokemon.

Or have your child design their own Pokeballs using these free Pokeball coloring sheets before making the 3D version.

I also tried making some of the other types of pokeballs, including an Ultra Ball and a Great Ball, which the kids love as well. However, these two are K's favorite of the bunch.

These DIY Pokeballs are great for encouraging imaginative play since the boys pretend to be Pokemon trainers releasing their Pokemon for battle. Simply toss the Pokeball and call a Pokemon's name!

Other Ideas You'll Love

DIY Pokemon Cards {Free Printable Template}

Free Printable Pokeballs Coloring Sheet

Best Board Games for Kids

Easy Tulip Craft for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Brighten up your windows this spring with this easy tulip craft for kids. Toddlers and preschoolers are going to love making this tulip suncatcher.

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The kids and I thought it would be fun to try our hand at some tulip craft ideas. After all, nothing screams spring like bright colorful tulips.

And this easy paper tulip craft is no exception. It's so pretty have this suncatcher hanging up in the window.

I mean, easy spring tulips crafts like this suncatcher are so refreshing this time of year. The dreary brown and gray landscape as the snow melts and the ground thaws is so blah and depressing. And this tulip craft adds the perfect punch of color to the early days of spring.

Besides, suncatcher crafts are kind of our thing around here. My kids love to make them and, honestly, I love them too! They're easy to make and great for kids of a variety of ages. Plus, our homemade suncatchers always use simple materials that you can easily find at the dollar store. They're materials that I actually always try to keep on hand anyway because you just never know when you might want to make a suncatcher!

A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.

Easy Tulip Craft for Kids: What You'll Need

By the way, this fun tulip craft idea is perfect for destructive kids who like to rip things. I know because that is the reason we even started doing these types of crafts in the first place. My youngest, K, was notorious for ripping things as a toddler so we started turning that ripping into something more beautiful: art!

Here's what you'll need to make a tulip suncatcher of your own:

• Contact paper - I actually use vinyl book protectors from Dollarama as it is super cheap. We used two rolls of it for this project. You may need more or less depending on how big or how many you want to make.

• Tissue paper, ripped into small pieces or cut into squares - We used pink and green, but feel free to experiment with other spring colors.

• Permanent marker - To draw the outline of the flower on the contact paper.

• Tape - To hold the craft in place while adding tissue paper to it.

• Scissors - To trim the final suncatcher.

On the non-sticky side of the contact paper, use the permanent marker to draw the outline of a tulip, including the flower, stem, and leaves.

Once the outline is drawn, tape the piece of contact paper to a flat surface with the sticky side facing up.

Keep in mind that kids of all ages can make these tulip suncatchers, even young toddlers. Depending on your child's abilities and skills though, you might have to prepare the tissue paper ahead of time. For instance, you could precut the tissue paper into squares for really little ones. Or, if like me you have a child who likes to rip things, just supply them with pieces of tissue paper to rip and tear as they please.

Now it's time to start decorating the flower!

How to Make a Tulip Suncatcher

For this craft, my five year old chose pink tissue paper for the flower and light green for the stem and leaves. Together, he and I ripped the tissue paper into small squares before starting the craft. You can see the two piles next to our contact paper.

Then my son simply placed the pieces of tissue paper on the sticky side of the contact paper, staying somewhat inside the lines of the tulip outline that I drew earlier. (Note: they don't have to stay inside the lines perfectly as we will be trimming it at the end.)

Repeat until the entire flower, stem, and leaves have been covered.

Once the entire flower has been covered, seal the suncatcher with another piece of contact paper. Then cut out the tulip and tape it up in a window. It looks especially beautiful in contrast with the white snow still hanging around outside. I know it's definitely making me wish that spring would arrive as soon as possible.

I absolutely love how this tissue paper tulip craft turned out! It looks lovely in our living room window. And I think your kids are going to love it too!

Homemade Duct Tape Sled

Embracing winter is what we do best here in the Canadian prairies. We happily bundle up and head outside, even if it's -30C or colder. We recently made some DIY duct tape sleds and headed for the hill to try them out.

How to Make a DIY Duct Tape Sled

Making a duct tape sled is such a fun winter craft idea for kids of all ages, especially since duct tape now comes in a variety of colors and patterns. It's easy and frugal too! I have seen homemade duct tape sleds before and was always intrigued by them. I wondered how good of a sled they could actually be. The results were totally amazing, by the way, and the kids adored their homemade sleds!

Also, fun fact: we made these duct tape sleds using the cardboard box from the GT snowracers the kids received for Christmas. Nothing like making a sled out of a box from a sled!

PS: How awesome is K's crochet Pokeball toque? It was my first crochet project ever and it turned out amazing, didn't it?

{Click here to get the full instructions on CBC Parents.}

DIY Ghost Bunting Halloween Craft

Looking for an easy ghost craft for kids? Try making this DIY ghost bunting! It's a great Halloween decoration that even toddlers and preschoolers could make.

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Halloween is just days away and, even though the boys' costumes aren't ready, our Halloween decorations certainly are.

We've been having fun with a variety of Halloween activities and crafts lately, but my favorite thing so far for Halloween crafting has been this adorable Halloween ghost bunting craft. It's super cute, yet simple to make.

Even toddlers could join in on the decorating fun. Older kids, on the other hand, might enjoy making more elaborate ghosts and getting more creative.

So, if you're looking for a quick, non-spooky ghost craft for kids, then look no further than this Halloween bunting idea.

A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.

What You'll Need for this Ghost Bunting Craft

To make your own ghostly Halloween bunting, you'll need:

• Styrofoam cups (or similar) - I picked these up at the dollar store. However, it's not as easy to find styrofoam cups anymore (at least where I live) so feel free to use paper cups or white plastic cups instead.

• Black permanent marker - To draw the faces onto the cups.

• String, yarn, or ribbon - To hang our ghost cups from. We used white yarn.

• Tape - You'll use this to tape the cups to the string. We used scotch tape and it worked great. The type of tape you should use will depend on the cups and string you use.

Once you have all the materials, it's time to design some little ghosts with your kids.

How to Make this DIY Halloween Bunting

First, draw little ghost faces onto the styrofoam cups using the black permanent marker.

Your kids may choose to draw regular ghost faces with two eyes and an open mouth. Or maybe they'll get creative and draw some fun expressions. You could even offer extra supplies such as glitter glue, stickers, or other colors of markers.

My five year old son K, however, loves black. It's his favorite color actually so he was content to just draw regular ghost expressions using the black marker. Although he did draw a couple of cups with square shaped mouths and eyes too.

Once you have a handful of ghost cups drawn and designed, it's time to turn it into a bunting. Simply tape the top of each cup to a piece of string, yarn, or ribbon. My five year old only wanted to draw four ghosts for his bunting so we left it at four total.

Once everything is attached, simply hang the finished bunting in the location of your choice. We decided to hang ours up in the sunroom.

I love the simplicity of this Halloween ghost bunting craft and I think it looks adorable! Plus, my son really enjoyed making the ghosts. Ghosts that he also ended up bowling with and smashing...

Pokeball Suncatcher {Pokemon Craft for Kids}

One of the most distinguishable items from Pokemon is the red and white Pokeball so we've been doing a lot of Pokeball activities around here, including making homemade Pokeballs to throw and coloring our own Pokeball coloring sheets. Just the other day I thought it would be fun to make a Pokemon craft for kids by making a big Pokeball suncatcher. And it turned out beautiful!

This post contains affiliate links.

Pokemon Craft for Kids: Make a Pokeball Suncatcher

To make this Pokeball suncatcher craft, you'll need:

• Contact paper
• Red tissue paper
• White tissue paper
• Black cardstock
• Black permanent marker
• Large bowl
• Scissors

On the non-sticky side of the contact paper, draw a large circle by tracing a large bowl with black permanent marker. To make the black part of the Pokeball, free hand cut the black cardstock to fit the size of your Pokeball.

Rip or cut the tissue paper into small pieces. The kids love helping with this part and ripping up that tissue paper is such a great way to work on fine motor skills!

Then let the kids decorate their Pokeballs with the red and white tissue paper.

When done adding tissue paper, cover the back of the craft with another piece of contact paper. This will seal the tissue paper in and make the suncatcher more durable. Once sealed with contact paper, cut the Pokeball into a circle by cutting along the line you drew in permanent marker.

Then hang it up and enjoy!

Other Ideas You'll Love

Free Printable Pokemon Action Cards

Free Printable Pokeballs Coloring Sheet

DIY Pokeballs

DIY Skipping Rope

Wondering how to make a jump rope at home with your kids? Well, try this easy DIY skipping rope that's made out of straws - yes, really!

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I recently picked up a bag of brightly colored plastic straws from the dollar store. We used a couple of them for hours with the snowball oral motor games and use them for drinking smoothies, but yesterday, I had an interesting thought. Could we make a skipping rope out of straws?

I figured that it would work and if not, then at least I would be able to give my youngest some extra fine motor practice. Especially since he loves anything that involves scissors.

Well, it worked beautifully and in about 10 minutes or less, we had an inexpensive, kid-made DIY skipping rope.

DIY Skipping Rope for Kids: What You'll Need

To make this easy DIY skipping rope, we used:

• Thin nylon cord (any kind of durable string should work)

• Plastic straws from the dollar store

• Duct tape

• Scissors

How to Make a Jump Rope Out of Straws

First, my four year old cut the straws into pieces using the scissors to make straw beads.

Next, I tied a knot at one end of the nylon cord. Then I wrapped duct tape around that end, leaving the knot exposed, multiple times until a nice, comfortable handle was formed. Once the handle was made, four year old K started threading on the straw beads, one at a time. Threading is a great way to work on fine motor skills.

Oh and just to keep things real, I forgot that a basket of unfolded laundry was in the background...ahem...anyway, back to those fine motor skills in action.

Once all the beads were threaded onto the cord, I had to create a second handle with the duct tape. I started wrapping the tape the end of the cord over and over until a second handle was formed. I then knotted the other end of the cord. You must remember to knot the cord to make sure it doesn't slip through the duct tape handle. Then your skipping rope is complete!

Then it's time to skip and jump! It works awesome and reminds me of those hard plastic skipping ropes that I used in elementary school. They were red and white plastic beads that clicked when they hit the floor and left welts on your body if you were unsuccessful at jumping over it.

Other Jumping Activities for Kids You'll Love

Arrow Jumping Game for Kids with Free Printable

Giant Chalk Keyboard & Jumping Activity

15 Awesome Trampoline Games the Kids Will Love