Helpful Tips for Parents

• Screen learning (educational apps and videos) supplements but never replaces human interaction as a teaching medium. Learning happens most efficiently in social, conversational contexts.

• Mistakes are how children learn. A classroom and home that treat mistakes as information rather than failure produces more confident, persistent learners.

• Field trips — even to the grocery store, the post office, or the library — are powerful educational experiences. Real-world contexts anchor abstract concepts in memory.

• Involve children in planning: menus, weekend activities, family projects. Decision-making and planning are executive function skills that predict long-term academic success.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my preschooler is learning enough at home?

Developmental milestones (not academic benchmarks) are the appropriate assessment tool for preschoolers. Verify your child is meeting age-appropriate milestones for language, motor, social-emotional, and cognitive development using your pediatrician's well-child visit assessments. Preschoolers learning through play, conversation, books, and daily life engagement are learning more than their standardized test scores will later reflect. Concern is warranted if a child shows regression in skills previously mastered, or fails to meet speech and language milestones.

Related reading: See also our writing readiness guide and our alphabet activities for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.
• ⚡ Executive Function — Planning, sequencing steps, holding rules in mind while acting, and stopping a prepotent response all build executive function — the cluster of cognitive skills most strongly predictive of long-term academic and life success.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Circle Time

Use a palm tree template to make a paper palm tree. Color the tree and use contact paper to cover it and stick it to a metal cookie sheet (preferably one with sides). Use plastic ABC magnets to act out the story as you read. This would also make a great language center. Preschoolers will love playing with magnets and learning their ABC's.

Make or purchase a felt board set with a palm tree and alphabet letters. Use the letters to retell the story or as a language center.

Sing the ABC's.

Talk with preschoolers about uppercase and lower case letters. Help each preschooler to identify the upper case and lower case letter of their name.

Use a letter "C" template to create a cardstock cut out of the letter C. Let each preschooler touch it and talk about what it feels like.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Arts and Crafts

"Palm" Trees - Paint preschoolers hands green and the underside of their wrist brown. Press arm onto a piece of paper to make a palm tree. Cut out brown circles for coconuts and let preschoolers glue the coconuts to their tree. Have preschoolers glue letter stickers to the center of each coconut.

Letter "C" Collage – Print a large letter "C" on a piece of paper. Give each preschooler a copy. Have preschoolers go through magazines and cut out the letter "C" and things that begin with "C".

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Math and Science

What is a coconut? – Show preschoolers a real coconut. Let them feel the texture of the outside and shake it. When all the preschoolers have had a chance to explore the outside use a hammer and a nail to make a hole and drain the coconut milk. The softest points are the small dark circles. For faster draining, punch a hole in all of the circles. Wrap the coconut completely in a towel and place on the floor. Use a hammer to break open the coconut and get to the coconut meat. Be sure that preschoolers are far enough away for this step. Once the coconut is opened let all preschoolers have a chance to see what real coconut tastes like.

Make Chicka Snacks – Spread celery stalks with peanut butter. Use celery stalks that still have the leaves attached.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Music and Movement

Egg Maracas – Fill plastic easter eggs with rice or dried beans. Super glue the egg closed and let it dry. Give each preschooler an egg to shake as they dance to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Other Coconutty Songs

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Pretend Play

Include towels, sunglasses, beach balls, and sand toys in your pretend play center. Have preschoolers pretend that they are on a tropical island.

Chicka Chicka Boom Book Language and Reading

Visit the Alphabet Books Category in the Preschool Education store for great preschool Alphabet books.

Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.