Chicka Chicka 123 – Multiplication Trees
In the last month of the 2014 – 2015 Virtual Book Club for Kids we’re focusing on books by Bill Martin Jr and of the three titles – [affiliate links] Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 we have chosen Chicka Chicka 123 to focus on as we busy learning some of our times tables and wanting to focus on the 2 and 5 times tables.
With the activity in mind we set about creating some trees – when asked whether J and T wanted an apple tree or a coconut tree – they said they wanted a coconut tree because even though they like Chicak Chicka 123 book they both prefer the tree from the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book – however, you could easily swap out our coconuts for apples to make the tree fit the book.
Materials needed
White paper
Brown, Green and Beige cardstock
Glue
Marker Pen
Objectives
- To recall and use multiplication facts for the 2, 5 and 10x tables
Preparation
To create your trees – if you want an apple tree then use a red card instead of beige and change the shape of the tree to match the shape of a simplified apple tree.
Start off with the brown card stock and cut a tree trunk shape from the card and glue this to the white paper.
Using the green card cut your foliage shape – we did palm tree fronds for an apple tree you can easily do a fluffy cloud shape as we did with our apple counting last autumn.
On the beige card, I drew some oval shapes to represent our coconuts – but you could do the red apple shapes.
Copy this as you will need at least 2 trees to sort the numbers onto the respective tree.
Chicka Chicka Multiplication Trees
Lay out the coconuts/apples at the bottom of the trees – we worked no the 2 and the 5 times tables and I explained that J needed to sort the coconuts/apples onto the correct trees.
When I did the numbers I did some that were only on the 5x table and some only on the 2x table. But I did a selection of numbers that appeared on both.
The numbers unique to each of the multiplication tables were easy to place.
Once those numbers were on – J picked up the remaining numbers and sat and contemplated which tree to put them on.
As there were 4 of them he decided it would be “fair” to have 2 on the 5 tree and 2 on the 2 tree.
Adaption for younger children
With my youngest T instead of focusing on multiplication tables, I used the same numbers and we sorted them into those that are even and those that are odd putting them onto the trees.
Other Bill Martin Jr Book Based Activities
Here are some other fantastic Bill Martin Jr Book Based Activities from the Virtual Book Club for Kids Co-hosts.
Activities for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Kinetic Sand
Activities to go along Chicka Chicka 123
Chicka Chicka 123 – Multiplication Trees
Chicka Chicka 123 – Sensory Number Game
Apple Tree Math Games with Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Window Tree
Activities to go along with Brown Bear Brown Bear
Brown Bear Activity: Big Letter, Big Letter, What Do You See?
Brown Bear, Brown Bear Gross Motor Ideas
Which is your favourite Bill Martin Jr Book?
This is such a great idea! My son loves this story, so using it as a learning tool is perfect 😉
I want to try the even and odd sorting with my son. He’s been playing with his apple tree for the last 2 days.
These are so fun. I like the even and odd idea too.