Preschool Learning With Environmental Print

It’s no coincidence that young children quickly learn to recognize signs and symbols for favorite restaurants, toys, and products!  Most preschoolers have a built-in drive to learn about reading.  Children of this age are ready to learn that printed words have meanings, and they can do so quickly and easily.  Parents and caregivers can nurture this ability to lay the groundwork for later reading and writing skills.  Teaching with environmental print is easy and fun!

A quick look in and around your home will show you just how much printed matter is available.  We adults overlook most of these things because we are so used to seeing them, but from your child’s point of view, they can be fascinating.  There are letters and numbers on nearly everything!  Your preschooler is wondering why they are there, what they say, and how can he or she learn to read and use them.   Help your child notice printing on products and talk about why it is there.  Look for size numbers and care instructions on clothing, labels on food products, manufacturer’s information on nearly everything, setting information on appliances, and so forth.  Most of that information is printed in its place to help people use or get information about the product.  Watch for signs together as you drive.  Road signs give information about your location, billboards try to entice people to buy or use products, and business names help people find what they are looking for.  Are there labels on rooms in any large buildings that you visit, such as libraries, churches, offices, or malls?  Print is literally everywhere, and you can use that fact to create on-the-spot learning activities to help your child attain literacy.

Challenge your youngster to be a letter or number detective.  How many places can he or she find letters or numbers?  What is the lowest place where they are hiding?  Where are the biggest ones and smallest ones?  How many can be found in each room or outdoors?  Can your child find letters that are raised up and can be felt?  How about colored letters? 

Try a letter scavenger hunt.  Pick a special letter that your child can recognize, and see how many different places it is used.  Count the number of times your letter turns up on billboards, labels, and signs.  Hold a contest to see which letter is found most often over a few days.  You can even graph this information at home to make a nice visual representation of letter frequency.   Create a matching activity by giving your youngster a model of the letter to be found.  This is a great way to begin the adventure with children who do not yet recognize any letters on their own.  A solid concept of same and different is necessary for later academic skills.

Look around the kitchen or some other place with lots of letters on labels.  Can your child find the entire alphabet?  Look for the letters A to Z.  He or she can work from memory or from a written copy of the ABC’s, find letters in alphabetical order or randomly, and look for capitals and lower case forms.

Letters come in lots of shapes, as well.  Learning to recognize each letter in a variety of fonts and colors is an important skill.  How many different shapes of each letter can be found?  What are the differences between each one and how are they alike?

Sooner or later, your child will begin to recognize specific words, brand names, or symbols for familiar products or places.  Use an old magazine to cut out these familiar symbols from advertisements, paste them on cards, and hide them around the house.  When your child finds one and tells you what it means, have a celebration!  You can put the symbol or word into a special scrapbook that your little one will proudly “read."  Encourage him or her to tell a story about the symbols, perhaps recalling a personal experience with the product or place, or even making up something totally new. 

Learning from environmental print can be a real adventure.  It takes just a few minutes, costs nothing, and will give your child an opportunity for educational fun.  You can use these activities nearly anywhere, and they make great boredom-busters.  Why not start today?

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