Print Awareness
Activities
*Please note: The list that follows contains general ideas for Pre-K Print Awareness activities. We are currently developing activity plans for each target in this category.
Block 1
- Take opinion polls for which students mark choices on a survey form or put a card (with their name, or yes/no next to their name) in the appropriate pocket chart slot or on clipboards or graphs.
- Encourage students to sort and hold up their printed name to signal their desire for turns (i.e., to go to bathroom, to line-up for recess, etc.).
- Tape students’ names on the floor to designate the activity seating order.
- Hang nametags at the classroom entrance so that students can take responsibility to find and wear their nametag as they enter.
- Place words representing roles for the day or other choices on a pocket chart (helpers, jobs, etc.) where student names designate what they have chosen.
- Provide two or three options and have students identify their own first name.
- Help students identify the first two or three letters in their first name.
- Have students identify the front/back of a book before beginning to read.
- Ask students to identify words versus pictures (“find a word,” “find a picture”).
- Have students identify where print begins and ends on a page, responding to “where do we begin to read on this page?”
- Hand the student a book in a random position and ask her to read or pretend to read the book. Observe how she orients the book.
- Read a variety of texts with students, pointing to the first letter in each word as it is read.
- Reread texts having the students point to each word as it is read.
- Emphasize that spaces separate words as they are read left to right.
- Read a short sentence or phrase from right to left to demonstrate that since it is a backward way of reading, the words don’t make sense.
- Signal meaning and information in print with cards, signs, notes, lists, etc.
- Engage in relevant dialogue about the purpose and process of reading and the importance of reading to the child.
- Give students opportunities to convey meaning by scribbling or pretending to write.
- Have students make pictures or symbols to represent an object or action.
- Write a daily message (illustrating key words) for students to “read” during circle time. Explain that your message will outline important details and directions for their day.
- Provide students with materials at a writing center and post office (complete with a plan for mail distribution) to encourage them to “write” important messages to their friends.
Block 2
- Encourage students to search for familiar words such as the, to, mom, etc. in various texts.
- While engaging in shared reading, point to a familiar word and pause every time it appears, allowing time for the students to identify/name it.
- Have students circle or highlight identical words in repetitive texts.
- Cut apart the words from 3 or 4 repetitive sentences and place them in the pocket chart. Direct students to collect and count a specified word to see how many times it was used in the text.
- Point out one or two predictable and repetitive phrases during scripted routines.
- Encourage students to predict what will be read during interactive book reading once repetitions are identified.
- Have students dictate predictive and repetitive phrases during classroom routines and when expressing opinions. As responses are recorded, stop and allow students to determine which word should come next.
- Encourage students to model following what is read from a class chart by pointing to each word, left to right.
- Provide interesting/playful pointers as motivation for "reading the room" with a friend.
Block 3
- Give each child a letter/word card and have the children sit in a chair with the matching letter/word taped to it. Provide options so students can pick any of the chairs that match their word or letter.
- Have students choose a letter from three alternatives (e.g., T, D, S) with direction to engage in an activity that begins with that letter: e.g., find the T to tiptoe, D to dance, or S to slide to a specific destination.
- Pass out stickers or labels (e.g., file folder labels cut in thirds) with a particular letter or word written on them. Direct students to find a friend or container with the matching word or letter. Have students either sort their label into the appropriate container or stick it on a mural displaying the matching letter/word.
- Encourage students to make choices from menus or lists and then signal their choice by holding up the corresponding first letter in the word.
- Have the children circle specified target letters in words.
- Have students point to each word as it is read. Discuss the difference between a letter, word, and sentence.
- Help students identify repeated words (such as character names) by highlighting and then counting how many times they are listed.
- Use a pointer to touch the beginning letter of each word as the story is read.
- During snack time, have a sign at the table that says “please pass” so that the children can play with holding up the sign when they want to have the food passed.
- Play a question-answer game asking the children “yes or no” questions. Distribute a set of the word cards reading “no” and “yes” to each child. Encourage students to point to the appropriate word to give their answers.
- Provide opportunities for students to explore messages in environmental print (e.g., stop signs, food wrappers, directional signs).
- Discuss the meaning and uses of brand name icons. Use them as props to support students in dramatic role play (e.g., provide McDonald’s materials to serve as items in a pretend restaurant).
- Distribute words associated with a particular context. Direct students to match their word to the same word the teacher displays if they want a turn for a specified activity.
- Require students to match printed words for communicative purposes. (The teacher or aide “reads” words the children encounter: i.e., “This says baby. Find the word that matches it to have a turn to play with the baby [doll].”
- Provide picture/word cards next to classroom manipulatives and play items. Direct students to find the matching written word in a designated area and exchange it for playtime with the item.
Block 4
- Provide multiple opportunities for students to dictate/interactively write about what they have experienced during a SEEL activity.
- Display children’s dictated stories or experiences in the classroom to send a message that what is said can be recorded for future use, and that what students say/think can be communicated in print.
- Send notes from one table to another. With paper and pencils available, the teacher or aide can take a dictated message from one child and then deliver it to another (engaging in simultaneous, shared reading of the message when it is delivered).
- Reread favorite books frequently. Allow the children to tell parts of the story.
- Accept a child’s pretend reading of stories and books.
Teaching Tips
- As students see print in their everyday life, they begin to understand how it is used in the “real world” and that it is very important (e.g., creating a grocery list to go shopping, reading a calendar to know where to go next, reading a menu to order food).
- First, the child needs a “print-rich” environment, which includes seeing the adults in her life read and write continually, thus modeling print use in functional and meaningful ways (e.g., writing a note and then giving it to someone). These experiences show the child why and how to use text in everyday life. Print awareness is also developed as students are read to and exposed to quality literature. They begin to play with reading (“reading” stories they are familiar with), to see that reading occurs left to right and to recognize letters and symbols.
- While the illustrations can give clues about print, understanding how print works will put children on the road to independent reading.
- Teach children about written language as you interact with children around print. Communicate with written words to demonstrate why people read and how reading works. Help children understand that spoken words correspond to printed words, that reading occurs from a left to right sequence, and that written words can be used to communicate.
- Print awareness, the understanding that print has meaning and carries a message
- One-to-one correspondence, the recognition that each word read corresponds to a word printed as text on a page
- Directionality, the ability to hold a book correctly and “read” from left to right and top to bottom
- Letters, words, and sentences, which the child needs to recognize and be able to identify
- Upper- and lowercase letters, which the child must recognize and distinguish, along with punctuation
- Parts of a book, including the author, title, and front/back and other distinguishing features that a child should be able to recognize
- First and last, sequential concepts that the child needs to understand
Print awareness skills follow a developmental progression.
- Engages in pretend reading and writing; scribbles when pretending to write
- Asks to have books read
- Acts on print props in meaningful ways (e.g., makes and pretends to read lists, advertisements, announcements, posters, invitations, notes, nametags, and labels; pretends to read and write as part of role play—being a waitress, cashier, librarian, teacher, parent, letter carrier)
- Dictates experiences, speaking at a pace that gives the scribe time to write
- Identifies the front/back of a book; tells where to start reading
- Identifies messages in environmental print (e.g., stop signs, food wrappers); tells what brand name symbols mean and uses brand name icons as props in play (e.g., McDonald’s materials to serve as items in a pretend restaurant)
- States that he or she does not know how to write or read; identifies people who can and cannot read (e.g., a baby cannot read, but Mommy can read)
- Recognizes his or her own name in print (e.g., puts personal belongings in places labeled with his or her name)
- States what he or she is pretending to write
- Points to each word during shared reading of familiar, predictable, and repetitive stories and language experience texts; recognizes that spaces separate words
- Dictates ideas and agrees or disagrees when what was written is read back (recognizes when what was written is correct)
- Matches identical words to communicate or signal options, such as matching words to make a snack selection, choose a center-based activity, or buy things at a pretend grocery store (e.g., finding the word milk on both the shelf and the carton to put the milk in its proper place in a pretend store)
- “Reads” from memory familiar, predictable and repetitive stories
- Marks options on polls or questionnaires
Foundations
- Read aloud every day. Play related games afterward (e.g., read a sentence and go back to count the words in it, the number of letters in some of the words, or the number of words in a short passage.
- Fill the classroom with posters of familiar songs, poems, or rhymes. Place posters at eye level so students can “read around the room.”
- Ask students to locate upper- and lowercase letters in a familiar book.
- Organize magnetic letters into piles of upper- and lowercase, and use them to create simple names and words.
- Encourage reading time at home with all family members participating. Accept any pretend reading and encourage pointing.
- Encourage students to look in the fronts of books for distinguishing features particularly as they put books away in labeled baskets or in the classroom library).
- Teach students to care for books and treat them with respect, including careful page turning, clean hands, organized storage, etc.
- Provide opportunities to visit the library (with a library card) to check out books and be responsible for returning them on time to the proper person or receptacle.
- Compare various forms of print and emphasize that print is used for various purposes (e.g., handwritten, printed, or electronic articles, books, recipes, letters etc.).
- Engage students in daily activities that promote print awareness and develop CAP (concepts about print) skills. See our scope and sequence page for more details.
- Read aloud.
- Share repeated readings of predictable books.
- Model writing (e.g., allow students to watch you write; support students in finding reasons to write).
- Label names and other concrete words around the classroom.
- Engage students in routine letter naming activities (e.g., sing the alphabet song, read alphabet books, do actions/sign language with letters, etc.).