Something I didn't do last year that I really wish I had was working with environmental print. Last year, as a new teacher, I was reliant on the curriculum, which included no mention of environmental print activities. Throughout the year, I came across something on Pinterest that sparked a memory of seeing this done in classrooms before...possibly my mom when she was a teacher? I don't know. BUT wherever it came from, I miraculously remembered to include it in my lesson planning for the first weeks of school.
I explored a bunch of different options, and I finally settled on a few activities over a span of several days. On Monday, I introduced the concept of environmental print. I asked them to raise their hands if they knew how to read. None of them raised their hands. I pulled out some of the labels and logos I had printed out and asked them to read them. Guess what? After that, when I asked them if they could read, they all raised their hands! I so wish I had done this last year, I felt like I had a few readers who didn't use their full potential because they just didn't have confidence that they could read.
After that little introduction, we played this FREE "I Have, Who Has?" game of environmental print from Gluesticks 'N Giggles. This is such a great game, and so catchy for my little ones! It's especially helpful for my little English Learners, practicing those phrases in the correct pronouns and verb tenses.
Then, we created an "I Can Read!" book. I laid out all the labels and logos out on a table and let each child come and pick five. They then took them back to their tables and glued them into their books. These books each have the sentence "____________ can read _____________", also allowing for extra name practice. After they finished gluing, I had them take the books home for a few days to practice reading them with their parents, and I will put them in their book boxes so they have something simple to read.
By the way, DON'T spend time printing out your own labels or logos or signs!! Just do a quick search on TPT or Pinterest -- many people have made very wide-encompassing documents you can download for free! I made one for myself with specific movies and tv shows that I know the kids enjoy, as well as some St. Louis specific logos (I don't know a single St. Louis resident who doesn't recognize the Cardinals logo!).
In addition to small personal books for the kids to read, I also wanted to make a larger scale project for the kids to reference. As much as I love those environmental print word walls, my walls are already taken up to the max. So I decided to make a "word wall" and put it into a binder to keep in the writing center. Rather than spending an hour sorting and gluing all the letters myself, I enlisted the kid's help and made it a learning experience. I left out all the leftover pieces from after the students made their individual books, and the next day, I asked them to sort them by the first letter onto the rug (we have a nice big rug with the whole alphabet around the edge!). Once they were all sorted, I checked them and removed duplicates, and then gave them the pages and had them start gluing! Within a few minutes, the book was ready to go! I never spend the time doing something my kids can do themselves and learn from it at the same time!
So that's what we did for environmental print over the last few days, and it really was a lot of fun and really beneficial for the kids! What do you do for environmental print? Do you have any great ideas that have worked?
God's blessings and happy teaching!
Mikaela
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