Environmental Print Mini Lesson
Background Information:
This lesson was taught in a preschool/daycare center where I used to work. The students ranged in age from 4-6 years of age. In the past when teaching environmental print in preschool and kindergarten I taught more informal lessons. In preschool, I would ask them questions about the food items in the kitchen area when they were doing imaginative play. In kindergarten, environmental print was integrated into the morning message, social studies, and activities that were sent home with the students to complete with their parents.
New Strategy:
Published by International Reading Association
Justification:
After researching various environmental print lessons and activities this lesson was short, simple and self contained. The students that I worked with only had their previous experiences with them and very limited structured teaching content experience. I needed a lesson that would stand alone and still provide the students with a learning opportunity and information they could take back and share with their families.
Procedure:
*Greet the children and introduce the lesson about EP.
*Lay out labels from different brands and products of food, toys, movies, and health care products so that all students can see.
*Ask each student to pick out one item that they recognize from the pile.
*Take turns asking the students the following questions:
*How do you know what is in the bag/box/container?
*What letter do you see at the beginning?
*What sound does that letter make?
*Do you see other letters that you know?
*Do you see letters from your name in the words on the box? (for younger children)
*Do you see any blends? (for children who can already read)
*We went through the questions with three different EP items. Then we talked about how we look for picture clues to tell us what things might be. I asked them if you could tell a story with out knowing the words to the story. Then we tried it with a book one of the children picked out. The children realized how many different stories could be told from pictures.
*We ended the mini lesson with a game of "I Spy" and a challenge to read labels in their pantry at home to their parents.
Reflection:
Looking back at teaching the lesson I would have created more opportunities for the students to extend their learning at home. This could have been done with a list of games parents could play with their child, a check list or worksheet for the child to complete at home, or by creating a book with the group that they could then use in their classroom. I also realized that if I had taught this lesson in a culturally diverse setting I would have needed to enlist the help of parents. Each family could have brought in a bag of labels and logos from food items and health and beauty products used in their homes. This would have been a great way to give the students a larger view of the world beyond themselves and ensure that all students could identify items from the pile.
The students all responded well to the questions. Some of them needed confidence boosting as they kept saying, "But I can't read." This is when we talked about using clues around us to figure out what the words might say.
