Print awareness is an important component of a child’s journey on the literacy train. We know that
the stronger their print awareness skills are, the higher their chance of success in reading. When
students enter our classroom, we must be intentional in developing this print awareness. We can
definitely do this through reading, but what about those first days of school, when you are unsure
as to where you need to begin?
Before we ever pick up a book for comprehension purposes, we focus on print awareness. I like
to begin the school year with 10 days of lessons that specifically focus on print awareness. The
first five days focus on concepts of books and the last five days focus on concepts of print. I also
like to take this time to talk about how a story made us feel. This can help to shape students’
attitudes towards reading and writing in a positive way.
During this time we look at tons of posters, and we make some into anchor charts! It’s a fun
way to introduce these to your students, because it is something that they will refer back to time
and time again.
The awesome thing about this set of activities is that they do not require a certain book! These
lessons are applicable to any book that you choose to begin your school year. It is the perfect
way to introduce books to children, especially if they have not had exposure to them before.
It’s amazing how much they learn in ten days and it makes learning enjoyable, which will
create positive literacy experiences for your students.
Print awareness is a crucial part of a child’s growth in literacy and it’s important that we
start off on the right foot! You can grab your free copy of this resource right here!
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