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.
You can grab this freebie right here!
Pin for later!
