Environmental Print Game

For my older children, I started a game in which I pay them a quarter for every spelling mistake they find. The boys find misspellings in the books they read, on city signs, and everywhere in between! C wants to play too so I came up with a game especially for him as a beginning reader.

Beginning literacy builds on "environmental print" which is words in the environment that children may know & recognize from repeated exposures. The first that comes to mind is "McDonald's." If you ask them to read the word placed elsewhere like on the packaging, they can probably tell you that it is McDonald's! They may recognize their own name in print. They might be able to "read" the name of their favorite box of cereal. C reads environmental print for his quarters! Once he reads a word, I confirm and point out the beginning letter and sound out the word again. He's essentially recalling stored information and is so proud that he's "reading" like big brothers.

Great places to hunt for environmental print: foods in a grocery store, store names, candy aisle, in a favorite book, advertisements in magazines