Read the world together

Next time you’re out and about, take notice of all the words around you – on buildings, signs, roads, even in the sky! And, of course, at home – on labels, food wrappers and packaging. Words are literally everywhere. We call this environmental print. 

Take advantage of the print around you as a tool to talk to your little one about letters, how they go together to make words, and how those words carry meaning. For punctuation, teach them how we use different symbols to convey meaning. Environmental print plays an important role in stimulating your child’s emergent literacy skills. The more words they start to recognise, the more motivated they become to find and use them! 

There are so many other ways to talk about letters and words with your little one, such as the way we read them from left to right, top to bottom; that sometimes a symbol can have the same meaning as a word – look at your TV's remote control to show ‘up’ and ‘down’ (volume arrows) and the little ‘house’ that means to go back to home. Green means ‘on’, red means ‘off’. Green means ‘go’, red means ‘stop’. 

Sometimes we see words and pictures together to convey meaning, such as 'DO NOT ENTER' with a cross. The words written in all capital letters convey a very important message, and the cross conveys a negative meaning, ‘no’. 

You'll be surprised what you find in your pantry too. Look for labels in other languages as an opportunity to broaden your child’s language experience. Some languages don’t use letters. They may use other symbols, but they all carry meaning. 

Another fun way to explore letters is to build your child’s name by cutting letters out of a magazine. Give your little one time to find them on their own. Notice how the letters don’t all need to look the same to sound the same. 

You could even make an environmental print garden by planting flower seeds and herbs and display the seed packet on a craft stick in a pot. This shows your little one that pictures carry meaning, not just words. 

Last, but certainly not least, have fun with letters by making an alphabet soup. Can you eat your name?! 

Exploring environmental print is a low cost, easy-to-do early literacy booster that can be done anywhere. Give it a try! You’ll be helping your little one to understand the world through words and symbols. 

Check out our blog for more ideas on reading the environment and books to borrow.