Labels on boxes, cans, and jars
Signs on buildings, buses, and cars.
Words and pictures on store bags
Logos on napkins and price tags.

Can you read them? Look and see!
A “Lost Dog” sign nailed to a tree.
Everything is spelled all around.
Follow that sign that says Playground.

Jif™, Crest™, 7-Up™ and Spam™
Target™, Kraft™, and Smucker’s™ Jam.
Jif™, Crest™, 7-Up™ and Spam™
Target™, Kraft™, and Smucker’s™ Jam.

Signs on the corner, up on a pole,
Stop, Yield, Exit, and Manhole.
Park, Bump, Danger, and One Way.
Let’s read the signs that we can say.

Labels on boxes, cans, and jars.
Signs on buildings, buses, and cars.
Words and pictures on store bags
Logos on napkins and price tags.

Jif™, Crest™, 7-Up™ and Spam™
Target™, Kraft™, and Smucker’s™ Jam.
Jif™, Crest™, 7-Up™ and Spam™
Target™, Kraft™, and Smucker’s™ Jam.

Environmental Print Activities from Sharon MacDonald:
Below is a list of activities that can be used in Pre-K, K or First Grade. The activities help review and practice reading skills. They can be used in a whole-, small group, or in an independent setting.

The activities are varied in difficulty. Decide which ones are best for your class or for your child. In a classroom setting, set up an Environmental Print center for use all year long. An EP center makes a wonderful literacy area.

      1. Read from a reading bag: Encourage the children to bring environmental print from home. Store the print in individual, re-sealable clear-plastic bags. Label each bag with the child’s name.
     2. Match letters in environmental print: Have the children find letters on one EP. For example; find all the “g”s or “br”s on a Colgate toothpaste box.
     3. Match identical environmental print: Use two identical EP for matching (like matching cereal or soap-box letters). Put them in a basket and have the children find match them.
     4. T-Shirt reading: Have Environmental Print T-shirt day. Ask the children to wear T-shirts that advertise a product or service. Set aside time for each child to read each other’s T-shirts.
     5. Use Environmental Print on the word wall: Put the 26 Environmental Print letters on the word wall.
     6. Find upper-, lower-, and mixed-case Environmental Print letters: Put the letters in a basket for the children to separate into the categories (i.e., upper, lower, mixed).
     7. Find Environmental Print consonants and vowels: Examine them
     8. Find Environmental Print consonant blends: Examine them
     9. Look at Environmental Print word configuration: Make word frames to fit the words. The children match the word frame to the Environmental Print word.
     10. Make an “Eat the Alphabet” book: Have the children collect EP that of foods that can be eaten; put the book next to the corresponding alphabet letter.
     11. Make books of cereal covers, street signs, and storefronts.
     12. Build EP word families: Find words that fit into a family of words you are studying.
     13. Find rhyming words on one or more EP.
     14. Sort by beginning and ending sounds: Find a variety of EP that has
different beginning and ending sounds; ask the children to sort it.
     15. Make a community “I Can Read” chart: Have the
children glue on the chart the words they can read.
     16. Use EP substitution in a sentence: Write or dictate a sentence and use environmental print (EP) words to substitute for a word in the sentence.
     17. Find consonant diagraphs in EP.
     18. Alphabetize EP: Collect EP for the children to alphabetize.
     19. Sort by syllables: Collect EP words with different numbers of syllables. The children can sort the words by number of syllables.
          Also, find words that have “ing” and “s” endings. The children sort the word by how the ending of the word is changed.
     20. Use non-standard (i.e., made up) English words: Find created EP for a product or company, like Lexus or Exxon.
     21. Find and use alliteration in EP.
     22. Use short- and long vowel examples of EP.
     23. Find hard and soft “c” and “g” sounds in EP and other “c” and “g” sounds; have the children sort them.
     24. Find diphthongs in EP.
     25. Find vowel diagraphs in EP
     26. Find abbreviations in EP; ask the children to decode the meaning.