Observation Table: Environmental Print in the Classroom

Table 1: Documenting Environmental Print

Examples of Environmental Print Purpose Ideas for further
development
- Labeling
demonstrating - Let the children
the different use several
colors of materials such
Octopus. as recycle
From the materials
story “My instead of only
Very Own papers.
Octopus”. - Include the
word Octopus
- Let the and literacy
children activities.
know where
the Octopus
live “In the
ocean”.
Create their
own Octopus
from the
colorful
papers.

- Board to - Give the

Thank Sheikh children more
Mohammed creative
bin Zayed. materials to
Let the show their
children a creativity and
chance to can express
appreciate their feelings
their ruler. more.
 - Give the - Create a simple
children a and fun activity
chance to about Sheikh
express their Mohammed bin
feelings and Zayed. Such as
creativity. short story or
video about
him. k

Reflection

1. How does environmental print impact students’ language development, and their reading
and writing abilities?

Young children are surrounded by environmental print on a daily basis. Through their
visual exploration of environmental print, coupled with sociocultural experiences,
children gain valuable semantic and symbolic knowledge as they make sense of their
world. The aim of this review is to examine the question of whether environmental print
has value as a literacy learning resource, and if so, the mechanisms by which it promotes
literacy development. It is shown that interactions with environmental print in the child's
sociocultural context can develop their logographic reading skills. These skills, in turn,
promote the development of emergent literacy skills that are the precursors to
conventional reading skills. Environmental print may also be used more directly when
parents and childhood educators use it to scaffold the learning of emergent literacy skills.
It is recommended that parents and early childhood educators capitalize on children's
natural attraction to environmental print by using it to promote their literacy
development.