Reading is an essential part of every child’s education. We know letter recognition leads to phonemic awareness and develops a robust vocabulary. We’ve found an exciting way to expand Catherine’s vocabulary by creating “Print Rich Environments.”

Take look a look at these easy steps:

1. Select a room in your home, restaurant, grocery store or special place.  We selected our dining room as our first choice. Catherine was spending a huge block of time doing school work in this room and we used it as a way to make the environment fun to her.
2. Create notecards with a few select words. We started with 8 words of common objects found in our dining room and created cards with pictures and words and cards with words only. We also found that many of the words repeat in every room and was a good way to practice and assess her recall. Catherine gets really excited when she can easily recognize a word in a new environment.
3. Treat this as a game. The last thing many kiddos want is another educational activity. Set a timer and give them 20 seconds to place cards in their appropriate place. Catherine thought this was fun and did not realize she was learning new vocabulary.
4. Integrate additional activities. Create a word search. There are free resources online that give you access to develop a word search. If you have a child who loves to write, have them create simple sentences and integrate their new words.

This has been a fun activity for the whole family and a fun way to help Catherine build her vocabulary. We hope this fun activity helps your child grow in their environment.

Downloads:

Vocabulary PDF With Pictures

Vocabulary PDF Without Pictures