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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Environmental Print Information (freebie) and some new products

We are surrounded by environmental print. It is on store signs, billboards, boxes, wrappers, road signs, etc. Most children recognize logos of their favorite cereal, candy bars, stores, toys, and restaurants. I love to use environmental print in my classroom because it makes my students feel successful when they can easily read the logos. Years ago, I made two environmental print books for my students to use. One is all about foods they eat and the other one contains logos from places, toys, signs, etc. I put them at a station and the children love to copy the words or use them in sentences or stories.




I'm linking this post up to Classroom Freebies for Manic Monday!
Although I made the books many years ago, most of the logos are still popular today. If you would like the books I made, just click on both photos above. Each one will take you to a different book.

Another popular environmental print station is my cereal box puzzles. I just save the box, cut off the front cover, cut it into puzzle  pieces and store them in baggies. My students love helping each other put them back together. Some are easy and some are hard, but, they're always fun to do.



I have been working really hard on two new products this summer and I am happy to say that they are both done and ready to be purchased at my teaching store. The first one is all about learning letter sounds using Jack Hartman's song Learning Letter Sounds. If you haven't heard this song yet, you can find it on his "Shake, Rattle and Read" and I've Got Music In Me" CDs. Here is a little video of the song.











My students love to sing this song every single day. I have a poster hanging, and the leader of the day points to the pictures as the whole class sings the song. This is the poster I used to use:



This year, I made a cuter poster and some other activities for my students to complete at stations. Here is a preview of what's included in my Letter Sounds Activity Pack:



It contains a large poster, with the cutest clip art, an individual letter sounds chart for the children to use when writing and to take home to help them complete homework assignments, as well as, help them remember the words to the song so they can sing it at home, a letter sounds book, flashcards, and a memory game. I am really looking forward to using all these activities all year long. I'm even going to have my first graders start the year with the book and memory game. In kindergarten, we'll work our way up to that. If you are interested in purchasing these activities, just click on the image for more information.


My other creation, that I am very proud of, is my Introduction to Writer's Workshop Activity Pack. Here is what it looks like:



This unit was created to help us launch our Writer's Workshop program. I feel very strongly that the children should be introduced to the proper Writer's Workshop vocabulary from day 1. This unit contains every single vocabulary word you can possibly think of and more! 102 words, to be exact! I am going to have a Writer's Workshop vocabulary word wall because I think visual displays are incredibly helpful and my students will appreciate seeing these words hanging and I will be able to refer them to the word wall if they forget a word. The unit also contains activities to get our students to think about why they love to write. It has a large tree map display, an individual tree map for the students to fill out, differentiated writing webs about why they love Writer's Workshop, stationary, a trivia game, goal setting sheets, and more. I am so excited about these activities and can't wait to introduce them to my writers! Click on the preview if you are interested in purchasing this activity.


I'm linking up this post to Debbie Clement's Kindergarten Ideas Linky Party!


Sorry about the long post! I sure had a lot to say! Thanks for listening!

12 comments:

  1. I love this, Lori! I have Jack Hartmann's CD but don't use this song...thanks for sharing it, now I know what I can do with it! LOL! I've been doing a few things here and there, too, with environmental print over the years. I used to assign each student a letter and give them a piece of contruction paper. They would take it home and cut/paste any pictures they could find with that letter. When everyone brought theirs back we would make a class book for our library - I might do that again this year. Thanks for sharing! :)

    Ѽ Alessia
    Mrs. Albanese’s Kindergarten Class

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  2. I really love this song and find that my students remember the catchy tune and sing it when they get stuck on a letter sound. I love that I can do more than just sing the song each day. I love the classbook idea. I'm sure it was happily read all year long.

    Ѽ Lori
    Teaching With Love and Laughter
    luvyorkies@gmail.com

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  3. I love your writing pack! I pinned it last night when I came across it on Pinterest & put it on my wishlist. :) I love using Jack Hartmann's music. He is amazing!
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

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  4. I love the tune of that song and your packet will be perfect with it;)

    Tammy
    The Resourceful Apple

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  5. Your two new products look great! :)

    Delighted in Second

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  6. Environmental print books are great! Thanks!
    ~Heather
    http://themeekmoose.blogspot.com

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  7. Thanks for the environmental print books! I've used similar pictures and attached them to index cards and bound them with a ring to make Reading Rings. I also love the use of products and places to make kids feel like readers. Thanks for adding to my collection:-)
    Michelle
    mcoop1125@gmail.com

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  8. I love your environmental print books. I can't wait to download them. Thanks for making them available as freebies. I hope to start a writing center and this is just the thing to help firsties realize they already read!!!

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  9. Oops, forgot to leave my email address:
    ~Jane
    rsmiramo@smsd.org

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  10. We make several environmental print classroom books. My kids love to read them over and over. :)

    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

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  11. It's so funny you posted your environmental print book - I just finished making one earlier this week for my class! I love them. Even my non-readers can "read" the signs and logos they're familiar with.

    Kara
    Spedventures

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  12. Found you on Manic Monday. I love using environmental print. I have a poster with many of the same logos, but love your idea of putting them into a book format.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Linda
    Primary Inspiration

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I love to read them!

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