Teach concepts about print to young readers
Understanding concepts about print and how print is put together on a page is essential for children as they begin to learn to read and write. If they don't, it will certainly be a source of confusion for them.
Book Concepts
What is important
- What is a sentence
- What is a word
- What is a letter
- Spaces between words
- One spoken word equals one written word
- Word-by-word pointing
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Practice finding these concepts in lots of different books.
- Model how to frame them between two fingers (one on each hand).
- Then let the children find and frame the different concepts.
Spatial Concepts
What is important
- First/middle/last. This concept of ordering can be applied to many things: pages, words in a sentence, letters in a word, and so forth.
- Top/middle/bottom
- Right/left
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Model and practice these skills.
- Explicitly practice these spacial concepts. It is easy to assume that children understand them because they are so prevalent in what we say and do, but they are often a source of confusion in their specific meanings.
- Play "Hokey Pokey" with left/right concept.
- Play Simon Says with top/middle/bottom.
Conventions
What is important
- Upper case/lower case letters
- Punctuation: period, question mark, comma, exclamation mark, quotation marks
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Point them out in books. Find books that show a lot of one type of punctuation.
- Frame the punctuation marks or letters with two fingers.
- Model how to use these conventions in writing. Assist the children in using these in their own writing.
Our Concepts Of Print Kit is a complete full year curriculum. It teaches all of the concepts about print skills in fun and engaging ways. It is easy to use with minimal preparation.
To see all of the skills in the Early reading and writing stage, click on the links below
Phonics
Sight Words
Writing
Vocabulary and Oral Language
Phonemic Awareness
