Environmental Print

(Photo gallery at bottom of page)

Environmental Print has great benefits for the learning and teaching process. Students' work can be displayed on corkboards or hung from the ceiling on old fishing nets, hoops, rope ladders, curtains or a variety of different objects. The displays not only provide opportunities for students to 'show off' his/her work but very often make the room a vibrant work space and an inviting place to visit.

If Environmental Print is only used to this end, however, we have overlooked its greatest potential for learning and teaching.

Displays, lists, contracts, posters, signs, electronic media, logos, graffiti and all sorts of other information can be used as a teaching tool and can also assist students become more independent and self-directed in the classroom. All of these forms of environmental print can be used as part of a teaching episode and can be used in other activities as a resource for students to draw upon.

IDEAS for using Environmental Print in your Classroom

In morning routines, read around the room. Ask each child to find something they can read. Turn it into a game e.g. "I'm thinking of a letter that....."
Find letters, sounds, blends, sight words, strings of letters, chunks of words, words inside words, logos, brand names, font types, colours, numbers, similes, homophones, diagraphs, explanations or answers to questions from posters and other displays in the room.
As you teach a new strategy, create a symbol or sign that can be used later on in an independent activity e.g. cutting out (picture of scissors), retrieval chart (a picture of a grid), cloze activity (picture of a half finished sentence) etc. Put the taught strategies above the blackboard so students know where to look for them (adding an explanation under each symbol can also remind students what each of these strategies means).
Make the displays interactive so students can use the information at their desks or in other ways that helps her/him complete the task at hand e.g. sight words or context-specific vocabulary from the unit being taught displayed on cards or collected in containers that can be used at the students' desks. These could also be used in word sorts or other independent activities.
Weather stations to record the daily weather activities.
Large Graphs of information - weather, tides, favourite foods, colours, sports played, tasks completed.
Labelled boxes or work stations allow students to find and put away equipment.
Create explanations of what the display is about and add these to the display (with the students).
Contracts of activities can be displayed in work stations
Daily displays of interesting facts, tongue twisters, brain-teasers can make the classroom fun and interactive.