And so does Will.* Our walk to school involves stopping by many, many yards signs these days, so this has become a staple in our literacy routine. I thought I would share this with you, and maybe you can try it out this weekend before the signs are gone! And to take your mind off the election.
Any kind of sign or label can provide a great literacy interaction with your child, but yard signs are particularly good for little ones because they are right there at their level and right there in their neighborhoods.We have a lot Hillary signs in our neighborhood, so Will recognizes those right off. He loves to identify the big H and say, "huh-huh-Hillary"! This is great because he is working on his letter-sound correspondences and his phonological awareness for beginning sounds at the same time.
Next, Will likes to try to name all the other letters on the sign. The Clinton-Kaine sign has a mixture of upper- and lowercase letters. I've noticed he can recognize the uppercase C, uppercase K, and the lowercase o. This is normal! Kids generally learn to recognize uppercase letters first, followed by the lowercase letters that look like their uppercase forms (e.g., O,o, S,s, X,x). Lowercase letters that look quite different, however, are trickier. For example, Will thinks the lowercase l is an I or 1. Can't blame him, can you? He also thinks that the es are 3s. This is all normal, too. Kids don't strongly distinguish between letters and numbers at this stage. So, I like this Clinton-Kaine sign because it provides him with some easy letters and some challenges.
Next we move on to ALL THE OTHER SIGNS. We have a contested school board election here, so there are a lot of signs.
As you can see, each sign has different fonts and combinations of upper- and lowercase letters. This is great! Recognizing letters across fonts is an important part of developing alphabet knowledge. Having so many signs in one spot means we can compare and contrast and match upper- and lowercase As and Ms, for example.
Look at that huge S! Very exciting!
When Will is "reading" the signs, I let him identify letters as he wants. If it calls an m and n, for example, I don't usually correct him. But, he generally knows if he is confused, and asks for help, and if he asks me about a letter, I tell him. I also help him find the same letter on multiple signs and talk about how the upper- and lowercase letters look different.
Finally, we talk about what the signs say and mean. After looking at the letters, Will often asks, "what does it say?" I read the names, and I talk to Will about why they have names on signs; that there is an election is happening, and they are running to help us run our schools. It's a great opportunity for conversation, which we know builds literacy. But also, these people are his neighbors and leaders in his community. I want him to know what all those letters are for; we grown ups use the letters to make words and to communicate our support for our fellow citizens and our values and priorities to others. Yard signs are, in this way, and incredible act of community literacy and an opportunity to connect early literacy to the world at large.
Try to enjoy this weekend, everyone.
*Note: Will is not able to vote because he does not have the proper photo ID. Hence, he does not endorse any candidates.
