Today I’m sharing another free pack to help your child master concepts of print.
(This post contains affiliate links.)
I often have readers e-mail me to ask if their child is ready to read. Often, their child is a preschooler who knows letters and sounds. While some children with solid alphabet knowledge are ready to sound out words, others need work with concepts of print.
What are concepts of print?
- We read from left to right and top to bottom.
- Each word we speak is represented by a word on the page.
- After we read a line, we “return sweep” to the left of the page to keep reading.
- Every book has a front, back, and author.
Have you ever seen a young child “pretend” to read by pointing to words as she reads and saying what she thinks might be on the page? Have you seen her say more than one word as she points to a single word on the page?
This is where my preschooler was at. He had (has) a very solid understanding of letters (both upper and lowercase) and knows his sounds quite well, thanks to my letter of the week curriculum.
But he wasn’t distinguishing between words on a page. I knew that we needed more work with concepts of print to get him ready to read.
Enter… my concepts of print packs! So far I’ve shared three packs: transportation, Christmas, and toys.
Today I’ve got a new set: forest animals.
Each pack consists of forty free printable cards, featuring ten different images.
Like all the packs, the forest animal pack follows a consistent pattern.
“Bear.”
“The bear.”
“The brown bear.”
“I see the brown bear.”
Even if your child doesn’t recognize any of the words (which was the case when I started doing these with my son), he should grasp the pattern and recognize that when more than one word is on the page, he needs to speak more than one word.
Encourage your child to point to the black dots as he “reads” the words.
Your child may not recognize any of the words by sight – which is A-okay. Eventually, though, he may start to learn some of those repeating words, like “the.”
After your child knows the pattern consistently, consider mixing up the cards so he really has to think, instead of just reciting the pattern.
What a difference these packs have made for my little guy! He started out needing help with every single card (see the transportation pack), but now he breezed through these and easily recognized and identified “I,” “see,” and “the.”
We’re getting ready to read!
To assemble the printable:
- Print on cardstock.
- Laminate for durability.
- Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card.
- Attach with a metal ring.
Get your free forest voice to print pack!
YOU’LL LOVE OUR NO-PRINT BUNDLE!
Early Reading No-Print Bundle
$12.00
Your students can complete these activities in Google Slides on a computer or tablet – no printing necessary! The resource includes activities for rhyming, syllable counting, beginning sounds, and upper/lowercase matching.
Free Reading Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade
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Beverly F Chatagnier
I love your site and all the great freebies. I just printed several letters from the Alphabet series. The vivid, colorful pictures you chose are fantastic. Thank you for all the work you have put in to giving us such a tremendous resource.
Anna Geiger
Thank you for the kind comment, Beverly! I’m so glad you can use these.
laura
again i cant print this material i fell so sad
Kate Dowling
Hi Laura!
This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. Please check your email for a message from Anna. 🙂
sandy
hello madam really its a wonder full website ,you are helping many of educators ,its not only help the normal children but also help the children with special needs .
Thanks you very much.