Recycled Alphabet

If you say you don't have a quarantine sized abundance of recycled boxes, food packages, and general trash around the house, you're lying. If you really don't, I'd like to hire you as a life coach when this is over. We seem to be going through a painfully large amount of packaged food right now. I hope the benefits of dolphins in the canals of Venice can offset all the trash we're creating. Animals everywhere are living their best lives. Have you seen the lions quaranteaming on the roads in South Africa that are typically filled with caravans of safari tourists? I wish I could blame quarantining on my trash alphabet but this would not be the first time I made one of these. It's kind of a staple in a pre-k classroom.  That said, all those boxes and packages are the perfect companion to the Recycled Alphabet.

What's a Recycled Alphabet? 

It's a large scale alphabet where children sort and categorize different logos, labels, symbols, signs, and words by their beginning sounds. I considered calling it a Trash Alphabet but Recycled Alphabet sounds fancy and we could all use a little glamour in our lives right now. 

What skills are they learning?

Environmental Print: Environmental print is a symbol, text, logo or combination that is found in your child's environment. Like a golden "M" "says" McDonalds. That "C" with a beak "says" Chick-fila. Those two red circles "say" Target. They can also recognize words in logos and "read" them. They may not actually be able to read but they know the fancy orange lettering next to the orange fish says Goldfish. This is a beginning step in understanding concepts of print. They will start to point out logos, symbols, and signs they recognize and identify them. Encourage it! 

Concepts of Print: It teaches children that letters exist in the real world. When you combine them, they form words. Those words have meaning. You read from left to right. 

Phonemic Awareness: It teaches and reinforces beginning sounds of words. 

Variety of text: They start to recognize the subtle or not so subtle differences in letters based on different fonts. g and g are the same letter. Sometimes the lowercase "a" in print looks different than the one we write.  
        
Enthusiasm for reading: Wow, print is everywhere and it helps me make sense of my world! I want to learn more!

Categorizing: Sorting the words and logos is a good math skill. They're looking for differences and similarities when grouping words under the beginning sound.

But...

But my child can't read! They don't know letters or letter sounds. Some of the logos don't even have words. The "C" in Chick-fila doesn't make the regular "C" sound. Isn't that confusing? Nope! (CH is a digraph. The letters "C" and "H" combine to make a new sound.) It's totally fine and still works. The whole idea is that they are learning letters, words, and symbols have meaning. They tell us something. When you choose environmental print that is meaningful to your child it brings literacy into their world and lights the fire for reading. 

What you'll need... 

Large piece of paper. This could be from an actual paper roll, back of wrapping paper, large flattened cardboard box, or even regular 8.5x11 pieces of paper taped together. 

Painter's Tape or Masking Tape 

Clear tape, like Scotch Tape

Environmental Print. Words, labels, and logos from trash and recycling. Or print out ones you know your child is familiar with. 

Marker

The supplies are pretty simple. If you have a lot of trash and recycling on hand (my people) then you can probably get to this right away! If you don't, just start a little collection of your labels/logos as you throw things out. For example, when the Goldfish are gone, snip the logo off the top and toss the bag. This is a great excuse to go through the pantry too. 

Get Started 

Once you have a good selection of environmental print and a large piece of paper or cardboard you're ready to create your alphabet. 

1. Tape your paper to the wall with painters tape. Then write the entire alphabet, uppercase and lowercase. The majority of print children see is written in lowercase letters so don't forget to include them. I recommend writing it out on a small piece or paper first so you can space it out and don't run out of room. 

2. Include your child in exploring the letters. Sing the alphabet slowly, pointing to each letter. Find the letters in their name or one's they're familiar. 

3. Show your child the collection of environmental print and ask them to tell you what each one says. 

4. Then using small pieces of tape or a glue stick, work with your child to identify the beginning sound of each picture and secure it under the correct letter. (I prefer tape because it allows me to rearrange them if we end up with multiple pictures under one letter.)

Now what? 

1. Play "I spy" with the different logos. Use a magnifying glass if you have one. (or "spy glass" with an empty paper towel roll) For example, "I spy something yummy to eat. It's something we eat for snack. It's also something that swims!"

2. Have them share all the words they can read with another family member. FaceTime works too. 

3. Have them make a checklist on a clipboard and write or draw the words and logos they put on their alphabet. See if they can rank them from their favorite to their least favorite. 

4. Add names. Start with their name and family and friends. 

5. Add sight words or high frequency words. These are words children are encouraged/required to memorize in order to make them more efficient readers. They are usually words that occur frequently in texts or don't follow typical rules. We, they, and, are, like, are all sight words. 

6. Add decodable words. These are usually short words that follow letter sound rules likes cat, box, and run. If they know their letter sounds, they can sound these words out.

Enjoy your new wall art and happy reading.

Also, happy dumpster diving.