Everyday Moments Encouraging Print Awareness
Print awareness grows in everyday moments—like a child helping with making a grocery list or creating signs for their play store.
Ox & Owl Questions to Ponder
What messages do I give (intentionally or unintentionally) about the value of reading and writing?
How do I support children in noticing that print carries meaning, not just shapes on a page?
How does my little learner see print being used in daily life—do they see me writing lists, reading labels, or enjoying books?
What opportunities exist in daily routines (grocery shopping, cooking, playtime) to highlight how print is everywhere?
How do I celebrate a child’s pretend reading or scribble writing—as mistakes, or as meaningful steps toward literacy?
What kinds of print catch their attention most, and how can I build on that interest?
“Don’t forget the apples!” a child calls out while pushing a toy cart, glancing at the scribbles on their pretend shopping list. What looks like simple make-believe is actually practice with a powerful concept—that print carries meaning and guides our actions—the key aspect of developing print awareness.
By valuing pretend play with print, we’re not just humoring imagination—we’re nurturing the foundation of lifelong literacy.
What is Print Awareness?
At its heart, print awareness is the realization that the squiggles and shapes we call letters—are more than marks on a page. They form together to tell stories, give directions, and help us share ideas.
Print awareness means understanding that written text represents spoken language and that print follows certain rules. Words are separated by spaces, just as our speech has pauses. Question marks signal a question. Text is read in a particular direction—left to right in English, but differently in other languages. These conventions give structure to the way we read and write. You can check out our other post with great examples of print awareness in action linked here for you.
As children develop print awareness, they begin to grasp that pictures, words, and sentences work together to carry meaning and serve real purposes in the world. They discover that print is a tool for communication, for learning, and for connecting with others.
Print awareness shows up in many small but important ways—skills adults often overlook because they’ve become second nature. A child who pretends to write a grocery list, “reads” a menu at a play restaurant, or points out a stop sign on a walk is demonstrating that print has a purpose beyond books. These playful interactions with print are similarly as valuable as reading storybooks together in building a strong foundation for literacy.
Ways to Encourage Print Awareness:
Draw children’s attention to words and/or letters throughout the day in fun and meaningful ways.
Provide exposure to both capital and lower-case letters in different fonts and sizes.
Teach the alphabet –by doing activities that combine learning the names of letters with learning the sounds of letters.
Read books together, along with other forms of printed text (cards, signs, flyers, posters, instructions, etc.).
Have print materials like whiteboards and dry-erase markers, paper, pencils, crayons, painting and water drawing tools readily available.
Make a point of showcasing how print impacts your everyday life — such as pointing out signs and/or instructions that help you know what to do in any given environment (examples: shopping in a store, driving, or putting together a new piece of furniture).
During pretend play, build connections about the importance and active role print plays in everyday life: create together menus, forms, mail, store signage, etc. for children to use in their play.
Point out numbers using various representations (tallies, number signs, 10 frame, etc.), practice simple counting, and expose young children to how these numbers are spelled.
Hang a few alphabet posters, vocabulary word posters in eye line for your little one. Also, label items in your space, and create word walls in classrooms, to provide a print-rich environment for children.
Involve children in everyday tasks where print is commonly used: writing up a grocery list, doing calendar time, writing birthday cards or other special cards to people, reading or summarizing a recipe or craft instructions, reading signs or posters you come across, etc.
Provide letter name puzzles and other letter manipulatives, like letter magnets to explore.
Play letter games and do letter-related activities. It is highly recommended to pair these activities with letter-sound recognition tasks to build their phonemic awareness skills.
Model writing to your child, whether it be writing in a calendar or journal, creating a shopping list, writing a post-it note, or filling out a form.
When reading books together, sometimes try using your finger to track along underneath the printed words to help your little one better understand that you are reading the words to tell the story.
Encourage fun print activities, such as making cards, signs, board games, instructions, scavenger hunts, and maps -like a treasure map.
Key Aspects to Think About
The magic is that print awareness doesn’t grow from flashcards or drills—it grows from noticing. There are so many everyday opportunities to help cultivate this understanding and appreciation for language through print, sometimes it just takes a bit of intention and a spark of creativity to seize them!
Utilize Everyday Tasks and Print Encounters
The key to helping little ones with their print awareness skills is to invite them to be part of everyday tasks and encounters with print, by asking probing questions, reading and writing together, playing literacy-based games, and giving them opportunities to contribute, such as helping with cooking by following some simple written steps with pictures or a recipe, handing out mail, or creating a grocery list together.
Foster a Passion for Incorporating Print Materials into Pretend Play
Other great opportunities to encourage print awareness, often underused, are through providing opportunities and tools for your child or little learners to incorporate elements of print into their pretend play.
When children play “store,” “restaurant,” “doctor’s office,” or even “post office,” they naturally imitate the world around them—and print is a big part of that world. Menus, shopping lists, signs, forms, labels, and receipts all become playful props that spark imagination while also teaching that print serves real purposes.
By valuing pretend play with print, we’re not just humoring imagination—we’re nurturing the foundation of lifelong literacy.
The Dynamic Duo
Help your little learner identify beginning, middle, and end sounds using visual aids like Elkonin boxes. For example, draw three boxes and use small objects or counters to represent sounds in words.
Phonemic awareness is the key to unlocking the world of reading! It’s perfectly fine if some kids need a little extra time to get the hang of it. Make learning fun by tailoring activities to their developmental level and watching them grow step by step!
Celebrate Pretend Reading and Scribbling
Pretend reading shows that a child understands books carry meaning and stories flow from beginning to end. Scribble writing reveals that they recognize marks on a page stand for language, even if they don’t yet know the letters.
Celebrating these moments builds confidence. Avoid a focus on correction.
We can say things like, “Wow, this menu has so many delicious dishes—which one is a favourite?” or “You worked so hard on making all these signs for your ice cream shop!”
These responses affirm that their efforts are meaningful.
As children continue to build their print awareness they will start to grow a greater interest in reading which can look like a child pointing at a cereal box and asking, “What does this say?”, or turning pages with a parent during bedtime stories and tracing their finger under the words as they “read” along.
You might find your child jumping at the opportunity to draw a picture and write their name in a card to a teacher, friend, or family member or create some cards for a game — such as making their own “go fish” cards to play with.
The aim of this post is to help prompt the discovery of these beautiful opportunities and to encourage you with enjoying the magic of watching your little one on their language learning journey.
Key OOLiteracy Takeaways
Nurturing Little Minds, Sparking Big Dreams
I’m happy you’re here!
Hi, I’m Julie, the passionate creator of Ox & Owl Literacy. I enjoy empowering families and educators with wonderful resources to inspire fun, imaginative, and joyful learning opportunities for young kiddos. You’ll find lots of recommended books, reading resources, and creative learning activities on this site aiming to help children fall in love with language, books, reading, and the transformational power of stories.
