This month's Book Nook topic is...

Building Print Knowledge with

This Book is on FIRE!

Most children love the engaging illustrations and characters in books, but may not realize the important role that print plays to tell the story. Children need help to understand what print is for and how it works – a set of pre-literacy skills called print knowledge. 

We may take for granted that print is meaningful, made up of important parts like letters and punctuation, and that we read print by following some specific rules – like reading from top-to-bottom and left-to-right on a page. Children, however, are new to written words and need us to make clear connections between print, its uses and how we read it.

Learning about print can be fun, especially when you choose a book where the print really stands out and adds to the story. 

Let’s look at an example!

The Book:
This Book is on FIRE! by Ron Keres, Artwork by Arthur Lin

Why We Chose This Book

This Book is on FIRE! includes a funny character named Finn the Frog, who tries to cook and makes lots of entertaining mistakes along the way. Children love laughing at Finn and his antics.

Capitals, colour, print size and punctuation are used throughout this book to really make print stand out. When Finn has a big feeling, the print changes to emphasize the emotion behind the printed word. Colour and font changes also add to the meaning of descriptive cooking words and ingredients while Finn works in the kitchen. Finn talks directly to his readers as he tries (and fails!) to cook a meal that his young audience might enjoy, making children feel very involved in the story. 

Make Print POP!

POP stands for Point Out Print, the Hanen strategy that calls attention to print by showing and talking about interesting examples of written words. By Pointing Out Print during shared book reading, you help children make the connection that print represents the words they’re hearing. Using POP builds the print knowledge that gets children ready for later reading and writing.

Try these tips to POP with This Book is on FIRE!:

Talk about the cover and track the words

When you read a book for the first time with a child, keep the story flowing and find subtle ways to Point Out Print. This helps the child to focus on understanding the story. Before you start the book, try pointing to and talking about the print on the cover: “These words here tell us the title of the book. It’s called This Book is on FIRE!”  While you read the story, run your finger along the words inside the book in the same way.

Draw attention to printed words that show feelings

Once the child is familiar with the book, you can pause two or three times during the story to point out and talk about print. This Book is on FIRE! is full of examples where words are printed using a larger font or in a different colour to show that Finn is having a big reaction. For example, you could make a comment like, “This word says ‘FIRE!’ Those letters are so big! I bet Finn feels really scared, so he’s yelling, ‘FIRE!’ ” You could also try a question: “Look at this big word – it says quick! Do you think Finn is shouting or whispering this word?” 

Show capitals and punctuation

In addition to including font size and colour changes, This Book is on FIRE! uses capitals and punctuation to emphasize words and add meaning. You can point out one or two examples of how these print features work to tell us something. For example, point to the words and letters on the page while you explain:

• “This mark is called a question mark and tells me that Finn is asking us something. Here he wants to know – do we ‘care for 
  some dessert?’ ”
• “Look at this word – HOT! It is written in all capital letters. Here is the capital H in HOT. Sometimes, we write a word in all capitals to show that someone is yelling, or very excited.”
• “There is an exclamation mark at the end of the word HOT! An exclamation mark tells me to say this word louder. Finn wants to make sure we hear that the pie is hot so that we’re careful when we try some.”

Point out print on packages and labels

Throughout the book, we see print on packaged foods in Finn’s kitchen. Try highlighting these words to help children understand that the writing on labels and packages can give us information about what’s inside. For example, “Look, these words say, ‘Secret Sauce.’ I bet there is something very weird inside that jar!” Or when Finn starts to make grilled cheese – “This word on the label says ‘butter,’ so we know that Finn has his butter ready to spread on the bread!”

Use POP in Other Places

Print is all around us, so you can keep using POP even when you’re finished reading! For example:

• POP with food labels: If a child asks for ketchup for example, you could say, “I know this is ketchup, because that’s what this word on the bottle says. Good thing it’s not Finn’s secret sauce!” 
• POP with recipes: While baking cookies, you could say, “Look, it says here that we need to mix chocolate chips into our cookie dough,” as you point to the text in the recipe.
• POP on the go: While taking a walk, point to the print on a STOP sign. You could say, “That word says STOP in all capitals! That’s because cars need to pay attention and stop here for safety.”

Watch carefully for what interests the child and look for opportunities to POP related to their focus. The more that children realize that print is relevant to them, the more they will learn from conversations that support the important pre-literacy skill of print knowledge.

Happy reading!