United StatesStreet Signs
Purpose/Skills
- To understand how signs are helpful and important
- To use words for a purpose
Materials
Walk and Don't Walk signs
Prepare ahead by making the signs on sturdy paper.
Read I Read Signs by Tana Hoban, or any other book with pictures of signs.
Vocabulary
| signs | walk |
| don't walk | stop |
| exit | enter |
| one way | recycle |
Warm-Up
- Show children pictures of traffic signs from the book. Examples: Stop signs, Walk/Don't Walk signs, and animal crossing signs.
- Talk about what each sign means.
- Discuss with children the idea that signs are important because they give you important information.
Procedure
- Read the book or provide time for children to look at the pictures on their own.
- Play a traffic game. Have children pretend they are on a walk in the city. Have them line up and walk in a circle around the room. Designate one child to hold up the Walk and Don't Walk signs, alternately, to show what the walkers should do.
Take the children on a "Sign Search" in your neighborhood. Look for signs to "read" and discuss. Make a chart of the signs that they know, including symbols from stores. Encourage children to make their own signs.
Observation Assessment
- Proficient - Child identifies signs and recognizes that they have an important function.
- In Process - Child identifies signs but does not fully appreciate that a sign is a symbol that gives you information.
- Not Yet Ready - Child does not yet identify signs or understand their function.
Excerpted from School Readiness Activity Cards. The Preschool Activity Cards provide engaging and purposeful experiences that develop language, literacy, and math skills for preschool children.
