Senior Kindergarten students each brought in a piece of environmental print from home for show and tell a few weeks ago and we had a look at these simple, yet  very interesting forms of literacy. We had a big variety of cereal boxes ( Fruit Loops is popular ), O.J. labels, pizza boxes, chip bags, chocolate wrappers and a John Deere license plate. I asked some guiding questions about each piece. " Who wrote the text? " ," What did the writer want us to see?"," Was it true?",   "What was the writer trying to say? " And very importantly,"What was the writer not telling us?"

We had an excellent discussion.  Some students admitted that they wanted Fruit Loops or lucky Charms because  of the pretty box.  They came to the conclusion the Toucan Tom (or Sam) on the front had actually nothing to do with fruit loops or that there was nothing  really magical about Lucky Charms.  They noticed information on the side of the box that showed nutrition information and we compared the boxes.  They noticed the words, "Family Size ".  We found out that this did not always mean there was more food in those packages.We discussed what was missing in the information. Are fruit loops  good for you? In the end everyone agreed  that OJ was probably the best option for breakfast. And, we all agreed that we need John Deere to help get food to our table!