Literacy Spot #10: Labels

Labelling might seem like a very simple literacy project but toddlers and preschoolers have a natural preference for order through sorting, arranging and classifying, so as well as being a fun way of introducing your child to purposeful literacy this project has the added benefit of appealing to their developing sense of organisation as well.

To make these labels I sat down alongside Immy (who was drawing at the time) and said that I was going to make some labels for the containers in the playroom. She was very interested and as I prepared the labels we discussed what word or words I was writing on each one and what sort of image would be good for the picture prompt.

Then I covered each label in clear Contact paper and Immy helped me to attached them to our storage containers – for our plastic containers, we simply taped the labels to attach them, and for our baskets we punched holes in each label and tied them in place.

Quick and easy to make, they help to teach Immy that writing has a purpose, that a word written to represent an object remains the same each time it is read or written…and pack away time in the playroom is quicker and easier then ever before 🙂

Have you labelled your child’s toy baskets or belongings?

What is Childhood 101′s Literacy Spot? It is a weekly reminder of the importance of young children learning playfully as each week I share one idea for playing around with literacy, taken from my many years working as an early childhood teacher. Visit the previous Literacy Spot posts for more fun ideas for playing with literacy.

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15 Comments

  1. Great idea …is that an Ikea unit ? 🙂

  2. Yep, I’m a big fan of labeling (I think it must be the teacher training coming out in me too ;)) Because I’m a special education teacher I have access to compics so I use these for the pictures along with the word. I think it makes it a lot easier for the kids – they can look at a box and know what’s in it and not have to pull out a whole heap of boxes until they find what they are looking for. From an early age the kids were able to identify what was in the tub so definitely a great early literacy activity too!

  3. i love your simple DIY labels, especially as it creates discussion and involvement with the child whose ‘stuff’ it concerns… and an inspiring poke in the ribs for me to get organised in our new playroom set up!

    1. Good luck, Daisy, would love to see some pics once you are done organising 🙂

  4. we just did this. 🙂
    so fun for the little ones, and great for pre-readers and older kids who have trouble with sight words and spelling.

  5. Funny, your labels are almost the same as mine : ) I also just finished doing some more for the new resources I had to purchase for our toddlers group at kids church.

  6. yeah – this is a great idea – word and picture! perfect xx

  7. I have baskets, but nowhere to put labels on them. I’ll be putting my creative skills to work, though, as this is a great idea!

    1. You can’t see it in the pictures on this post but for some of our baskets I had to punch holes in the card and then use coloured embroidery thread which I pushed through the weave of the baskets. It was a little tricky but it worked 🙂

  8. Oh lord yes! Labels everywhere at our house. I’m lucky to have access to Boardmaker through Heidi’s ‘Helping Children with Autism’ funding and we use that to make most of our labels. The girls sit beside me and we work through the different images to choose which fits best.

  9. We have labels. My 3.5 year old likes to contribute to them to so we have one that says creyyons (crayons) and cadlog (catalogue).

  10. Do you know what I love the most about your labels? They are so easy and fast. I keep thinking I want to label my toy shelves and then I think I would like to take phtos of the toys and use the computer to make the labels. Then I think about how often I rotate my toys and how often I would need to re-do the labels. And so I do nothing. I could make your labels (and enjoy doing it) and easily make new ones when I need to. Why are the simplest ideas so elusive sometimes?

  11. Wow! Thank you, I have just found your website and there are some wonderful ideas that I’m going to try out
    Thank you for sharing

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