Know Your Fruits

Six familiar fruits on one page, each drawn large with its name in capitals underneath. The job is simple: name each fruit, talk about it for a moment, then color it its real color.

Fruit is the friendliest general-knowledge topic there is, because every child has opinions about it. Which of these have you eaten? Which is sweet? Which has seeds you spit out? The conversation is the content — the coloring keeps hands busy while it happens.

The words underneath are not for reading yet. They are there so the child sees that everything has a written name — the quiet groundwork of print awareness.