George, three years old, had been listening with the other children in the nursery to his teacher telling them that the wheely toys could not come into the covered yard. She drew a line in chalk to mark the area. George asked for a chalk and drew next to it a wiggly line. He told them all loudly, 'This says no bikes in here.'
George had not had any formal instruction in literacy but already he knew, through his family and the world around him, that marks had meaning, that print is powerful and that it can affect the behaviour of others.
As they grow, children are active learners, constantly asking questions such as 'What does that say?' as they try to make sense of their encounters with people and print. By age three and four they are already experienced learners, not because they have been passive recipients of information, but because they have been involved in constructions and reconstructions of their world with meaningful people in their lives, and because the learning has had purpose and meaning.
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