The first big step toward reading is helping young children see themselves as readers. This lesson uses environmental print from the students' surrounding community as part of classroom instruction. Through artifacts, photographs, visual displays and class books, students are provided opportunities to practice their reading skills and view themselves as competent readers and users of print. Students and teachers gather samples of environmental print from the neighborhood: signs, logos, brand names, and other print and non-print items that the children see and read in their neighborhood each day. After students have become more familiar with these artifacts, they are compiled into books and added to the classroom library. (author/ncl)