Given preschool children's characteristically short attention spans and unpredictable interests, teachers can encourage early reading most effectively and appropriately through the systemization of informal or incidental, rather than formal, learning. They can make learning to read relevant to traditional preschool activities in a number of ways. By posting words around the classroom, as in, for example, activity menus, teachers can elicit parents' help in pointing out important messages; and by labeling grocery items used in dramatic play, they can focus attention on new words. Intermittently modeling reading in a small, enclosed, rather than a large, open reading corner, teachers can, according to recent research, increase the amount of time children independently spend in the area. In the organic reading center--a sociable place complete with typewriter, blank books, index cards, crayons, and paste--teachers can take dictation for the children's own books. During the regularly scheduled large group period, teachers can promote emergent reading through songs, chants, finger play, and stories. (MM)