The Name Game

Most kindergarten teachers start the year off working on letter recognition. Often our students come with limited knowledge so we start with their name, like so many others who work with young children. Here is a sample of how I make mine. The photo goes in the left corner of the card and then I type in the student's name. The vowels are in red and we will work on these special helping letters a bit later. You know the drill but for those of you who may not here are a few simple activities you can do:
1. Have students identify the first letter of their name
2. Sort students who have the same first letter
3. Have students count the letters in their name
4. Clap out the syllables in each student's name and sort them this way
5. Build community by having entire class identify the student on the card
6. Put all the names together on a ring so students can use the names of their friends in their writing.
7. Sort boys and girls in a pocket chart
8. Have students take their name card to their seat when they are ready to practice writing their name

Why put the photo on the card? Many children in our program cannot recognize their name and need this scaffold to feel successful.

Later we give them cards with just their name and the photograph on the back. Obviously this is much more challenging for them.

Tell me what activities you like to do with their name.