During our ‘About Me’ unit we spend a lot of time on learning our names. My PreK group usually has a pretty good handle on this…at least the first letter, but my 3-4’s need a LOT of practice. I have their names printed clearly on their cubbies, their coat hooks, our alphabet line, and I even have name strips for a pocket chart with their picture on it-so it is easy to find-as a way of ‘taking roll’.
One of my all-time favorite and most effective name activities is one I have mentioned in a previous post about circle time, but it bears repeating! I now have 4 different levels of this activity to make it progress throughout the year and remain challenging for those amazing PreK’ers! I will touch on level one in this post. (I have it in my plans to do a post on all four levels very soon…be on the look out!). You will need a magnetic dry erase board, magnetic letters, and a dry erase marker for this circle time activity. Each day, I will choose a name from my class list. I print the name on the magnetic dry erase board-clearly and neatly. Then I find the magnetic letters the same name and mix them up underneath the printed name. I hold the magnetic dry erase board on my lap with the name facing me as I face the kids…no peeking…it is NOT allowed! I say “1-2-3!” and turn the board around to face the kids. If the person whose name it is cannot figure it out…I drop hints until they do. I always instruct the class not to shout it out because then t won’t be as much fun…and they might not get a turn for a while if they do. The child whose name it is will arrange the magnetic letters either on top of or underneath their printed names. Then we spell the name and count the letters as a group. The kids get so excited for this activity that we just can’t begin our day without it.
Another fantastic name activity for out ‘About Me’ unit is our name puzzles. For this activity you will need some sentence strips-I get mine at the dollar store in the school supply section. You will also need markers, construction paper cut about an inch wider and longer than the sentence strip-this will be the base on which you will glue your name puzzle. You will need markers, glue sticks, and scissors. I like to do this activity in small group centers with 3-4 kids at a table. I print each child’s name on a sentence strip spelling out loud as I write each letter. I do this until I have printed each child’s name. I give each child a piece of cut construction paper and a glue stick. I then cut their printed name strip into a few pieces and show them how to glue it onto their construction paper and put it back together. For my 3-4’s I cut very few to keep it at their level. For my PreK kids, I will cut more pieces…depending on the child. They love to complete the puzzles and see their names again!
We will continue our name work in Prek by using a bingo dauber to mark all the letters in our name. I have made a little printable that has worked well for me. It seems to have all of the letters I have needed in the quantity needed as well…each year I cross my fingers and hope it will work for everyone again. I’m going on my 4th year with this…so I think I found the formula! (This printable is included in my “All About Me” lesson plan in my TPT store-I’ll leave a link at the end of my post for you if you are interested). This activity tends to need a bit more guidance early in the year, so I usually try to have only 2 kids at my center at a time…a long name and a short name. If it ends taking more than one day’s center time to finish…I’m ok with that. I really want the kids to be able to find their letters one at a time. I know this looks simple, but developmentally…this can be quite a challenge! However as we all know, along with completing a challenge comes so much pride and confidence, it is well worth it!
For a fun whole group activity I love to graph the letters in our names. Believe it or not, my classes always seem to remember who has the longest, and who has the shortest names in the class for the entire year! Plus, this activity mixes math with our literacy activity which is always fantastic for reinforcing numeral recognition, counting and cardinality! It is a great activity to help everyone remember each other’s names as well…win, win win! I have a photo of an example, but in my lesson plan the printed materials will go up to 15 letters! I don’t have a ton of wall space, so I usually have to use my smart board as my display, so I cannot leave it up for long! It would be fun if you have the space, to leave it up until you need the space for something new. The kids love to go find their names on the board!
