My Name is Special - Preschool & Kindergarten Name Recognition Activities

This week we were working on our "All About Me" theme.

We started with the Lil Divas names: 

Tactile Name Fun

The Lil divas really enjoyed this activity. The had fun finding just the right objects to form the letters of their names and really took their time decorating. I think they did a fantastic job!

Tactile Name Recognition/Decorating Craft

What We Used 

(from my stash of goodies!):

small shape stickers

small pom pom balls

sequins

beads

pipe cleaners

jewels

small buttons

string

I wrote each Lil Divas name on sentence strip paper (half)

& let them at it!

Don't these looks great!

Besides celebrating their names this was a great activity to practice fine motor skills,  dexterity and positioning. It was fun and interactive as they planned which objects to use for each letter. 

I will be using these to personalize/decorate their binders where we keep all the work we want to save!

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I am working with the Littlest Diva to help her learn to recognize, spell & write her last name. To help with this I made a simple Name Puzzle File Folder Game.

What You Need:

File Folder

Sentence Strip Paper

Glue

Markers

What To Do:

1. I cut up cards for all the letters of her name (first & last) and wrote her full name out on a sentence strip.

2. To start I had the name in the folder and provided the first 2 letters. She had to follow the name strip and finish the name puzzle. 

2. It was fairly easy so we did it a few times with me changing up letter I provided.

3. Once she becomes comfortable spelling her last name (she can do her first name easily) I will eliminate the printed name card and let her do the name puzzle without any visual clues.

For the Oldest Diva I felt this was too easy. I made her one too (she doesn't like to be left out) but I wanted to challenge her a bit more (she still misspells her last name sometimes) so I made a few Missing Letter Name Puzzles where I added random letters of her name and she had to write in the missing letters to complete it.

To make it all reusable I put the puzzle sheets into sheet protectors and we used washable markers.

This was fun & just challenging enough for her.

What We Read:

Some other great name recognition activities we have worked on:
1. using letter tiles to spell names
2. stamping our name with alphabet stamps
3. using letter magnets to spell names
4. name hunt activities

A few great ways to practice name/letter writing:
1. write in shaving cream
2. write in a paint filled ziploc bag
3. use do-a-dot markers
4. painting names w/paint & paintbrushes or finger painting names
5. write on dry erase boards
6. write on magnetic erase boards (you can also use magnet letters to stamp on them!)

Great Ideas From Around the Web:
Name Books from Teach Preschool
Name Dig from Teach Preschool

Bern