Name Puzzles

One of the routines that really works in our classroom is to have an arrival activity set out for those first 10-15 minutes when the students first come into the classroom and are busy unpacking their backpacks and taking off their jackets.

At the beginning of the year, we use wooden puzzles, potato heads, or play dough.  Now that the routines are established, we are ready to work on something new.

Our preschool students (3's and young 4's) complete "Name Puzzles" for their morning work.  We put them out in their carpet square and they work while everyone settles in.

To make these name puzzles, we cut about 4 inches off the tops of colored file folders.  On the front of the folder, we wrote their first name.  When they lift the flap, they can see their last name written on the inside.  (At this point in the year, most students are still working on their first names.)

Then we program clothes pins with an upper case on one side and a lower case on the other to match the letters of their name.

The students remove all of the clothes pins, mix them up, and then match them back to their name.  We ask the students to point to the letters and spell their names orally.  If they are able to identify the letter consistently, they receive a small sticker over the letter.  It's an easy way for us to take an informal assessment and to track the students' progress.

In addition to clothes pin name puzzles, we use other arrival activities to reinforce their names.  In this one pictured below, students have sentence strips with their name spelled out in large stickers.  They match smaller star pieces to the corresponding letters.

Older students can do the same type of activity with a smaller name cards and pieces.

  

Learning their names is one of the best ways that young children begin to master the alphabet.  We love when students take ownership of their letter: "That's my J!"  "Look, there's Mikey's M!"  

I'm looking forward to sharing other options for morning work with you.  Have fun playing and learning with your children today.