Here’s a simple and easy tool I love making for the preschoolers’ name practice.
I like to work a lot with students’ names when I’m teaching. Their names are incredibly important to the children, as are their friends’ names. If it’s meaningful to them, the kiddos are much more active and involved in the learning process.
Four and five year old children are learning how to write their names, so this is a logical offshoot of that. Name kits help with teaching young children their names.
Preschool Name Practice with Name Kits
At the beginning of the year, my students and I make these “name kits” to keep in their book boxes for the year. I include a few different items in each child’s name kit (and each can be tailored to the specific needs of individual children).
What’s in the Name Kits
First, there is a laminated sentence strip with the child’s name written on it. The student uses this as a reference for how his name should look. Laminating it helps it to last all year, and it allows the child to trace over my writing using a dry erase marker.
Also included is a name puzzle. This is basically the child’s name written on a sentence strip, and cut apart into individual letters. This allows the student to explore name practice by putting her name together in the correct manner.
While making the name kit, I have the child pick out magnetic letters. These are the letters in his name, of course, and go into a baggie for the name kit. Magnetic letters are just a different take on the name puzzle. The letters are a bit more tactile, and they allow for use on magnetic easels/boards.
The students also make a name book for inclusion in their name kits. These books are simple to make, but are very engaging to the kids.
Thanks to Jamie of Play to Learn Preschool, we now have editable, printable name books available HERE, too!
Storing Our Name Practice Kits
To hold all the pieces of the name kits, I use a small manila envelope. I cut off the metal tab on the back, then run it through the laminator for added durability (this works with my school’s big laminator but not with the small home laminator).
Then I use scissors to gently cut through the laminate on the back of the envelope, thus opening it up. A simple, unlaminated, envelope would work just as well!
There are so many other ideas when it comes to teaching with students’ names! I gave the name kit its own post because it’s what I like to start with. I use the name kits as a fun way for teaching young children about their names, their friends’ names, letter names, and letter sounds. Do you use name kits with your students?
More Name Practice Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten
Looking for more name activities for teaching young children? Here are a few more to check out –
15+ Name Activities for Preschoolers
Even more preschool name activities!
Pin for later!
Mackenzie says
August 23, 2012 at 9:41 pmAnother great idea! This one is completely new to me… love it! 🙂 Thanks for sharing on Play to Write Series this week! 🙂
Mackenzie
grok78 says
August 23, 2012 at 10:05 pmThanks for hosting and for stopping by. 🙂
Dawn G says
February 25, 2013 at 8:33 pmDon’t know how I got here, but so glad I did. I found you today and started a kit for my 3 3/4 yo today. I got my letter cards and clip art from 3dinosaurs.com and am using various writing fonts. I am so excited to have something for him to practice his name with.
MaryC says
February 25, 2013 at 8:56 pmWell, I’m glad you ended up here too! Isn’t it funny sometimes that we can’t retrace our steps when searching around the internet? Let me know how the name kit goes for your son! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Katherine Collmer says
April 29, 2013 at 4:52 pmMary Catherine, This is an amazing idea! I love the mixture of visual and tactile teaching strategies! Thanks for sharing – I will do the same!
MaryC says
April 29, 2013 at 8:58 pmThanks so much, Katherine! 🙂 I love the name kits, too, especially because there are different activities the kids can (mostly) do on their own. Then I can build on those activities during one-on-one time or small group time.
Michelle says
July 18, 2013 at 3:51 pmThanks for the great idea. I am working on putting together name kits for my daycare preschoolers! I can’t wait to have name kits and book boxes for them all in the fall. How do you store all the Name Kit items in the Book Boxes? I want a neat simple way to keep them all together. I was just thinking of ziplock baggies but would love other suggestions.
Thanks! I love exploring your blog!
Mary Catherine says
July 18, 2013 at 4:31 pmYay, so happy I could be of help! After all these years, I still love using the name kits with my students. Honestly, I just store the kits in whatever is on-hand. I’ve done ziplock baggies and envelopes in the past, we well as construction paper stapled into pockets. Nothing fancy whatsoever — my advice is to make sure the kids can open the kits on their own. Let me know how things go this year! 🙂
JDaniel4's Mom says
July 22, 2013 at 5:25 pmThis is a great idea! I bet they use the kits over and over again.
Mary Catherine says
January 1, 2014 at 10:42 amThank you!! Yes, they DO use these name kits over and over and over!! 🙂
The Activity Mom says
July 28, 2013 at 8:36 amLove this!
Mary Catherine says
July 29, 2013 at 3:26 pmThank you!! 🙂
Dawn Mills says
October 26, 2013 at 2:30 pmThank you so much for this idea for the name kits as well as the entire web site! I am in my first semester of college to be a kindergarten teacher and was looking around for ideas and came across your web site. Lots of great ideas!
Mary Catherine says
November 4, 2013 at 9:17 pmDawn, you totally made my day . . . thanks so much for your kind words. My goal is to create a place where we (as educators and parents) can share resources and ideas! Good luck on your college career. I loved teaching kindergarten, so I bet you will too! 🙂
Tricia says
June 14, 2016 at 9:57 pmI love these ideas! I make laminated names for the children to keep in our writing center, as well as traceable laminated names, to practice, as well as name puzzles for school and home, but the magnetic letters and the envelopes to keep them all together will be great additions to our name work this year in my Head Start classroom-Thanks!
Mary Catherine says
July 23, 2016 at 5:38 pmThank you, Tricia! 🙂
Jennifer says
July 31, 2017 at 7:05 pmI love your ideas! Thank you so much!
Mary Catherine says
July 31, 2017 at 10:38 pmThanks so much for the kind words! 🙂
Amy says
September 24, 2017 at 2:08 pmThis came up on my main Pinterest page as a suggestion. I LOVE this & will be doing this for my childcare kids this week. They love having their very own (fill in the blank) to work with. I’ll let them personalize & sticker up their envelope to add to the fun.
Mary Catherine says
October 15, 2017 at 12:39 pmOh Amy, I love hearing this! Thanks so much for the kind words. 🙂
Lori says
August 1, 2018 at 10:05 pmI have done name strip but love the name kit idea. Thanks hope you have a great year.
Mary Catherine says
October 7, 2018 at 11:58 amThanks, Lori! I hope your year is going well!
Normae says
May 21, 2019 at 5:17 pmGreat idea for kindergarten at beginning of year. I can see doing similar packs for sight word practice too.
Mary Catherine says
May 22, 2019 at 1:57 pmThanks, Normae! Yes, that is a great idea in regards to sight words!!!!