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To a child, there is nothing more important than his or her own name. Names are very important to children and therefore a child who can recognise their own name can certainly feel more empowered. Encouraging children to learn their name in a variety of mediums, without constraints can help them with this.
Create shadows with your name using cut out card and a torch.
Use small dot stickers to lay over your written name. A great fine motor activity too.
Use building blocks to build your name.
Using pegs to place over letters of your name is fun and a brilliant fine motor activity too.
Printing in a very small font can be fun and children can hunt for their names with a magnifying glass.
Using magnetic tiles to place over letters of your name.
Using a pencil to punch holes in the letters of your name on carboard can be good fun.
A sensory letter hunt can be a good way to start exploring the letters in a name. Hide letters under some rice or oats and give children a paintbrush to excavate the letters of their name.
Place tape on some card in the shape of the first letter of their name and let them paint over it. Then once the paint is dry, peel back the tape to reveal the letter.
Stick foam letters to a window using water.
Write their name with a dry marker on some silver foil (non shiny side up), then pour water over the letters and watch them float away. Blowing them helps to blow them away quicker and moves them around the foil!
Can they park the cars in the correct parking spaces?
Post it notes to order the letters of their name is a very simple and quick activity to try.
Using a bingo dabber pen to trace over the letters of their name is fun.
The latest popper craze is a fun way to push the letters of their name.
Printing the letters of their name onto playdough is a tactile learning experience.
Hiding their name in secret using a white crayon or colouring pencil and have them colpour over the page uncovers their hidden name!
Writing their name with glue and then ask them to sprinkle coloured rice over the top. Then shake off the excess rice to reveal their name.
Using stamps are a fun way to explore ame recognition. You can create your own with a glue gun by writing their name on card in glue and allowing to dry.
Making the shapes of the first letter of their name using lolly craft sticks and non contact paper can be easy and memorable.
Finally, it is important to remember not to panic. Children all develop at different times and schools are there to help all children develop. Schools do not expect children to be able to write their own name when they start school. Simply being able to recognise their own name can help children feel more empowered but please remember a child with a longer name may find this more of a challenge than a child with a shorter name. Longer names and more complicated formations can impact the progress of this skill so just having fun with different activities is all that is needed to help children feel more confident about starting to recognise their name or initial letter of their name.