Ceres Childcare & Preschool Home Page! Themes, Crafts & Activities Alphabet Recognition Circle Time Handprint Calendar Winter Theme Crafts Valentines Day Rainbows St Patrick's Day Easter Gardening and Flowers Insects Mother's Day Father's Day Teddy Bears Independence Day Fire Safety Personal Safety Name Recognition Halloween Thanksgiving Numbers and Quantities Christmas Craft Recipes Email Sheril!

Name Recognition Projects & Activities We spend the last two weeks of summer focusing on name recognition as well as starting to learn the letters in each child's name, letter order, writing them, and just having fun doing some crafts with their names. Name Recognition Bulletin Board Print each child's name onto cardstock. Send them home for a family project to decorate with crayons, color, glue, glitter, pasta, cereal, stickers, etc. They turn out really nice and make a beautiful bulletin board. My children really got excited to have "Homework" and were so proud to show their friends how they decorated their names. I really had great family participation for this activity. Crayon Resist Name Recognition Write each child's name on a piece of white paper using a white crayon. Allow the children to watercolor the entire paper and their name will "magically" appear on their paper! Letter Necklaces This is what I do for children who are just starting out learning to recognize the letters in their name. Print a letter onto cardstock and have the child trace or color it, cut it out, and string it onto a necklace. Repeat the letter to them several times during this activity. Have them wear their necklace and ask them to try to remember what the letter is throughout the day. If they take it home make sure you tell their parents to do the same. If the child gets tired of wearing it they can hang it somewhere that the child will see it durning the day. Plant Your Name Line a box with plastic wrap and fill with soil (this one is a tissue box). Sprinkle grass seeds to spell child's name. Keep them in a sunny spot, water, and watch them grow! Children can trim the grass with scissors as the letters grow. There is a similar idea in the 2008 Aug/Sept Mailbox Magazine to make mud with potting soil, place in a ziplock bag and pipe mud onto cardboard spelling out child's name. Sprinkle with grass seeds, place in the sun and keep moist with a spray mister until it sprouts. We have not tried this but it sounds like a fun project and perhaps simpler than using the boxes. (If anyone tries this please send me a picture so I can put it here!) Sponge Paint Names Sponge paint with the letters in each child's name. Encourage the children to say the letters as they stamp them on the paper. Repeat the letters several times during this activity. Very young children just make their first initial, older children stamp all the letters in their first name, and older children who have mastered their first names do their last names as well. Name Mobile Have children cut out the letters in their names(we used our sponge paint letters). String them to a paper plate that has been cut in half and decorated. Caterpillar Names Have children cut several circles out of construction paper. On each circle, write one letter of the child's name. Mix up the circles and let the children practice spelling their names. Glue in place onto construction paper to create a caterpillar. Clothespin Names Write child's name on heavy cardboard or craft foam. Write the letters of child's name on clothespins. Store clothespins in a Ziplock bag for children to practice the letter order in their names. This idea comes from the 2008 Aug/Sept Mailbox Magazine. Name Tracing Write the child's name in black marker on a piece of sentence strip and then staple a few sheets of tracing paper (cut to the same size) over top the of it. The children can see their name written in black marker under the tracing paper and can trace over it onto each sheet of paper. Bottle Cap Names Use a sharpie to write one letter of the child's name on a bottle cap. Use them to practice spelling out the child's name. There are many more activities you can do with these caps. Place the letters into a bowl and have the children use a cooking spoon to scoop the letters out. Hide them around the room and have the child search them out. Make a bingo game to spell the child's name instead of bingo. Group Time Activity Friends Countdown Six good friends went out to play it was a bright and sunny day. (child’s name) said, "I can't play". (remove one from the board) How many are left? then there were 5 friends left to play. Continue counting down until all the children have been removed. Sometimes I do this activity by having all the children stand up and hold hands. When a child is removed from the board I have that child either sit down, be excused to go wash up for lunch, go outside, transition to the next activity, etc. until all the children have been taken away. Submit Crafts & Activities If you would like to share your craft projects, ideas, or child related articles please send them to: admin@cereschildcare.com with your name(optional) so that we can give you proper credit. If you have images to go with your submission, please attach them to the same email. Back to Themes, Crafts, and Activities Email Sheril! Return to Ceres Childcare & Preschool