Musical Chairs

Name Name

I came up with this names craft when we were working on learning the letters in our names. The kids had gotten pretty good at knowing who's name started with what letter and I wanted them to get used to seeing the whole name. After we made this, I hung it up on the wall. I could then point to one and ask whose name it was. The kids were quite good at this.

Materials Needed:

  • construction paper
  • black marker
  • things for decorating it

Preparation:
Before class, write each child's name on a piece of construction paper in bubble letters.
This took about 2 hours to prepare for 12 students. It took a lot longer than I had expected when I originally had the idea. But sometimes I am a bit anal and I had to measure the paper and make sure that each letter was evenly spaced. If you don't care about such things, then this could take you much less time.

In Class

  • Hold up one of the papers and ask who's name it is. See if the kids can guess this. As you show each one, hand that child their paper.
  • Let the kids decorate them. We used "Do A Dot" markers, kind of like bingo markers. I liked the way that some of the kids made a definite pattern and some just did it any which way. You can also use other object which can be glued to decorate this.

Variations

  • My students are only two years old, so I had to draw the names for them. If your students are older, then they may be able to write their names themselves or at least trace the letters of their name.
  • Have the kids fill each bubble letter with something that starts with that letter. Punch-outs could come in handy here. "A" could be filled with apples. "B" with bears, etc.

I hope that you and your kids have fun with the names craft.

Love,
Shannon Sensei

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