Name Practice

I survived the first two weeks of school!  I absolutely adore my new crop of kids.  I have 28 students this year, and they are so sweet, fun, eager.  And energetic...very energetic ;).

We have really been focusing on classroom rules over the past ten days of school, and our rules will continue to be emphasized the next few weeks.  Another very important part of the first days of kindergarten is name practice.  We have been working hard on practicing the proper way to write as well as recognize our names. 

I always make each student a tracing page with their own name, and include a couple of blank lines at the end.  I put them in a page protector.  Students practice tracing their name with a dry erase marker for the first days of school.  Once they are done, I let them draw on the back.  After the first two weeks are up, I send them home and ask parents to continue using them at home.

Rainbow writing is always a favorite

Name puzzles.  Students glued the letters of their name in order on construction paper.

Highlight of our name fun:  Crayon resist/watercolor names.  These were a huge hit.  MAJOR tip- do not make these far ahead of when you plan to use them!  I made these two weeks in advance, and I had a few that didn't turn out!  Fortunately, I had a white crayon handy and made those students new ones on the spot.

Most of my students are able to write their names, but many struggle with using only one capital letter.  I will be using this anchor chart (copied from one I found on Pinterest) to teach students about uppercase/lowercase and tall/short letters.