How to Teach Kids to Recognize Their Names

Why is it important to teach using students names ? To a child, there is nothing more important than his or her own name. Using names to teach letters and name recognition is a very powerful teaching tool. Names are very meaningful to children, therefore they are eager to learn to identify the letters in their own names first; it is very empowering and motivating for them. A child who is eager, motivated, and feels empowered about his or her own learning is going to learn more quickly and retain more than a child who is not.

Top 20 activities to use with student names:

  • Sort names by first letter
  • Sort names by length (number of letters in the name)
  • Use Bingo Dot markers to trace the first letter of child’s name

Bingo Dot Names

  • Rainbow-write names

Rainbow Write

  • Make names with Wikki Stix
  • Hunt for letters in your name in the sensory table
  • Stamp names with ABC stamps
  • Crayon resist watercolor names

Crayon Resist

  • Make names with magnetic letters or bottle caps with letters written on top
  • Make an autograph book
  • Make an address book
  • Tactile Names
  • Go on a name hunt in the classroom (how many names can you find?)
  • Put children’s names and pictures on the word wall
  • Use clothesline and clip paper letters to the line to make names
  • Make scented names using liquid glue and Kool-Aid
  • Cut letters out of magazines and glue to paper to make names

Pasting Names

  • Match names to pictures of people
  • Make names with alphabet beads
  • Make class books with student names

More Literacy Resources from Pre-K Pages

4 thoughts on “How to Teach Kids to Recognize Their Names”

  1. Hi!
    I have a 3K class and we do a lot with names all year long! My question is about nicknames. Do you suggest teaching the full name or the nickname? Thanks!

    1. It’s important not to confuse handwriting development with emergent literacy development. Both are equally important, but they are also very different. Certain handwriting programs focus on introducing children ONLY to uppercase letters first because, from a developmental standpoint, they are much easier for young children to write. But what handwriting programs do not take into account is the decades of research around emergent literacy and how young children learn to see, recognize, identify, and name letters. We have to understand that both are important, but we can’t confuse the two skills. The print young children see in the world around them appears in both upper and lowercase, it occurs naturally in their environment. Therefore, the answer to your question is that we “teach” all letters all the time, in context, as they become meaningful to each individual child. But we can take into consideration their fine motor skills when teaching them how to write the letters.

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