Each new group of kindergarten students arrives with a wide range of prior knowledge and experience, especially when it comes to recognizing their names. That’s why it’s so important to include plenty of name practice at the beginning of the year. In this post, I’m going to share some fun name practice activities for kindergarten students that will give them a strong start!
Fun Name Practice Activities for Kindergarten
It’s important for students to be able to recognize their names in writing as soon as possible since this can impact their ability to navigate the school day. For example, kindergarteners need to use their name recognition skills in order to find their cubbies and pick up the right lunchbox after recess.
In order to squeeze a lot of name practice into a short time, it’s helpful to have a wide range of name practice activities in your teacher toolbox! Here are ten of my favorites that are perfect for the beginning of the school year:
1. Name Mosaics
These name mosaics are a great craft for the beginning of the year! Students can practice using glue while assembling these name crafts using torn paper.
This activity also gives students the chance to strengthen their fine motor skills. Tearing the small pieces of construction paper puts their hand muscles to work!
2. Self-Portrait Craft and Chant
“A My Name is Alice” by Jane Bayer is a fun book to read with students at the beginning of the year. After the read aloud, you can use a class chant to practice phonological awareness and their names at the same time!
After doing the chant together as a class, students can complete their own writing activity using sentence frames. Then they can complete a self-portrait craft to go with it! These self-portraits are the perfect addition to a back-to-school bulletin board!
3. Wheels on the Bus Craft and Chant
The Wheels on the Bus can also serve as inspiration for some name practice. The word play in this class chant is a great way to build phonological awareness! Students will replace the /b/ in “bumpity bump” with the first sound from their name. For example, “The wheels on Sam’s bus go sumpity sump.”
After giving students a chance to practice this as a whole group, they can create their own name bus craft! This gives them another opportunity to write their name, as well!
4. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” is another classic readaloud that gives students another chance to think about the letters in their name. Students can complete this fun coconut tree name craft and chant to go along with the story!
5. Bippity Boppity Bumblebee
This activity is perfect for circle time or morning meeting. Students are able to practice listening for syllables with this fun class chant.
Students will clap as they say their names, one clap for each syllable. Having a visual handy can help students see that names have different numbers of syllables.
6. Class Books
In addition to recognizing their own names in print, it’s important for students to learn the names of their peers. This helps to build community in the classroom right off the bat!
Class books can be a very fun way for students to practice writing their own names as well as recognizing the names of their peers. For example, this Silly Sally class book is a fun way for students to match faces to names.
7. Name Weigh-In
Name practice can also continue into your math block! First, students can weigh their names! They can add letter tiles to one side of a scale and then add a unit of measurement to the other side. (Teddy bear counters are always a favorite.)
They can record how much their name weighs in that unit of measurement. They can also repeat this activity with the names of their friends! Students are always so excited to see if their name weighs more or less than someone else’s.
8. Name Graphing
After discussing the lengths of names together as a class, students can graph the different name lengths in the class. As you work on this activity together, it will give students a chance to understand how data is represented on a bar graph.
This is also a great way for students to practice interpreting data. You can ask them questions like which name length is the most common, or if there any name lengths that you don’t have in your class. Students can reference their graphs to answer these questions.
9. Comparing Names
You can also introduce your students to Venn diagrams with a name comparison activity. Students will pair up with a friend and compare the letters in their names. The letters they have in common will go in the center of the Venn diagram. This is a fun activity to help students understand how Venn diagrams work.
10. Measure Up!
Finally, your students can use their names to help them practice nonstandard measurement. Students will write their names in the space provided on the worksheet. Then they will line up objects beneath their name in order to measure how many objects long their name is. They can repeat this with a variety of small objects, like teddy bear counters, paperclips, and pattern blocks.
Printable Name Practice Activities for Kindergarten
I hope this post has given you some ideas for how you could incorporate more name practice into your daily routine this year. If you spotted some activities you’d like to try, I have good news: They’re all included in one organized, easy-to-download resource. You’ll have everything you need to put together some fun activities for your kindergarteners!
Just head over to my TPT store to take a closer look at all of the activities included in this printable resource.
Save These Kindergarten Name Practice Activities
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite kindergarten board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these name practice activities when you’re working on your back to school lesson plans.
