This week has flown by, and I feel like I am drowning! I am just glad that tomorrow is Friday, and I can fulfill another dream of mine. Tomorrow night Bret Michaels of Poison will be in concert not too far from here. I guess if I can't see Poison, Bret Michaels will do. More than anything, I am ready for a girls' night!
Anyway, on to some real business.
It is no secret that I LOVE teaching the upper grades and struggle with the lower grades. I learned to work with first grade, and I am learning how to work with Kindergarten. I know that many of the kids in kindergarten do not know their letters, and the teachers always dive right into it. Most kids catch on to it really quickly, but others do not. I get to work with the ones who do not.
One of the best ways for children to begin to learn letters is to begin with their names. They take ownership of it and get excited when they see it. I thought, "Surely they know the letters in their names." Boy, was I wrong! Some of them only knew what the first letter was!
So, I have been working with their names. Here is the activity I did with my kindergarteners. They LOVED it!
Last year Wells Fargo gave us 3 pallets full of office supplies, and these money envelopes were in them. What a great thing to use for this activity! I wrote the kids' names on the outside and then placed the letters of their names inside. (I made the letters with the Letterbox font from Graphics from the Pond. I love this font!) We actually did the white letters the other day and then moved to the matching of upper to lower case letters.
We found certain letters in their names and played various games with them. I can honestly say that many of them now know all of the letters in their names. I feel like I have accomplished something!
I got the ideas for the activities from the book Word Journeys by Kathy Ganske. We use Word Study in our school, and this is one book I go to for so many great ideas.
Next week is Kindergarten testing, and I will be teaching in the classroom. Oh boy! This should be fun!
Tomorrow is Fun Friday in so many ways! I hope everyone has a fun weekend!
Until next time!
Great idea! I like how they have to make their name 3 ways.
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The Busy Busy Hive
I will be teaching my brother about letters and this activity would be a good start. Thanks for the idea!
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