Kindergarten Name Activities

Does your child already know how to write his name? Writing is no simple undertaking for a child. The signs that are so familiar to us are a foreign language for him. He has to put in many hours of practice in order to achieve the motorical dexterity required to write clearly and legibly. It is due to this fact that many kids refuse to practice writing.

In order to avoid exhausting your child and yourself in the process, it's important that the writing process be done gradually - from easy to difficult. It should be done such a way that you will enjoy each and every step along the way until you reach the final stage where your child will be ready to write his name independently.

The kindergarten name activities that you will find here are graded in order to assist you in leading your child to write his name in a fun and easy way.

Stage one - letter recognition

Before your child sets about writing, he has to be familiar with the letters that make up his name, the sound that each letter makes, the other words in which we can hear these sounds, and finally the order of the letters and their directions.

A wonderful way to accomplish all this is to use a magnetic board with Deluxe Magnetic Letters. Through play, your child will learn to recognize the letters and will learn to write his name.

Stage two - Letter creation

Now that your child knows the letters, he can produce his name from the letters that he has learnt.

Here are two fun ways in which he will be able to create his name.

1. Baking and learning - Prepare sugar cookies together and use alphabet cookie cutters for cutting the cookies. Enable him to create hisr name by himself, with the aid of the cookie cutters; and then assist him in producing additional names of members of the family.
2. Play dough - Keep a supply of play dough at home. Play dough is a wonderful game for kids. It is soft and pleasant to the touch, and doesn't harden, which enables reuse. With play dough your child can create his name either by using the cookie cutters, or by molding the letters independently without the aid of any additional accessories.

Stage three - Letter writing

Although the two previous stages served as preparation for the last stage - writing the name, this stage too will take place gradually.

1. Print your child's name in hollow letters, and allow him to color and decorate his name. This is the preparation stage of writing his name.

2. Print your child's name in dotted line letters. This time he will have to draw over the dotted lines in order to create his name. At this stage he already gets the feel of how to write.

3. Once the child is skilled at connecting the dotted lines, and is able to do so without going out of the lines, you can attempt free style writing without accessories. Show him how to write his name and ask him to copy what you have written. If he succeeds, great! Now you can write additional names. If he is still having a hard time, return to the dotted line stage.

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