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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Make a name journal!

Make a Name Journal
Set out a name journal for children to practice their name one letter at a time or all at once. A name journal will show progress being made over time and is a nice keepsake!



10 comments:

  1. Hi Deborah! I just gave you some awards over on my blog!
    Linda

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  2. What a wonderful idea and such a fun way to show parents the progression their child has taken!! Thanks again for the great blog!! I look forward to reading it everyday :)

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  3. Love it! I have kept these in either the writing areas of the room, or the book areas. Kids absolutely love to see their name in print!
    I have even had them done in texture books like burlap or sand paper so they can trace it with their finger tips....
    Keep the great ideas coming!

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  4. This is great!
    I just read your last post and I'm freaking out because B is writing his name in all Caps. He is doing this because he only knows how to write the capital letters so far. What do I do? After he learns to write the lowercase ones, then have him put those in his name instead???????

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  5. Activity Mom - well definitely don't freak out:) It is not unusual for children to learn to write their names in all capital letters first but you want to begin to introduce their name in Capital-lower case letters too. Start by creating activities that let him recognize his name in Capital-lower case print form. Then whenever you print it, make sure you use upper and lower case as well. He will begin to catch on but he needs to see it in proper form and play with it in proper form.

    I will blog a few more activities on name recognition as well to give more ideas. But just like anything else, you role model proper form and provide exposure and he will start to pick up on it. Don't make a big deal out of it - just gradually bring him around to it. In Ktgn. they will be only teaching it this way:)

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  6. I should probably be embarrassed to admit this, but I never use lower case letters when I write!

    When I was in high school I took a lot of drafting classes. One of the things we worked on a lot was "lettering," which in architecture is traditionally done in all caps. I liked the way it looked, my other teachers suddenly started complimenting me on the legibility of my writing, an engineering firm even hired me on summer to finish the lettering on a bunch of client work . . . I guess with all those rewards for all caps, I never went back.

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  7. What we do to authentically practice writing our names everyday is the daily sign in. At the beginning of the year, I have the munchkins sign in by tracing over "attendance" sheets that have their names printed in a tracing font. The littlest itty bitties work on just name recognition and of course scribble all over their names. The big kids actually work on tracing their names. Halfway through the year, we add a line below so the bigger kids can start free writing their names if they choose (we challenge them to do so). The itty bitties will do this too, but they will use imitation writing (either just a straight line or squiggles, etc). It is fascinating to see the progression. Every so often we date these, cut them out and put them in their portfolios as one way for parents can see their fine motor and writing progression. Maybe you already wrote about this, I am not sure! Just another name activity :)

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