When children learn to write and recognize their name it's an early step in building their own identity. With all the kids I have ever worked with there has always been a "spark" in their eye when they first understood that a group of letters put in a specific order represented them.
Learning to recognize and spell their own name is a huge step on the way reading.
Making Learning Fun has lots of activities designed to help kids learn to spell and recognize either the first letter of their name or their whole name. Here are a few of my favorites.
Play Dough Name Recognition Fun
Letter Tiles for Name Recognition
My absolute favorite and the favorite of the kids I've worked with is this activity.
Give me a Letter...Name Recognition Activity
Take a large sheet of construction paper. Make letters of the child's name
and glue the letters to the construction paper. On the back side of
the construction paper glue the child's picture. Laminate if you
want to keep these for an extended period of time. Help the children
make plastic bag pompoms. (Follow the link for instructions)
During circle time, give each child a pompom. Hold up the construction
paper holding the name side out for the kids to see.
Then point to the (G) saying,
"Give me a (G)"..have the kids echo back (G)
Point to the (a) saying,
"Give me a (a)"..have the kids echo back (a)
Point to the (g) saying,
"Give me a (g)"..have the kids echo back (g)
Point to the (e) saying,
"Give me a (e)"..have the kids echo back (e)
Then say, "What does that spell?"
Pause a moment and see if the children can identify the name.
Then turn the construction paper around to reveal the photo of the child.
This is great as it teaches the kids letters. It teaches kinds that by putting letters together we make words. Plus the kids whose name you just spelled feels pretty cool by being put in the spot light.
Who knew learning to spell and recognize your name and the names of other kids in your class could be so fun!