At this time of year, names are very important so, for a play-of-the-day, let’s do some name fun activities. Do you know what’s in a name?
Names have letters and sounds. We can hear names with our ears and see them with our eyes. Kids know what their names sound like but knowing what they look like is trickier. At holiday time, we use names a lot. Presents, cards, and the mail use names. We can also play with names.
For a fun activity make names with play dough. (You can print your child’s name on fairly large piece of paper. Use plain letters and start with an upper-case or capital. For the other letters, day cares and play schools usually use lower-case or small letters.) Kids can roll snakes or sausages of play dough and shape them into letters. Another way to make letters is to cut the play dough into strips and bend those into letters. Some kids like straight edges.
Besides magnetic letters on a fridge or cookie sheet, there are foam letters for making letters on a rug or piece of paper. Some letters come with sticky backs and peel-off paper.
There are so many flyers and papers in the mail. Sometimes, when looking at print material, kids may notice some of the same letters they see in their names. Little hands can cut out the letters needed or big hands can cut them out and little ones put the letters in order. Gluing is much easier to do than cutting. Occasionally, pictures look like letters. A candy cane turned upside down is a J. Pictures of round objects could be an O. Markers or big crayons are easy to use to trace over the letters. Adults print out the letter and kids follow the lines and curves. Why stop with one color? Kids might enjoy doing a whole rainbow for each letter.
One of the tastiest ways to have some fun with names is to use cookie dough and cookie cutters. Bake the letters, spell a name, and then eat it up! Could chocolate be in your name? What are some other name fun activities?
