The Name Game: A Whole Group Game for Back to School!

Do you know how to play The Name Game? The Name Game is a fun and easy whole group game that helps children recognize and read their name and the names of their classmates!  It helps kids practice letter sounds, phonics, and beginning reading skills, too.




I have played this game with my class every single year since I started teaching Kindergarten in 1991, and I  still play it now in TK!  The children absolutely LOVE it because they get to hear their names called out, and everyone gets a turn.







This year, their enthusiasm was just AMAZING!  In fact, it was so amazing that one of my students actually got up and took a bow when I finally called her name!  LOL!




To Prepare:

1.  Write your students’ first names on sentence strips, cardstock, or any strip of stiff paper.  It just needs to be thick enough for you to easily pull them in and out of a file folder pocket!  This game can be played with last names, too, of course!  But at the beginning of the year in Kindergarten and TK (Transitional Kindergarten), we just focus on first names!  I always make a name for myself, too!




2.  To make a pocket, get a file folder and cut it so that it is two inches taller than the height of your name cards.  Staple it across the top.




3.  Put your name cards inside the pocket and pull one or two of them out so that the letters are revealed from left to right.  Then staple the OTHER  side of the pocket closed.  Write “The Name Game” on your pocket!




To Play:

Pull out each name card slowly, revealing just one letter at a time.  As you pull the names out, ask the children to tell you whose name they think it could be! Is that the first letter of their name, or not?  Is there more than one child in the room whose name starts with the same letter?  If so, then they’ll have to check the second letter, then the next letter, and then the next!




As children play, they should start to realize that they need to look at more than JUST  THE  FIRST LETTER of a word before deciding what it might be!  They will also need to use their knowledge of the alphabet and sounds to help them read.




And now that I  think of it, this would be a great game to play with sight words and CVC words to help children learn that they need to look at more than just the first letter!  I’m going to have to try that!  I’ve only ever done this with names.




Can you think of any other adaptations?  Do you have any other simple games that your students really enjoy?  Please share!  :)

- Heidi












----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask in this game: How
Read more

Phonics Coloring Worksheets for Word Families! (Freebies!)

Image
Introducing our new Phonics Coloring Worksheets for Word Families, which give kids practice finding & reading words with common phonics spelling rules, & a chance to color creatively, too!  They also give children practice reading and contrasting words from two different word families, so this is really great practice in sounding out words. As children find and color the pictures according to the words that are written inside of them, they get valuable practice thinking of reading words in terms of word families and phonics spelling patterns. The coloring makes it fun, too!  I think that these worksheets are the PERFECT addition for "morning work" in phonics, if I do say so myself!   And we have a couple of freebies for you to try out yourself, if you like!  Scroll all the way down the bottom to find them!  Otherwise, click here to purchase them for just $5 per volume!   Here's a link to Volume 1 , and here's a link to Volume 2 . All of the
Read more

Teaching Second Graders to Write a Biography Report (Free Sample!)

Image
This year, I found out that the all of the second graders at my school would need to read a BIOGRAPHY of a famous person and then write a report on it!  So I created an Easy Biography Graphic Organizer and Book Report Lapbook for them!  It turned out to be a GREAT way to introduce them to writing a first biography! So while my first graders were writing their insect reports (see last week's post on that!) I needed to have my second graders working on their biographies. So what is a combination class teacher to do?  The biography reports were similar in format to the insect lapbook so that I could try to work with both groups at the same time.  Luckily, I was able to introduce the concept of the biographies and do a practice one with the second graders alone one day when all of the first graders left on an all day field trip.  Thank goodness! Basically, I think that the procedure I did actually worked out pretty well, and their reports came out very nicely!  In a sense,
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word.  I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of p
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the most important learning in math comes from wo
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this second “twist” on this “Advanced” Headband G
Read more

Teaching CVC Words: What to Do When They Are STILL NOT GETTING IT

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you several new things to try with children that just can't seem to sound out words, even after MANY different interventions have been tried!  So for those little sweeties that are "just plain stuck" on the road to learning to read, here are a few more things to try or to think about.  The inspiration for this post came from the question from a reader below.  Hope it is helpful! Question: I really enjoy using your songs and activity ideas in my kindergarten classroom each day. I wanted to seek your advice for a couple of my readers. They have phonemic awareness skills in place and can segment a CVC word independently, but they are unable to blend it into the word independently. If I segment the word for them, they can blend it just fine. I use the Elkonin boxes, manipulatives, etc. to help, but still they are not really making progress and they are the only ones who are unable to demonstrate this skill in my class. I would love to
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would prob
Read more

Instant Online Curriculum with HeidiSongs Pacing Guide/Curriculum Map and Internet Video!

Image
Hello everyone!  Today, I am going to tell you about our Instant Online Curriculum for Kindergarten, which includes a FREE Pacing Guide/Curriculum Map with links to printable resources, and corresponds to a collection of internet videos that we are streaming on Uscreen!  This video collection has ALL of the HeidiSongs videos that you should need for each of the 38 weeks of the school year, all compiled by MONTH. This has been the result of many long hours (several months, in fact!) of work by my tireless husband, Greg, and it is BRAND NEW as of this week!  Given our current circumstances with the "Shelter in Place" guidelines regarding Covid-19, I am hoping that this resource will help you out! First: What is it? The Kindergarten Pacing Guide/Curriculum Map collection of internet videos is a compilation of our videos streaming online on our partner site, Uscreen!  Each monthly collection includes ALL of the videos that I recommend that a teacher or parent use per mon
Read more