Chanting the ABCs
Each day, one student is chosen to be our ABC helper. (The students' names are arranged in ABC order in our helper chart.) This child gets to use a special pointer to point to each letter (upper and lowercase) and the corresponding picture as all children chant "A, a, apple, B, b, balloon…". After we chant our ABCs, we do a special activity with the ABC helper's name (See below for possible name activities).

Purpose

  • upper and lower case letter recognition
  • associating letters to beginning sounds
  • alphabetical order
  • left to right progress ion

 

Name Chant/Manipulation (ABC helpers-round 1)
After completing his/her job, the ABC helper sits in the teacher's chair.  The child leads the class in chanting his/her name as I write each letter on a small sentence strip. For example, Alec says "Give me an A" and all other students say "A" as I write an uppercase "A". Alec says "Give me an l" and the children say "l" as I write a lowercase "l', etc.  After the last letter, I ask "What does that spell?"  The children yell back excitedly, "Alec!"

Next, I cut out each letter from the name on the sentence strip and arrange the letters (mixed up) in the pocket chart. The ABC helper comes up and 'fixes' or rearranges the letters so that his/her name is spelled correctly. Then, I mix the letters up again and the ABC helper chooses someone else to fix his/her name.  Students also get to 'Be the Name' by holding and rearranging larger letter cards.

Each child then gets to either glue the helper's letters onto a name paper or write the name.  Students also draw a picture of the child.

A name card with the ABC helper's picture is attached to our Name Wall.  Also, a picture card with the student's name typed on it and cut apart letters are placed in our Names ABC tub for all students to practice manipulating the letters in their new friend's name.

Purpose

  • learning each other's names
  • letter formation
  • upper and lower case letter recognition
  • left to right progression
  • associating letters to beginning sounds
  • differentiating letters from words

We also frequently count how many letters are in each name, talk about whose name so far is the longest/shortest, which names begin with the same letter, etc.

Our Big Book of Names (ABC helpers-round 2)
This is an idea adapted from Victoria Smith at Kinderkorner. One child each day, the ABC helper, gets his/her name written in our 'Big Book of Names.' In this book, there is a page for each letter of the alphabet. The ABC helper gets his/her name written one time on each page in which they have that letter in their name. For example, Alec's name was written on the Aa page, with the A in red; on the Ll page with the l in red, etc. We talk about each letter as it is written and often refer back to our ABC chart that we have just chanted.

Purpose

  • letter formation
  • alphabetical order (as we turn to different letter pages in the book)
  • left to right progression
  • upper and lower case letter recognition
  • associating letters to beginning sounds

 

Suggested Resources

Month by Month Reading and Writing for Kindergarten: Systematic, Multilevel Instruction by Dorothy P. Hall and Patricia Cunningham (1997, Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc.). ISBN 0-88724-398-3

Name Activities- lots of ideas from The Virtual Vine!
Names - our class' Names center (Inside Hubbard's Cupboard) 
Name Practice Activities (in order of difficulty) - A printable by Hubbard's Cupboard