A name is very powerful. It is often the first example of a written word a child sees. Name charts can help children learn their own names and the letters in the names of their friends, notice that names begin with an uppercase letter, and make connections to other words that have the same first letter or similar word parts.
Here are six ideas for quick games you can play using a name chart:
- Read the names in a shared way as you use a pointer to point to each (in order or randomly).
- Have children line up, quickly touch their own names when they come to the chart, and then sit down.
- “I’m thinking of someone who has a name that begins with M. Who can come up and find it?”
- Deal out cards or slips of paper on which children’s names are written. Call the names in alphabetical order. The child who has the name you called puts it in a pocket chart.
- Place a set of name cards at the word study center. Have the children sort the names by first letter or match pairs of name cards.
- Clap each name and have children tell the number of syllables they hear.
From When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Copyright (c) 2009 by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Published by Heinemann.