What Is My Letter??

I love getting new little students when school begins!  Most are excited and maybe a little nervous.  And some will come to us not knowing one single letter in their name.  For some, if they haven't had any exposure to letters and print, learning the letters of their name can be a little difficult at the beginning.  And for some learning is just a bit difficult.  One way that I have found to help remedy this is What Is My Letter cards.  If a student is having trouble learning a particular letter, write it on the card and stick it on their shirt.  Whenever other students and teachers see this student during the day, they are prompted by the card to ask the student the name of the letter that they are learning.  It works wonders because of the repetition of naming the letter over and over all day.  And the student gets lots of positive attention all day!  :)

I do go to the extra step of also writing the letter on the student's hand.  That way they can look there to see what letter they are working on.  I am afraid if they only have it on their shirt, they will be learning the letter upside down from looking at it that way all day!

Another activity for learning letters in your name is to build them on a name mat and then write them.  Print the student's name and cut the letters apart.  Mix them up and then the student rebuilds on the mat.  You can place a name model above the name mat at the beginning if needed.  Keeping the name mat in a plastic sleeve saves on paper too so it can be used more than once.

I have made you the name mats and What Is My Letter cards if you can use them.  I made name mats with 2 different amounts of boxes so you would have one for long names if needed.  Here is what they look like and you are welcome to grab them for free!