My name is special!

The most personalized and meaningful word in a preschoolers world is their name. Children often times will also refer to the first letter of their name "as their name", and their name is usually one of the first things that children will recognize either at home or in a school setting. In our classroom you can see the children's name throughout the room. I make sure to place their names in their cubbies, the letter wall, the home-school chart, helper chart, center management chart, and birthday chart. Basically, their name is everywhere. Not only does it give children a sense of belonging seeing their name everywhere, but it helps build connections to letters. 

Morning time for us is super busy. I'm busy preparing their breakfast, parents are dropping off the children, I'm greeting the kids...it is hectic. Transition times do not have to be hectic and chaotic and can be used for teachable moments. When the children arrive, the first thing they do is sign-in. The children get their name tag from the letter wall, they grab their own personalized folder, and use their name tag as a scaffold to begin forming and writing the letters in their name. Eventually as they progress through the year, you will notice that they don't need their name tag anymore. This is wonderful, because this means that they have learned all the letters that make up their name! 

This is the folder I use for the children. There is a space for each day of the week. I usually will remind them "Hoy es lunes, empesamos a escribir en el triangulo hoy" o "Hoy es miercoles, hoy escribimos en el circulo". ("Today is Monday, we start writing by the triangle", today is Wednesday, today we write by the circle".