1-2-3 Come Sing A Song And Learn Names With Me!

On the first day of school many little ones will be overwhelmed with all of the newness of a zillion different things they've never experienced before, including being surrounded by other children who are strangers.

A wonderful "icebreaker" is to help youngsters feel welcome.  Learning their names quickly, is a very important part of that.  

Once children know each other's names, they also feel more comfortable, making friends rather quickly.

Since "being able to recognize their name" was one of my Y5 report card standards, I did all sorts of activities to help children accomplish that in a fun way.

Singing name songs was always a favorite activity. Since most children know the tune of Old MacDonald, I decided to start there.

Simply print off the adorable clipart song poster. Thanks ever so much to the very creative djinkers.com who provides licenses for teachers to use her clipart.

After children catch on, you can point to the words as you sing.

Fill in the blanks by pointing to 2 children and having them say their names. Continue the song 'til you have used every child's name.

As another name recognition activity, run off the farmer name cards and write your students' names on them. 

If you have time, it's nice to allow children to color their card to help with recognition. 

Using a variety of colors, to write the names, will also help really little ones associate their name with the color, helping them to differentiate more easily, especially if a lot of your students' names begin with similar letters.

Laminate the cards for durability. When you sing the song again, instead of pointing to a child, show their name card. 

When they recognize it, they can say their name.  Pretty soon all of your students will be able to read everyone's name!

You can also print off an extra set of name cards to send one home to parents.  If they post it on the bathroom mirror or other prominent place in the home, they can make it a teachable moment whenever their child sees it.

Click on the link to view/download the EIEIO Name Recognition Song.

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"A leader is anyone who has two characteristics: first, he is going someplace; second, he is able to persuade other people to go with him."  -W.H. Cowley

1-2-3 Come Sail Away Into Summer With Me!

Are you in the home stretch and dying to scream: "Woo hoo! School is out for summer!"?  I always liked to give a little something to my kiddos on the last day.  

If you'd like to do something that won't break the budget, I think you'll enjoy the Sailing Into Summer pencil fan-boat.  I've been making little fan boats since I was a child (some 50 years ago-oh my!)

In those days, I’d use a Popsicle stick for the mast, but I thought it would be sweet to include a pencil, marker or candy pixie stick, as the pole, to add that little something extra.

I doubt many little ones will catch the play on words with "fantastic" but I just had to include it.

I've also made a template for the beginning of the year, (Sailing into a new school year...) if you'd like to make these treats for your open house or the first day of school.  You could also have your current students make these for your next year's kiddos.

Here's How:

    Run off the boat template on assorted colors of construction paper.

Cut them out; write your students’ name on the front and then sign them.   Run off the “Have fun sailing into summer. I hope it’s fantastic!” sail, on white card stock and cut them out.      

    I colored the mast brown, but you can skip that step and use a glue dot to fasten a wooden pencil, marker, or candy on top.

    If you don’t have glue dots, simply cut 2 slits and insert your treat.  For a bit more pizzazz, I colored the sunshine with a yellow marker.

Fold a sheet of white copy paper 6 or 7 times. I made my width a little less than an inch.  Cut off the excess leaving a 1 inch margin. 

Glue the “sun” sail to the top of this tab. Pinch the top of the folds and staple them together so that they come to a point at the top of the mast.

Place on your students’ desks or tuck in their backpacks on the last day of school. 

Click on the link to view/download the Sailing Into Summer (or a new school year) "craftivity."  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.  My "Pin it" button is at the top.

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can." -Michael Korda