This is a great game to play that reinforces and teaches so many skills: the concept of letters and words, letter ID and sounds, matching, and upper and lower case arrangement for names. It’s something I always did the first few weeks of school, not only to help get every one acquainted but to also jump start the learning of letters, as children’s names are one of the best places to start when working on learning letters.
Name matching game
Large piece of construction paper
6 (or how many every you think will be a good fit for your child) pictures of friends and family
Names printed out in large font of the people you have pictures for
I started by laying out all of the pictures and names in separate piles. We named all of the pictures first then I helped him match the names to the pictures. Each time we matched a name we read it then spelled it, pointing to the letters he said (and helping him with the letters he didn’t know). Then I pushed them all aside and had him glue down the pictures, leaving room for the names.
Following the same routine as before we matched up the names to the pictures and glued them down below the picture. We went through and re-read all of the names after they were all glued down.
Then, I made a small square of construction paper with a question mark on it and when he was closing his eyes, covered over the picture, leaving the name showing. After he opened his eyes, I had him spell the name, look at the first letter (and sound) and guess who’s picture was covered!
If your child is older and needs a bit more of a challenge I would glue the name and picture together but not to a piece of paper so that you can scramble them up after they are covered. Also you can cover more than one!