My name snowman

Reading & Writing

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Name snowmen are a cute way to get kids writing the letters in their names, and learning that they can spell their name by putting those letters in the correct order.

You'll Need

White paper
Scraps of construction paper
Background paper
Marker or pencil
Glue
Scissors

Time

30 minutes

Learning Stages

By Becca Ross

Kindergarten & First Grade Teacher

Becca is a schoolteacher and blogs at homeiswheremystorybegins.com. She loves to cook, bake, garden, sew, quilt, teach and simply spend time with her family. She strives to find art in everyday things.

For young children, their names are a pretty big deal. Kids are very curious about the letters in their names and excited to learn how to write their names. Most children will learn the letters in their name before the other letters in the alphabet.

When children are in kindergarten, you can capitalize on this excitement by playing name games and creating activities in which the kids can take their names apart, and put them back together in the correct order. These are great opportunities for kids to learn different letters, and the sounds that they make.

How to Make the Snowman:

Start by having your child count how many letters there are in his or her name. Tell them to draw the same number of circles as there are letters in their name. If your child isn’t very confident in drawing circles, use a “hand over hand” method, where the child holds the pencil and the adult puts their hand over the child’s to control the pencil.
Once the circles are drawn, get ready to write the letters of your child’s name. If your little writer isn’t confident in letter writing yet, use a highlighter to write one letter on each snowball. Then, your child can trace over the highlighted letters.
Cut out the snowballs. Remind your child that cutting circles requires two hands: a cutting hand and a driver hand. If the right hand is cutting the paper, the left hand is turning (driving) the paper.
Glue the snowballs onto a background paper As your child places each snowball in its spot, have them trace the letter with their finger (watch for proper letter formation) and say the letter name.

For more fun ideas use scrap pieces for decoration and accessories like a scarf or hat.