Making Words with Student Names

One of my coteachers came up with this great literacy lesson - making words with student names.

It is so simple, yet brilliant!

All you have to do is get all of your student's name on cards, in a book, whatever is easiest for you. You then model making small words, sight words, high frequency words, color words out of their names.

In this example, we were using the name Cristina. The students found: is, it, in, rat, cat, ant, sit and many other words.

We modeled a few other names that were shorter and implemented the procedure that if they couldn't find words in their own name they should use their name and a friend's name together to make words. Man, they loved that idea!

Who wouldn't love making words with their own name or the names of their friends?

The children are currently using dry erase boards to do their work, but I would like to have them do it on white paper too so I can see everything they are creating!

We even thought about having a word wall of names and the words that could be created from them.

This center took no time to make, is high interest, easy to implement, virtually free and high on content.

What more could you ask for in a literacy center?

Thanks Ms. Cristina!

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