I have three children in my class this year who for one reason or another have difficulty in writing their first and last names.  I was thinking about the different things I could try, and then I thought of this one:

I got a plastic pencil box and put their name on it.  Then I traced their first name on a sentence strip, using magnetic letters.  I then put the magnetic letters into the pencil box and laminated their name:

They will use the magnetic letters to match them to the letters in their names.

I also wanted them to pracitce writing their names so I made these:

The first one is a solid line-they will trace over it with a dry erase marker.  The second I made using “bubble letters” so they will try to write their name without touching the sides of the lines.  The third is obviously dotted for them to trace as well.  I will also laminate a blank strip for when we get to that point.

It all stores in the pencil box:

When we are doing Literacy Stations, they will be doing this for a few weeks, until they get it down!

This led me to creating a new Literacy Station-Name Work Station!

I was at Teachers Treasures (see blogroll to the right) today and was standing in the container isle, when something caught my eye!  I was already thinking about what the other children in my class would say when they saw  these boxes, “Where’s mine??”.  I checked my stash of pencil boxes–3 left!  23 more kids to make boxes for, but with what?  That’s where Teacher’s Treasures comes in!  I was walking down that container isle again, and I saw these flat blue jewlery boxes, the kind jewlers use to package large necklaces in (I will get a picture tomorrow for you).  They are about 5 inches tall by 7-8 inches wide.  They are cardboard–the only down side!  I will make a box for each child–I got 20 of them!  I also got  bags of rubberbands, so just like the old Math Their Way junk boxes, I will attach a rubberband to each one and we will keep them closed that way.  I will label the top with a sticker that has their name and picture and this will be a station they can all rotate through–they can practice their name or their friends’.  Either way, they are still practicing letter writing, just not their own name.  For most, that won’t be an issue!  I might only have selected students go to this center as well.  I want to guage the popularity of the idea first and see how that is.

I’m also trying to figure out where this station will go and how I will store the boxes.  Any ideas?

**Subject change here!**  My husband always wants me to alert him as to when I do that–go figure, I’m random and sometimes he doesn’t always follow my conversations!

Anyway, I’ve decided to do the first part of National Board Certification.  I will complete one of the four sections this year and then the rest next year.  It’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a few years, but now seems like the best time to do it! 🙂

Kristen 🙂