A unique way to explore name recognition in preschool
One of the first things I like to have the children get into the habit of doing when they enter the classroom is to find their name. In our PreK class, Miss. Cobb came up with this fun idea of creating stick puppets for our daily attendance board…
The How-To
To make the puppets, the children were invited to decorate a craft stick person any way they wished. Miss. Lauren set out glue and a variety of collage and art materials for the children to choose from. On the handle of each stick puppet was the child’s name…
The children found the puppet with their name printed on it and went to work designing their puppet anyway they wished. After drying, we noticed some of the pieces needed a little reinforcement so they wouldn’t fall off of their puppets while in use. We made sure that there was enough glue to hold the pieces in place without changing anything the children had created…
Promoting Name Recognition
Each morning, the stick puppets are set out on our shelf waiting for the children to see them as they enter the classroom. The children put their back packs away then come back to the shelf to find their own puppet…
And then put their puppet in their name pocket on our board so everyone will know who has come to preschool that day. You will notice a little helper stick is in the photo below as well. Each day the helper is moved to the next pocket and that will be our helper of the day….
Why we Love the Stick Puppets
The children have quickly become familiar with this daily morning routine. It is a simple way to help them notice and recognize their name on the board and we can build on the process by talking about who is missing or how many children are present during our morning circletime…
Available on Amazon
Where do i get these little stick puppets to decorate. i live in Oklahoma and have not seen them
They are available on Amazon! See Amazon link at end of post.
I have liked the work done by you!!!
I use owls with their names on them. The children find their owl and attach to a tree using magnetic tape. Heading on the tree is Whoo’s Here?
That is a darling idea!
I LOVE this idea for taking “role call”! I have been doing a version of this idea for 15 years. I use the name tags (that we use at the very beginning 1st week of class) & I laminate them. When the children arrive to class, their name tag is already in their cubbie. They know to pick it up & transfer it to a pocket chart that is on the wall at the front of the room. When class is started, we first count the name tags (together as I point to each one) then we count the children… Read more »
Really very interesting activities are design for the pre school . I really appreciate the role of all members who ate on the board of this website and helping all of us to improve our kids learning by these interactive low coste activities .
Really I salute
I love this so much! Thanks for sharing Deborah. Having each child and teacher make a puppet is so meaningful! Sharing tonight!
Hi Deborah,
I love your creative activities that you feature throughout your website. I’ll make a note of your site to refer to any of my keen preschool parents or teachers who are looking for fun & educational activity ideas to do with kids.
Keri
I like this idea. I have some stick puppets I wanted to use this month so I think I’ll will create something similar. Thank you!
I have been looking daily at your wonderful website for the last few years. But, unless I did something to my laptop, your website is not updating for me! The last post I show was from September 13 regarding stick puppets (which is a great idea, by-the-way). Are you still posting daily ideas for preschool teachers??? Thanks, Pat Noe
Hi Pat,
I have had to take a brief break and that was my latest post. I will be back on top of things again soon!
I love how the children created their own stick puppets. A bit difficult for my 2 year olds but we will adapt this and post it on fb.