These 32 name writing activities are a fun and engaging way to get the school year started. We know name writing is at the top of the list at the beginning of the school year! This task doesn’t have to be stressful or frustrating for students or teachers. Try any of these activities to keep name writing fun and engaging for students, and ensure easy prep for you! Students will practice recognizing, building, and writing their names all while having fun.
As a teacher, we know that prep for name-writing activities can be so time-consuming because separate activities have to be made for each student’s name. For students, the same paper and pencil task can get boring. We have the solution! ETTC’s Editable Name resource makes your job so much easier and gets students excited about name practice.
Editable Names includes many creative ways for students to practice their names. As the teacher, you simply type in the students’ names, print, and go. These name-writing activities save so much time for you, and students are engaged and having fun while learning their names!
Find all of your name-writing resources, along with everything else you need to make your school year easy breezy when it comes to planning and prep. Join ETTC Premium, your one-stop shop for unlimited primary printables resources.
Name writing is important for young learners because it gives them confidence and gets them excited about learning. Keep it interesting for your students by using a variety of the 32 name-writing activities below to encourage name recognition, spelling, and letter formation. Writing names can be fun and engaging with these activities for young learners.
Activity 1. Letter Hunt
At the beginning of the year in Kindergarten, a favorite student read aloud is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.(aff) This letter hunt activity is the perfect follow-up after reading the story. Students love talking about their names and identifying all the letters in their names. Take it a step further and have students compare and contrast the letters in their names with a partner.
The STEM and Story Alphabet Tree is another great activity to incorporate with this story as well. The additional alphabet tree challenge will help strengthen fine motor skills while building letter recognition, and students have so much fun with this!
2. Cut and Build
Before writing happens, some students still need to practice recognizing and learning the letters in their names. The cut-and-build activity allows students to cut apart and manipulate the letters. This is a great informal assessment to determine who needs a little extra help with the letter sequence.
At the beginning of Kindergarten, some students might still need a model to build their names, while others are able to do this without a model. It can be helpful to have a couple of copies on hand for extra practice. An added bonus is that this activity includes cutting and gluing practice too! If students need additional cutting practice, activities can be found in our Kindergarten September Packet.
3. Dice Names
Incorporating other learning tools into name writing can keep the task exciting and fun. Using dice makes it feel like a game for students! The dice name activity in our Editable Names Bundle allows students to get a little creative and practice writing their names in different ways. This helps them become familiar with the different letter shapes as they practice writing the letters in the correct order for their names.
Name Writing Activity 4. Color Names
One of the first things we focus on in Kindergarten along with names is color words. So, this activity pairs perfectly with that skill. Students work on colors, color words, and name writing all in one! I have my students color the crayons with a colored pencil or crayon, and let them use a marker to write their names. This one is perfect for a center!
5. Rainbow Names
This is a student favorite! We like to cut this one out and hang it in the classroom for a colorful display. They love finding their rainbow hanging in the classroom. It also helps them start recognizing and reading the names of classmates.
6. Vowels and Consonants
Help students recognize the vowels and consonants in their names with this activity. The editable bubble letter font is easy for students to color, distinguishing the different letters in their names. Students color the vowels red and the consonants blue in this name writing activity. Have students count the number of vowels and consonants in their names, make a chart together and compare to classmates.
Activity 7. Sign Language Names
A favorite morning song in our classroom is Jack Hartman’s Sing it, Say It, Sign It. This song goes through all of the letters of the alphabet, and students love learning sign language along with Jack. So, when I gave my students the sign language activity from the Editable Names Bundle, they were so excited! They immediately recognized the different signs and loved finding the letters that paired with their names.
8. Play Dough Names
When parents ask what they can donate to the classroom, I always put play dough on the top of the list! There are so many ways play dough can be incorporated into learning to create playful learning experiences. Using the play dough printable name activity with your students will have them building fine motor muscles, learning letters, and building their names all at the same time.
I love using play dough names during group work because students love to talk about and show their peers what they have created. Not only do they love making their own names, but the names of their classmates too! Playdough letter mats are another great resource to use for fine motor and alphabet practice.
9. Build With Blocks
This Editable Names printable allows teachers to type student names in a font that looks like small building blocks! This is perfect for a center. I just add legos and students love building their names with the small blocks. Laminate and add name sheets for all students to the center, and students have fun building their friends’ names too.
Name Writing Activity 10. Emoji Names
Students love emojis, so incorporating them into name writing gets students excited. If your students love emojis as much as mine, check out the other back-to-school emoji printables in Education to the Core Premium.
11. Paint
The Editable Names Bundle includes a painting name page which is another great fine motor task. The font used in this activity is perfect for painting. Each letter has small paint circles that students can dab and fill in with a cotton swab. You will be surprised how quiet your classroom gets as students focus intently on painting each little circle in the letters! Cotton swab painting is always the quietest time in our classroom.
12. Name Writing Practice
We know that basic name writing practice can become boring for students, but there are simple and fun ways to change it up! Have a writing toolbox where students can choose various writing tools to write their names. Some student favorites are colored pencils, thin and thick markers, twistable crayons, highlighters, and sparkle crayons. I try to switch out the writing tools every once in a while to keep it interesting. The editable name practice activity provides students with traceable names along with blank lines so they can write their names too.
Activity 13. Secret Code Names
Students love to be a detective. So, when I put out the secret code name activity from the Editable Names Bundle, they get so excited. I like to print off copies of all student names and add them to a center. Put them in a plastic sleeve with a dry-erase marker and students can crack the code over and over! Once students have practiced with the secret code names, it gets them ready to try solving some other secret code words in the Secret Code Word Printable which is a lot of fun. The secret code activities are great to put out for early finishers.
14. Scrabble
The Scrabble letter font on this printable page is so fun! When you type your student’s name, each letter shows up as a Scrabble tile, and students can then color the tiles and add the numbers in the box provided. This is a great way to incorporate some math skills along with a name-writing activity.
15. Name Crown
Who doesn’t love to wear a crown?!? Students take so much pride when they wear their name crowns up and down the school hallway. They love hearing another teacher greet them by name. It really makes them feel so special! When these crowns are edited, each child’s name is printed in bubble letters on the crown for them to color and decorate. Add glitter or sticker jewels to the crown for extra pizazz.
Name Writing Activity 16. Spiral Name
Around and around and around we go! This is a fun one and so different. Since this activity can be a quick one for students, I like to either laminate them or put them in a plastic sleeve. Students can use a dry-erase marker and practice over and over.
Activity 17. Magic Names
For the magic names activity from the Editable Names Bundle, students write their names in each box with a white crayon and then color over it with a marker. Ahhh! The magic! They love seeing their names appear. I have never had a student ask to write their name so many times.
18. Word Art
Word Art is a student favorite! Edit this resource and student names are printed in each of the ten boxes on the page, but each name is in a different font. Students love to use markers, crayons, and colored pencils to color and decorate their names. Change the variety of tools often to make it fun and interesting!
Name Writing Activity 19. Name Alliteration
This is a great one to complete in a group for younger students, or individually for older students. In Kindergarten, students can’t do this one on their own at the beginning of the year. So, I like to work with a small group of students and complete this one together. We use the time as a “getting to know you” activity, and they learn about each other’s names as well as what alliteration is. It’s a great way to get them familiar with and listen to letter sounds.
20. Different Ways
Quick and easy to print, add some writing tools, and then put it in a center! I love to stock a writing center with name activities and all sorts of writing tools at the beginning of the school year. This name-writing activity that includes writing names in different ways is also a great one to send home for extra practice.
Activity 21. Create a Story
Create a Story activity is a great way to spark students’ creativity! For older students, this can be a really fun
22. Write In Boxes
When a student’s name is typed into this editable resource, only the correct boxes show up! So, students get to fill in the boxes all on their own. A model can be provided if needed, but students quickly catch onto the letter formation using the boxes.
23. Pyramid Names
Add this name-writing activity to a plastic sleeve for students to practice again and again. They love breaking apart the letters in their names to build a pyramid. Add different colors of dry-erase markers to the activity to keep it engaging.
Name Writing Activity 24. Name Maze
This name-writing activity is a fun challenge! Some of my students have never completed a maze before and they love seeing their names throughout the maze. After working on this maze, students are always asking for more mazes! You can find some other fun learning mazes in our Education to the Core Premium resources.
Name Writing Activity 25. Seasonal Names
With ETTC’s new addition to Editable Names, students will have fun creating a variety of seasonal name activities. With 24 different color, cut, and glue name activities, students will be practicing letter and name recognition, as well as fine motor skills. These seasonal name activities are great for name practice for younger students.
However, they are also perfect for older students and can be used to decorate lockers, hang in the classroom, or display for an open house or parent-teacher conference night. Students feel so special when they see their work hanging on a bulletin board!
The Editable Names Bundle includes a variety of seasonal name activities such as a caterpillar, pumpkins, ice cream, a snowman, pumpkins, and more! Displaying these in the classroom is a great way to get students to compare and contrast different letters in their names and lengths of names as well.
26. Holiday Names
The updated Editable Names Bundle also includes holiday name activities. Throughout various holidays of the year, these name activities are perfect to display in the classroom. They are quick and easy for teachers to edit with each student’s name. Your students will be engaged and having fun with these holiday activities such as a pot of gold, gingerbread house, hearts, a spider web, and more!
Add holiday name activities to a center, complete with a partner, or even send home for a family project. Students have so much fun returning to school with their completed projects and telling the class all about how their families worked together to create their special name activity. You have access to all of the holiday and seasonal name activities with an ETTC Premium membership!
You can find all of these printable name activities to help students write their names in the Editable Names Bundle. Also, all of the activities are included with your ETTC Premium Membership!
Plus, if you are looking for some more fun ways to incorporate name writing into your weekly lesson plans, we have you covered with a few more hands-on activities ideas listed below.
Name Writing Activity 27. Writing Names in Gel Bags
Gel Writing Bags are simple and easy to make, and are a great alternative to paper and pencil name writing. Here’s how to make them:
- Put clear hair gel in a Ziploc bag.
- Add some colored paint.
- Zip it closed.
- Seal it with duct tape. I like to use colorful tape.
- Test the bag to make sure it is sealed and doesn’t leak.
Students love using this bag to write their names. They can practice any letters or numbers with this bag so I like to keep a set of them to use throughout the year.
28. Shaving Cream
Along with play dough mentioned earlier, shaving cream is another item parents often donate to our classroom. It’s easy to put a small squirt of shaving cream on students’ desks or tables, have them smear it out, and then write their names. Simply swipe from side to side to erase, and write again! We do this as a whole group activity, and it allows me to walk around and help students that might be struggling. I can look for letter errors, and they can easily erase and correct them.
29. Confetti Names
Colorful, fun, and a workout for small fingers! This one takes a little bit of prep work so that you have the colored squares cut and ready for students. It’s also helpful if you write students’ names with a white crayon first. I usually do that so that the students have a model in Kindergarten. However, older students might be able to create their confetti names without the model.
Activity 30. Pocket Chart Names
Finding and manipulating names in our class pocket chart is one of the first activities we do in Kindergarten to help students learn to write their names. This gives students practice not only writing their names but the names of their classmates as well. I cut up sentence strips, write each student’s name on a strip and place it in the pocket chart. We take turns identifying student names during morning meetings and use these cards throughout the year for name activities.
31. Sensory Trays
Sensory trays with rice, sand, salt, or flour are a great way for young learners to practice writing their names. If you don’t have sensory bins in your classroom, any kind of solid plastic bin can be filled with an item of your choice to use for writing letters and names. Sensory trays are a great way to keep name writing playful and fun.
32. WaterColor
Students love painting, so watercolors are a fun name-writing activity. This one is simple but so much fun for students. They can fill in pre-made bubble letters with paint or write their names on their own. Writing each letter with their paintbrush is a colorful and fun way to practice names.
Here are a few more name-writing tips:
- Use variety!
- Try one of the 32-name writing activities to help students write their names each day. Students will come into class asking, how are we practicing names today? Within the first few weeks, their name writing will improve and they will be reading and writing the names of all of their classmates as well!
- Keep name activities fun and playful so young learners will be excited and engaged while learning their names.
- If you notice students are struggling with fine motor strength, check out 15 Activities to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills. These activities help students strengthen their fine motor skills so that writing their names can become easier!
Written By: Sarah Cason
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