The Kindergarten Name Game: A Literacy Routine for the Beginning of the Year

Inside: Play the name game with your kindergarten class to learn each other’s names, while introducing important print and phonological awareness skills.

Teaching With Children’s Names

When I get my class list, I count the number of kids, look at birthdays (hoping none fall on the for the first day of school!), and then look to see if I recognize any of the names.

Then, I do one more thing.

I look over their names to see what opportunities there are for teaching print concepts, phonological awareness and even phonics. In last year’s class, we had 6 students with double consonants, two children whose names had 4 syllables and 4 children with a /y/ at the end of their name. These are only a few examples of the many ways you can teach using the names on your class list.

Making a connection to something meaningful, such as students’ names, makes teaching relevant, helps secure skills to memory and is a lot more fun!

What is the Name Game?

The Name Game, is a kindergarten literacy routine that I use at the beginning of every school year and throughout the fall, to not only help children learn each other’s names, but to introduce important print concepts (i.e. difference between a letter and a word, initial/media/final letters, etc.), as well as phonological awareness skills (i.e. clapping syllables, identifying initial phonemes, etc.).

It’s a whole group game, that we play each morning, to discover who will be in the “spotlight” for the day. This child then becomes our class helper and leader.

Played in a similar fashion to “hangman,” children have to guess the letters in a friend’s name. They use clues, such as number of letters and the initial letter, along with our class name chart, to help them figure it out.

Because they are highly motivated to discover who will be the “spotlight child,” they work very hard to use and develop skills to find the answer.

How Do I Set Up the Name Game in Kindergarten?

The name game can be done on chart paper, as shown above, or using a digital whiteboard (see below). You begin by choosing one student and drawing lines equal to the number of letters in their name. In the beginning, I also give a first letter clue to support them.

Position your name chart close by, so children can use this as a resource to compare the number of letters and first letters in their classmates’ names.

This is an excellent print exercise for your kiddos at the beginning of the year.

How Do We Play the Name Game?

Here are steps you can follow to play the game:

Examine the Clues: The first step is to have children examine the clues to see what they already know about the name (i.e. number of letters, initial letter). In the beginning, I’m explicit about teaching them how to use the name chart to find the correct name and model the thought process. At the start of the year, there are only a few children who can do this easily, but by the end of the first round, their understanding of print has grown, and most everyone is able to do this successfully.

Take Guesses: Choose a child to guess a letter they think might be in that child’s name.  Encourage them to use the name chart to help them make a good guess.  If that child guesses correctly, move the letter into the correct spot and allow that same child to keep guessing letters.  If they guess incorrectly, then the turn goes to another child.

Teach Into the Name: Once the name is revealed, do a few literacy activities with that child’s name. These might include a name cheer, clapping syllables, comparing their name with a friend’s, or identifying the number of vowels vs. consonants. With each round of the name game, we do new activities that match the skills we are learning in reading.

Put the Child Into the Spotlight: The child whose name is revealed, becomes the spotlight child, or helper for the day. They get to take down the attendance, lead the class in activities, and might even become the focus for assessment and observation on that day.

You can also put their name into a rhyme or chant, that helps the class celebrate that child and get to know them better.

Using The Digital Game

If you are interested in using your digital whiteboard to play the Name Game, I’ve created slides that you can use. These slides include movable letters that you can place onto the lines as children make their guesses.

There are also 5 rhymes included (in both digital and print) that you can use to celebrate the child in the spotlight, once the name is revealed.

No matter which way you choose to play the kindergarten name game, it’s a fun way to start the year, while building essential foundational skills, and children look forward to this daily routine.

For more literacy ideas and activities, check out the Growing Readers page inside the Roots & Wings Resource Library.