Wednesday was the first day of preschool for the littles. I really want to call them ‘the babies’ – as we’ve collectively referred to them for the past three years – but they are obviously not babies anymore. Sad face. Faith is headed off to a year in the 4s with Benny on her heels in the 3s class. This is the second year of preschool for both kiddos, so they were pretty excited to return, with no tears or trepidation.

Of course, a big focus for the two of them for the next couple of years is going to be letter recognition and identification. Faith has started to do this and can pretty consistently “write” her name. (Air quotes because, well, it’s still a little rough…possibly recognizable only through the eyes of a mother’s love 😉.) Anyway, I wanted a fun way to teach them how to create their names at home, that was highly tangible and visible. I’m not so much worried with the written form yet, but I do want them to know a) these are the letters in my name b) the order of the letters make my name c) these are the names of the letters in my  name. 

So, I made a set of BIG LETTERS, printed them on card stock, and laminated those bad boys because we all know just how long they’ll last in the hands of preschoolers if I don’t. Big letters are fun because, well, they’re BIG! They’re easy to handle and easy to see. Just what the pre-k crowd needs.

I gave them each kiddo a name card with their names printed on them, showed them their names, and said the letter names. We practiced a bit before I showed them the BIG LETTERS. Next, it was all about matching the letters up to those on their name cards to build their names. Fun stuff.

This is an activity that requires minimal effort on your part, a few minutes a day, and is SO easy to prep. These are great if you’re a SAHM or SAHD who wants to practice with your kiddo(s) at home or if you’re a classroom teacher and want another way to practice names, words, spelling lists, vocab, etc. with your students! (I would definitely print a few sets, though, so you can accommodate names and/or words that have more than one of the same letter.)

>> DOWNLOAD A COPY OF BIG LETTERS + EDITABLE NAME CARDS <<<

FYI: I used the font Quicksand for the big letters and their name cards.

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Big Letter Names is also found within the preschool  workbook I created for my littles. It includes a customizable About Me, along with many skill-based pages (i.e. colors, shapes, number identification, quantities to five, ordinal numbers, body parts, thematic vocabulary, seasons, weather, and more!).  You can read more about it HERE.

What do you think of the BIG LETTER NAMES? I’d love to hear if you’ve done something similar or if you download and use either of these activities! Send me an email or tag me on Instagram @babblingabby!

Happy Teaching!