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Name Recognition

I wanted to start working with Jacob recognizing the letters in his name. I bought some wooden circular discs and painted the letters on them. I found a great idea from Deborah at Teach Preschool on taking my letters the next step.
She cut letter cards with each letter of the child's name and hid them in rice. Then she let the child dig for the letters. I knew this was right up Jacob's alley! He will do anything that evolves digging!!
I set up a pan with rice and put in the letters. One side is the capital letter the other is the lower case letter. I provided a shovel in the pan as well. 
In addition, I printed a piece of paper with Jacob's name on  it in 150 point font. I wanted Jake to put the wooden discs on the paper over the letters once he found them in the rice.
I showed Jake the letters and then hid them in the rice. I did not model for him what I wanted but rather just told him what to do. I sometimes wonder if I give him too much direction. So for this I decided to see how he would do with verbal directions only. 
As you can see he dug right in! (Excuse the hat, goggles and vest. He wears them almost all day everyday!) When he found a letter I said the letter and had him repeat it. Then I told him to look for the same letter on the paper and to place the circle on the letter. He had no problem following my instructions and he had no problem placing the circle on the same letter. I must admit I was a little surprise at the ease he accomplished this task. 
I made sure the letters were facing the correct direction after he placed them on the paper. He did a great job! We repeatedly said the letter and said his name. I chose to teach him how to recognize/spell his full name instead of just Jake.
After we finished he picked up each letter one by one and placed them back in the rice pan and hid them. He was ready to go ahead and start all over! We went through this process 3 times before he was ready to walk away! I was so impressed! Although he did a great job and far exceeded my expectations, I still have goals in  which to work towards. I would like to see him say each letter without prompting, I would like him to say his name and then say each letter spelling his name as he says the letters in order. He is well on his way although I do not know that we will reach these goals this month we will reach them eventually!


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