Name Practice for Pre-K Students

View binders, or binders with the clear plastic covering that allow you to slide in a cover sheet, are an excellent tool for students to practice writing.

Teacher's Tip:  For students who press hard, you can hot glue
a heavy piece of cardboard or a small piece of wood inside the cover
to make the binder more sturdy.

The 2 ½ or 3-inch binder provides students with nice slant to put their hands in a good position for holding their pencil correctly.  Then, slide papers in and out of the cover pocket and have the children write on them using dry erase markers or crayons.  Dry erase crayons are a newer item that can be found at any craft or department store or at Crayola.com. 

Instructor's Insight: When you use dry erase crayons you have the option to break them down into smaller pieces  so that students have to hold them with the correct pencil grip because they are so small.

For another use for "Crayon Nubbins, check out the previous "Literacy Workbox" post.

The "Green for Go. Red For Stop." hand-writing form will assist students with writing names using the green line as the starting point and the red line as the stopping point.  Click here for the template.

Last year with my students headed into kindergarten, I used this idea for the students to practice writing their names.  I would pre-write the student's name with a yellow highlighter and then have the student trace the writing at direct instruction in the binder Monday through Wednesday.  Finally on Thursdays, our student's last day of school for the week, I would have them write on the actual page.  

This procedure saved paper but also helped show progress because we had weekly documentation of the student's writing skills.  As the student begins getting a concept of writing his/her name, I pre-write less of the letters and have the child write from memory with dots to show them where to start.  (Refer to "Susie's" provided example above.)