Parents as Partners: Learning Classmates’ Names
Dear Parents,
Learning the names of classmates is an important social skill that allows all of our children to help build a friendly, caring kindergarten community. Developing the habit of learning names will also help children do well in the real world outside of the classroom, because we all appreciate people who look at us, smile, and greet us by name.
This month, we are giving children an opportunity to take “The Kindergarten Friends Name Challenge” by correctly naming every child in the classroom. Here is how it works:
- With all the children sitting in a circle, one child volunteers to stand up and be “The Child Name Expert.”
- That child goes around the circle of children, naming each child as they go. He is always welcome to use our friendly (and sometimes forgetful) fox puppet to help with the challenge.
- We encourage each child to add a greeting such as “Good morning, David!” and establish eye contact and smile.
To help children learn each other’s names, we greet our elbow buddies by name every morning, we sing and play name games, read class books featuring the names and lives of our classmates, and create many opportunities for children to work, play, and talk together. You can help at home by reviewing the enclosed photo/name pages featuring every child in our kindergarten. Notice how many class names your child already knows! Praise the child’s efforts for “good name remembering!” Keep this activity short and positive. Please review the names every evening until your child is confident that he or she can say every name. Soon, she will be ready to take “The Kindergarten Friends Name Challenge.”
The sweetest sound to a child (or to anyone, for that matter) is the sound of his or her own name. Thank you for helping us sweeten the kindergarten learning experience for our children! They will all enjoy being known by name.
Smiles!
Nellie Edge
