Name Towers Sight Word Activity

Being able to recognize your name is a skill that students practice a lot in Pre-K and Kindergarten. You can strengthen sight word skills and name recognition by incorporating fun, hands-on activities and games like this Name Towers Sight Word Activity. It’s so quick and simple to turn common building blocks into an engaging name activity!

*Pair with our EDITABLE Name Games and Activities Bundle!

Name Towers Sight Word Activity

I love when I can turn manipulatives or games that we already have on hand into new and fresh activities by adding simple twists. Do you have blocks laying around? Perhaps it is wooden building blocks or Jenga blocks. Use these blocks for this hands-on Name Towers Sight Word Activity!

To get started, let’s gather our simple supplies:

• Blocks (wooden, plastic, or foam)
• Washi or masking tape (stickers work great, too!)
• Permanent marker

How to Prep and Play

To prep this sight word activity, write the name of each child playing on a piece of tape. If the name has 6 letters, you will have to write the name six times. If the name has 8 letters, you will have to write it eight times, etc. Be sure to space the letters out on the tape to allow room for cutting.

Next, cut the letters in each name apart. Attach one letter to the end of each block.

Teacher Tip: I like to build a tower as I go to keep track of what letters I already have.

The image above shows the way to set up the activity for the students to play. The first (bottom) row of blocks is the “sample” name.

For the second row, the first letter is left off of the name, then 2 letters in the next row, and so on, until you reach the top and the child can spell the name with only the last letter in place. (You can do another row where the child can then spell their whole name.)

RELATED RESOURCE: EDITABLE Sight Word Centers and Activities

Names can also be spelled vertically. (It is good for a child to be able to read his/her name vertically because it might be on a file he/she needs to pick out, for instance.) In fact, the more ways (different fonts) a child can read his/her name, the better!

This name recognition sight word activity makes a perfect independent literacy center for Pre-K and Kindergarten. Build towers AND learn to read, work on fine motor skills, and letter recognition while having tons of fun!

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