Learning to recognize and spell your name is an exciting mastery skill for a preschooler. In fact, it’s the best place to start when beginning to introduce letters as the letters in their name make up a very special part of who they are. My preschooler jumps up and down with sheer pride and joy when she sees her name. We recently found a fun way to take our name practice outside, and it has been a big hit! This name activity combines letter recognition and spelling to make for a fun outdoor name recognition scramble game.

Name Recognition Scramble

Materials

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You will need a set of ABC letters and a slide. If you don’t have a slide, and/or you’re looking for an indoor activity, you can easily substitute a piece of cardboard.

Play the Game

To start the game, randomly send the letters of your child’s name down the slide. As each letter slides down, shout it out together as a review. Once all the letters are jumbled up in a pile, the name assembly can begin!

If you are in the beginning stages of name recognition and spelling, you may want to have your child’s name written out as a guide while they form their name.

As soon as the name is assembled, we like to spell it aloud and then read it. This game quickly turned into an outdoor favorite as soon as my daughter asked if she could send the letters down the slide. We must’ve done it a dozen times! My toddler even joined in on the fun!

For more outdoor name play, try our water balloon name game!