Set up:

1. Fold your A4 paper in half and cut along the folded line. Continue to do this until you have enough pieces of paper for each letter of your child’s name. For example, if your child’s name is Isaac, you will need 5 pieces of paper (2 and half pieces of A4).
2. Now use your markers and write the letters of your child’s name on the coloured paper. One letter on each page. Make them nice a large taking up most of the room on the page.
3. Arrange the letters in correct order and blue tack them to a wall. Your child’s name should be clear and readable.
4. Now write the letters of your child’s name on the blank stickers. One letter, per sticker. I used circle sticker’s, but you could use any you have. If you have larger stickers, cut them down to an appropriate and manageable size for your child.
5. Repeat the above step, making lots of sticker letters for your child to engage with.
6. Now you are ready to play!

How to play:

1. Encourage your child to come over to the paper letters on the wall. Ask them if they know what it says. For some, they may recognise their name and read it, for others they may need support. Use this time and opportunity to talk to your child about the individual letters in their name. Label the letter and the sound that it makes.
2. Now show them the letter stickers you have created and encourage them to peel a sticker off the backing paper and then match it to the corresponding letter on paper. Some children respond well to a visual cue, perhaps you could physically show them the intentions of the game.
3. Now encourage your child, to peel of another sticker and do the same. Throughout your interaction draw your child’s attention to the letters of their name. For example, “Oh you found the letter t, that makes this sound..”, “Do you know what that letter is? That’s a D, that’s right, dog also starts with the same letter, d-d for dog, and d-d for David”.
4. Continue until your child has had enough or finished all the stickers.

Variations:

1. Try using other family names or words of interest. For example, a siblings name or simple reading words such as “cat”.
2. Try using this activity to extend upon your child’s understanding of upper and lower-case lettering. Perhaps you can challenge them with stickers that have both upper and lower-case letters to match with.
3. For children not quite at an alphabet level, perhaps you could use coloured stickers. Make the letter stickers match the same colour as the paper wall letters. For example- All the D’s are yellow and all the R’s are orange. Its never too early to start exposing littlies to letters and print!