Peg names

This is a great activity to get children familiar with the letters in their name.  The important thing to remember is that when children first come to school, we use the letter sounds when talking about letters and not the letter names.  We also write using lower case letters but of course the first letter in a child’s name will start with a capital letter. 

You will need some card, marker pen and enough pegs to make up our child’s name.  It’s up to you how you do this. You can just write your child’s name , clearly on a piece of card or on a template of their favourite character etc.  Then write a letter on each peg. 
The challenge is then for your child to build up their name using the pegs. The  

skill of pegging onto the card will probably take some practise.  Encourage your child to match the letters on the pegs to the letters in their name on the card/picture.  
To begin your child may need lots and lots of support but the more you do it, the children will begin to be able to do this more independently.  Talk about the sounds in their name as they do this. 
 

Memory game

This is a great game to play with children as it encourages good concentration. 

You can play with any  small items from around the home.  Alternatives are playing with coloured items,  shapes, letters from their name, absolutely anything. 

Just give the child time to look and try and remember what they see before starting.  It also allows for turn taking. 'I will close my eyes and guess first, then it will be your turn!'