Star Student Name Study

Now that our Word Walls are up and ready for use, it's time to start our Star Name Study that focuses on each student with the fun and interactive investigation of their first name.

Here's a possible sequence...

STAR STUDENT NAME STUDY

1.  Sing “Who will be the star today?” (Tune of London Bridges)
2.  (drumroll) Choose a name.
3.  Sing in the same tune "[Graham] is the star today..."
4.  Ask the student to spell name as you write it on the board, if they can.
5.  Cheer!

• cheer “Give me an G…G! Give be a R…R!…” while doing hand signs for each letter
• cheer the name in chunks “G-R-A…H-A-M  Graham! G-R-A...H-A-M Graham!!!"

6.  "What do you notice about [Graham's] name?" (What do you see?) Turn and talk. Share out and trace the letters as they point out their noticings. Help students notice shape, tall letters, short, long/descending, capital vs. lowercase, consonants vs. vowels, etc. Outline or cut the shape of name.
7. “How many syllables are in [Graham’s] name? Let’s clap and count.”
8. "How many letters are in [Graham's] name? Let's count each letter as I cut."

Stefanie cuts the student's name apart

as the class counts the letters.

9.  Put the letters in the pocket chart for students to unscramble. Ask, "What's the first letter?" "What's the next letter?"....."What's the last letter?"

Friends help to put the name back together in order.

10.  Cheer one more time to check that the name is spelled correctly.

11.  Add the name to the Word Wall.

Students help Stefanie find where
to put a name on the Word Wall.

12.  Make the name puzzles available for students to play with.

We also add the names to a large pocket chart so we can compare and sort the names as we study them. We follow the name study with students interviewing the star student and then make a page in the "Star Student Book" via shared, and then later, interactive writing. (More on this in our next post!)

SOME TIPS:

*Prepare a basket with envelopes for each student with their name and picture; inside write the name on three sentence strips- 1 for cutting up into a puzzle, 1 for the pocket chart, and 1 for the word wall.

*Even though we make it appear to students that we are randomly choosing a name, we have purposely selected names in a sequence that will support letter/sound recognition...for example, we might choose names with B, M, R, S, etc. first because these are easy sounds to hear; we might also choose names with the same beginning sound two days apart so, for example, they can hear how Sam and Sophia have the same first sound and begin with letter S.