Valentine’s Day is one of my very favorite times of year in my preschool classroom!  We spend the beginning of February focusing on all things involving hearts, friendship, and kindness.  We also sneak in lots and lots of literacy, math, and fine motor practice.  Our printable Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts learning activity is the perfect reusable busy bag to practice letters in your preschooler’s name in a fun way!

Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts

Busy bags are some of my go-to learning activities to use in center time, as morning welcome work in my classroom, and at home with my own kiddos!  Basically a busy bag is a learning activity that can be played and then stored to be used again.  In my classroom, we call them busy bins because everything we do goes back into a bin instead of reusable ziploc bag.

The free printable Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts includes 26 uppercase letter cards.

To prep this activity, print the letter cards from the file below.  Cut them apart on the gray dotted lines.  I laminate just about everything that enters my classroom.  There is nothing more cringe-worthy than watching one of my preschoolers bending and rolling pieces to printable activities.  This is why I laminate.

The only other supply we used with our Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts was heart shaped beads!  Other ideas for manipulatives would be mini erasers, candy hearts, or heart foam shapes.

Now it’s Time to Play

When everything is prepped and ready, it’s time to play!

To begin, find the letters in the name being practiced.  With my preschoolers, I find that the first letter in names are the favorite, and most important to the child.  If the name is longer, or mastering the letters in the name is difficult, start with the first letter!

Set the letters out on the table.  Practice tracing each letter before building it with the heart shaped beads.  Add one bead at a time to the letter.  Begin at the top and go down, then from the left to the right.  Continue until all letters have hearts on them.

The great thing about the Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts activity is that after the letters in the name have been mastered, you can move on to the rest of the letters in the alphabet.

When playtime is over, simply store all of the heart cards and the heart beads in a reusable ziploc bag or plastic bin with a lid until next time!

 

Looking for even more heart themed ideas for Valentine’s Day?  Check out the other ideas below.

And don’t forget to download to the heart cards below too!

 

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Play Dough Heart Decorating Kit // Simple Play Ideas

Valentines 10 Frame Counting Cards // Stay at Home Educator

Heart Lacing Busy Bag // Coffee Cups & Crayons

Heart Faces Busy Bag // Powerful Mothering

Counting Hearts Busy Bag // Teach Me Mommy

Name Recognition Alphabet Hearts // Modern Preschool

 

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