Build a Name STEM Activity

Use the Build a Name STEM activity as a get to know you activity in the first week of school. I like to pair the name activity with Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. It’s a great way to learn students’ names and to learn more about everyone. I am using the name activity in my kindergarten science class, but you could use it in preschool or first grade as well.

Build a Name STEM Activity

Read Your Name Is a Song

Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow is a must read. Names are important. On the first day of school, I greet each of my students and ask them their names. I never want to presume what a student should be called based on what my roster says. I want them to know I value who they are and learning their names is important. 

Your Name Is a Song shows us just how beautifully important names are. On her first day of school, the teacher can’t pronounce a girl’s name and her classmates make fun of her. Her mother tells her that names are songs and she should sing her name for the teacher. After much convincing, the little girl decides to do just that. 

The book showcases a variety of names and provides the pronunciations for each. After reading, discuss with students why names are important. I like to have each student say their names and introduce something about themselves.

Build a Name STEM Activity for Kindergarten

You’ll need your students names visible for them to copy. You can print them on paper or write them on index cards if you don’t already have them on their desks.

You’ll need random materials for them to build their names. We used craft sticks, pipe cleaners, paper clips, and rubber bands. What else would make for good building materials? Bottle caps, pasta shapes, wiki stix ??? If you have Speilgaben sets, you can build your names like Rainy Day Mum shows us using rods, circles, semi-circles, and dots.

You can have your students build their names on top of the paper. Or you can have them build next to it. In my example (with my own kindergartener), I wrote his name on a piece of paper.

For my students, I decided to write their names on index cards. Some names are long and the materials didn’t match up well on the paper. My students built their names on the table next to their index card.

I sorted the materials into bins for each student plus I have some extras in case they need it. Some of my students wanted to use mostly craft sticks or mostly pipe cleaners. I had extra ready for this purpose.

Before they began building, I talked about the shapes of our letters and how they are made of straight lines, curves, and circles. Then we looked at the materials to see what shapes and letters we could make. I showed them how to bend the pipe cleaners and how to arrange the paper clips.

I took pictures of their name builds and plan on attaching them to the front of their science journals.

When my students were finished, I asked them to decorate their index cards with things they liked so I could get to know more about them. This also helps give early finishers something to do. A student with 3 letters is going to finish much more quickly than a student with 8.

More Name Activities for Kids

Bubble Wrap Names
Farm Themed Name Recognition Activities
Alphabet Jumping Games
Leaf Name Sticky Wall
Name Glyphs

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