Name Glyphs in Science

Use name glyphs 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 glyphs in my second grade science class, but you could use them in other elementary grades as well.

Name Glyphs in Elementary Science

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.

Name Glyph Activity

Print out the Name Glyph Instructions worksheet. You’ll also need to print out each of your students’ names in bubble letters. I used the font, Londrina Outline, which is a Google Font already loaded in Google docs, etc.

Download the Name Glyph instructions worksheet for personal or classroom use.

Explain to your students what a glyph is. A glyph is an image or symbol that represents something. (Even the letters in our alphabet are glyphs. For example, b represents the sound /b/.)

We can use glyphs to write a secret code where each glyph stands something else. The colors and patterns we use for each letter in our name has meaning. We can use the code to understand more about who we are.

Explain to your students how to create the name glyph by following directions on the worksheet.

If a student has more than 5 letters in their name, repeat the pattern starting with the first letter.

My daughter, Lily, only has 4 letters in her name. She decided to do both the fourth and fifth letter’s directions on her fourth letter. They could leave the fifth letter off, or they could just draw the symbols next to their fourth letter in order to include it.

Learn More about Your Students

After finishing creating the name glyphs, I will have my students add more to their paper to help me get to know them. They can draw pictures or write words – anything they want to share with me and the rest of the class.

More Glyph Actitvities

Build a LEGO Glyph
Where the Wild Things Are Monster Glyphs
Christmas Ornament Glyphs
Valentine Hearth Glyphs

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