Crayon Name Puzzles – A Fun Name Practice Activity for Preschoolers

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If you’re looking for fun and engaging name practice activities for your preschoolers, try using crayon name puzzles! These are the best name puzzles because they are easy to make and can be used over and over again.

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Importance of Name Practice Activities

We all know that young kids LOVE themselves.  That’s why name activities for preschool kids are such a motivating way to introduce letters and sounds. 

As a preschool teacher, you know how important it is for your students to learn to recognize and spell their names. Not only is this a foundational skill for future reading and writing success, but it also helps build self-esteem and a sense of belonging in the classroom.

There are lots of ways to practice names in the preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom, but one of my favorites is these printable crayon name puzzles! They are so easy to customize!

These crayon name puzzles are a fun way to help your kids learn letter recognition, learn to spell their names, learn to recognize their names, learn letter sounds and more.

use this printable name puzzle with a child's name on it for name practice activities

The Editable Name Puzzles

Easy to Customize

Do you feel overwhelmed when trying to find and prepare fun name practice activities for your kids?  This editable PDF is super simple to customize.  Just add the letters of your kids’ names to the Class Form in the document, and then you can print the puzzles.  Create a custom name puzzle in very little time.

The following are included in the Crayon Name Puzzle resource

  • 2 styles of editable name puzzles for names with 2-12 letters
  • Class List Forms – Complete the form and  letters are automatically added to the puzzles
  • Print Planner- Helps you determine which pages to print
  • Printable labels- for storage containers

Two Different Puzzle Styles: Two styles of puzzles are included in the resource.  One has black letters that look amazing when printed on brightly colored paper.  The second style has outlined letters so that kids can color them with crayons….or use them as for tracing letters.

These custom printable name puzzles can be use to help preschoolers with name practice

Easy-to-Use Class List Form: You can make crayon name puzzles for kids with 2-12 letters in their names.  If you have a child with a name longer than 12 letters, you can just add a few letters to another row of the class form to print the extra letters. Let me know, and I will help you figure it out.

You will need to use the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader on your desktop or laptop (the app for devices just doesn’t seem to be the same) to add your kids’ names to my document.  To customize your puzzles you just need to enter your kids’ names into the document’s class list form.   Their names will be automatically added to the puzzles.

The name practice puzzles are easy to customize

Print Planner Page: Consult the print planner page to quickly determine which pages to print.

Labels: When you print and cut the puzzles, you don’t want all of the pieces to get all mixed up.  Store individual puzzles in envelopes, plastic bags, or all those little plastic containers you have been hoarding.  The resource also includes labels that you can attach to your choice of storage.

store the name practice activity puzzles in envelopes

Here’s another idea…..You can create a custom puzzle, add it to a nice envelope and you have a very inexpensive gift for your kids.

What Teachers are saying:

Teachers who have used this resource are raving about it! Here is what they had to say after using it in their classroom:

Love that this resource is editable and reusable for my students to practice recognizing, forming, and eventually writing their first name independently.  Thank you!
Laura D.
Teacher
 printed these on bright paper and my kiddos love building their names!  I also made color-coded sight words that the children choose regularly during independent station time!  Thank you for a versatile, hands-on product 🙂
Christine T.
Teacher

Use These Custom Name Puzzles for Literacy Activities

Alphabet Knowledge and Recognition

Name puzzles are a great way to work on alphabet recognition and more. As kids work on their puzzles you can ask them questions about the letters.

  • What letters do you see?
  • What do you notice about the shape of the letters?
  • Are there any duplicate letters?
  • What sounds do you hear when I say the name?
  • Which are uppercase letters and which are lowercase letters?
  • Why do you think the letter at the front of a name is uppercase or capital?
  • Do you and your friend have any of the same letters in your puzzles?
use editable crayon name puzzles for name practice activities with your preschoolers

Letter Writing

They can practice letter formation by finger tracing each letter as they complete a puzzle.  They can also attempt to write the letters on a salt tray, in playdough, or on a separate piece of paper

Name Tracing

Here is an idea that is much more exciting than a name tracing worksheet. Make a name puzzle using the outlined letters (version 2) Kids can color or trace each of the letters In their names.

Get out the glitter glue for another fun name tracing and fine motor activity. Kids can squeeze glitter glue to trace the letters in their names.

Name Writing

More advanced students can use the letters on their puzzle pieces as guides to work on writing letters on separate pieces of paper.

Syllable Recognition

You can work on syllables by asking them to clap their name. How many claps are there in Sa-man-tha?

Create Rhymes

Have fun with the name and create a silly rhyme activity by changing the first letter of the name (Example…. Deena rhymes with Leena and Alex rhymes with Balex)

Complete a Friend’s Puzzle

In addition to working on spelling their own names, kids will enjoy putting their friends’ puzzles together.  Does the friend have some of the same letters in his/her name as you have in yours?

Additional Ways to Use the Crayon Name Puzzles

In addition to name practice activities, you can use these name puzzles in many different ways.

  • Fine motor/scissor skills practice– Let kids cut out their own puzzles.
  • Glue them down– Kids can glue their pieces onto long strips of paper or sentence strips.
  • Bulletin boards – Use these strips to create a name bulletin board.
use the custom name puzzles to learn color words

  • Color puzzles – Instead of names print puzzles with the names of colors.
  • Word puzzles – Use the printable crayon template to CVC word puzzles or sight word/high-interest word puzzles.
use the custom name puzzle template to create sight word or spelling word activities.  Here we see puzzles for the words see and look

Purchase The Name Practice Puzzles Today

Do you want to make crayon name puzzles for your kids?  You can purchase the Editable Crayon Name Puzzles in my store.

printable name puzzle activities bundle

Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the Crayon Name Puzzles in my TPT store.

Additional Name Puzzles

Here are some additional printable name puzzle ideas for you.

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