Help them to learn what letters are in their name and what order they go in with this fun Ship Ahoy, spell your name game.
You can make it in minutes an, once completed, it makes a lovely sign to stick up on your child’s bedroom door.
Summary:
Time: 10 minutes
Age: Little kids
Difficulty to make: Easy peasy
Skill: Learning to read and spell your name
You will need:
- Coloured card – 3+ bright colours and shiny card (optional)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pen
- Velcro dots OR blue tac
Step 1: Cut out your boat shapes
Cut out all the shapes for your boat from different sheets of coloured card.
You will need:
- A long rectangle with sloped sides for the base
- A shorter rectangle with sloped sides for the top
- A thin rectangle for the funnel. You could also cut a little strip of card to make a stripe for the funnel (we’ve done this in red here).
- A window shape for the front of your boat
Step 2: Put your boat together
Arrange and then glue down all the pieces of your boat on a piece of blue card.
Step 3: Cut out some windows
On shiny card, draw around a circular shape and cut out some windows.
You need one circle for each letter of your child’s name. Write the letters of your child’s name on the windows, using a black Sharpie or permanent marker.
Step 4: Stick on some velcro dots
Stick down velcro dots along the base of the boat. One for each letter.
Stick the other side of the velcro dots onto the back of each window.
Your Ship Ahoy name game is now ready to play.
If you don’t have Velcro dots then Blutac works fine too.
How to play the game
Arrange the windows at the top of the game board, scrambled so that the letters are not in the right order.
Now ask your child to see if they can find the first letter in their name and stick it on the first velcro dot on the boat.
Can they find the other letters to make their name?
Making the game easier
If your child has a very long name, one that is difficult to spell, or if they are finding it hard to put the letters in the right order, then you can help by writing their name on the boat.
They can then look at the written name to help them put the letters in the right place.
Your child can play again and again
It’s so much fun peeling off the windows with the velcro and sticking them back on again.
You could make different variations of the game with letters to spell out ‘Mummy’, ‘Daddy’, and sibling’s or pet’s names too.
With this game your child will motor ahead when it comes to learning to write their name
