For this activity, the teachers tells the students that "Everyone has a special letter, and it's the first letter of your name." Each child should be given a big cut-out or drawing of the first letter of their name. The teacher tells each child what the letter is and if appropriate (for older preschoolers) shares the sound of their letter. For example, "Look Brittany, here is a B! It's your special letter because it is the first letter of your name. Your B makes a /b/ sound. Can you make that sound?"
The children decorate their letter any way they wish, using open-ended art materials such as glue or glue sticks, scissors, buttons, strips of colorful paper, glitter, paint, marshmallows, flowers and magazine pictures. When finished and dry, each project should be displayed in a place the child chooses.
Providing a printed model of each child's name on a card will help them recognize the letters of their names. Preschoolers can recreate their entire name with plastic magnetic letters or a tray, sand and their finger, so they can trace the letters, or twist and shape modeling dough or pipe cleaners into letters. They could also use alphabet cereal, pasta, rocks, shells, markers, paper or string to glue the letters onto paper.
To make letter animals, children turn cut-out paper letters into cute creatures. For example, one child could make his "S" look like Sam the Snake by adding a head and decorating the body. Let the child choose what it looks like, using pictures from magazines, calendars, catalogs and greeting cards, as well as pipe cleaners, straws, cotton balls, ribbon, paper and craft eyes. Old wallpaper sample books often have exotic pictures and are easy for preschool children to cut out. Teachers should ask students to talk about what they are doing and encourage them to name the new animal.