4 Fun Activities for Kindergarten Intervention

Every fall before Kindergarten universal screening takes place, my reading specialist partner and I take a few little learners into an informal small group to work on letter recognition and name writing. Our K teachers choose a few students who need extra help, and we each take a group of four. Since these children haven’t been officially chosen, we don’t usually plan our groups using our instructional sequence for teaching letters. Many times, we are able to give these kids enough of a boost so that they don’t need intervention after universal screening time. Here are a few fun Kindergarten intervention activities I use to help students learn some letters and how to write their names in my informal Kindergarten groups. I have included affiliate links in this article; you won’t pay a penny more if you buy through my link, but I may make a small commission.

Name Plates

I always begin this type of group with some sort of personalized manipulative. This year, I created a name plate with letter tiles. The kids can use the name plate to order the letter tiles to make their names. You can practice sounds with these as well. I then model correct letter formation for each child’s name, and have them write them on white boards with dry erase markers. This activity becomes the one I base all the fun and games around.

Name Graph

It has been such a blast having the kids make a group name graph. I have created a chart with squares close in size to the letter tiles I gave each child. After laminating each section, I glued and taped it together with clear packing tape. During group, I have the kids take turns arranging the letter tiles from their names on the graph.

Once we’re finished putting the letters on the chart, we can count the total number of different letters we have. We can then count the letters in each column. Counting upper and lower case letters and comparing the totals is fun, too. I always prompt kids to say the sounds of each of the letters as well. This is a fun way to incorporate math skills with reading.

Dough Beads for Kindergarten Intervention

Letter beads like these have so many uses. I bought these little tubs of dough and hid the beads in each. During group time, I have the kids dig through the dough to find the beads. Kindergarteners love discovering something new, so I don’t tell them that there’s anything hidden in their tubs. The beads turn out to be a big surprise. After they find their letters, I have the children arrange the beads to spell their names. I also have them say the letter sounds when they find their letters too. This is a great game to develop hand strength!

Name Hunt

Hiding the kids’ names on funny notepaper with cute fonts is another fun way to help them practice identifying their own name in print. You could do this in a variety of engaging ways. Write their names on paper bugs, scatter then around the room,  and have the kids swat all their name bugs with a flyswatter.  Write their names on big construction paper pieces, tape them to the floor, and have the students hop on their own names. You could even make it like a maze or sensory walk with vinyl if you were super crafty. There’s no shame in writing their names on sticky notes, putting the notes all over the room, and having the kids find all their stickies.

Final Thoughts

These few simple games for Kindergarten intervention will help your little learners identify and write their own names pretty quickly. As a bonus, they will at least learn the letters in their name by the time you do your first universal screening. Any opportunity you have to make learning something new into a game for Kindergarteners is a win!