Why name booklets work
A child’s own name is the word they care about most. Each page in the booklet practices it a different way: tracing builds letter formation, colouring big bubble letters builds the shape of the whole name, the maze makes them read their letters in order, and cutting and gluing makes them build it themselves.
How to use the class pack
- Paste your class list, one name per line.
- Choose the pages you want in each booklet.
- Check a booklet with the arrows, then download one PDF for the whole class.
- Print and staple each child’s pages together. They come out in order, child by child.
Irish curriculum links
- WritingStage 1 Handwriting and presentation: children move from mark-making to forming the letters of words that matter to them, starting with their name.
- ReadingStage 1 reading covers early word recognition, and for most children their own name is the first word they know on sight.
- TransitionsAistear (2024) and the Primary Curriculum Framework (2023) are aligned to support the move from preschool into the infant classes.
Name work is a classic start to Junior Infants in Ireland, where the first weeks of September are about settling in, learning routines and getting to know each other. The NCCA describes Aistear for preschool and the Primary Curriculum Framework for school as two halves of one journey, with play at the centre of both.
Cutting, gluing and colouring in the booklet also build hand strength and control, which the early handwriting outcomes depend on. Spread the pages across the first fortnight rather than doing them all in one day.
Summarised in our own words from the Primary Language Curriculum (2019), the Primary Curriculum Framework (2023) and Aistear (2024).
