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.
In NZ classrooms
- Te WhārikiThe Mana whenua | Belonging strand includes children understanding how things work in their new place; seeing their own name on their work is part of feeling at home.
- First 6 monthsNew entrants learn the alphabet and its sounds and are taught to form letters correctly. Their own name is often the first word they write.
Many New Zealand schools take new entrants on or after their fifth birthday, or in small groups at the start of a term, so a junior class grows through the year instead of starting all at once. Your class list stays saved in this browser, so you can add a new child’s name and print a pack for their first week in a minute.
Names with macrons print with them, and the English curriculum teaches the tohutō (macron) as the mark that makes a vowel long. A child called Ānahera or Tūī sees the macron as part of their name from day one.
Year placements summarised in our own words from the Ministry of Education’s guide to the New Zealand Curriculum, Years 0–8, and Te Whāriki (2017).
