HIGHLIGHT Your Name

What a neat idea!
To make sure you don't get a paper without a name on it, have this in the classroom. That way, when a student drops off their work and reaches for a highlighter, they'll see if they remembered to put their name on the paper.

Always a Good Idea

Sometimes I use these, but I've also been known to leave the substitute a blank sheet of file folder labels, with instructions for them to hand out to each student and let the children write their names on them to aide her with identification.

In addition, and I've learned this from past mistakes, I don't pre-label these with my class roster. The mobility at my school is high, which means there's often students who leave and new students registered, making the pre-done labels obsolete.

Learning to Write Their Names

Mondays are my "slow" days, meaning I have one break all day.  Last year it was Friday.  I'm sure every teacher has a slow day during their week. 

Normally, when the students have to practice writing their names, they do it on a single strip of paper and turn it in.  But on slow days, I make them take their time writing it on a laminated sheet with a Vis-a-Vis, or wipe-off marker.  After finishing and getting a quick approval from me, a wet paper towel or sponge cleans it off nicely, and the sheet can be reused repeatedly.

As you can see from these two examples, we concentrate on just the first name during the first half of the school year.  We add the last name after we come back from the Christmas holidays.