Feed the Dog Name Recognition Activity

Inside: Grab this free printable dog name recognition activity to help preschoolers work on recognizing their names in print.

As preschoolers, my own kids loved playing dog – like actually pretending they were puppies. It was entertaining to watch! Even when they went through a phase of being afraid of actual dogs (we didn’t have our own), they loved the idea of taking care of a pup.

I think that a dog theme is an easy way to connect with lots of kids. Whether they have their own pup at home, or have been hearing read alouds about dogs or are just curious, dogs will hold their interest.

Dog Name Recognition Activity

Your little learners can pretend to feed a puppy dog with this interactive name activity where they have to distinguish between their name and nonsense names. It’s perfect for a Pets or Family unit, or you can just bring it out whenever you need something new and engaging.

Skills Covered

Your students will work on the following skills:

• Name recognition – Students will practice discriminating between their name and nonsense words starting with the same first letter.
• Letter recognition – Students will work on looking at all the letters in their name, not just the first letter.

What’s Included in the Free Printable

This freebie is 4 pages long:

• Name entry page – open in Adobe Reader and type in student names.
• Feed the Dog and instructions (1 page, color)
• Generic dog bones for all students (1 page, black & white)
• Personalized dog bones (1 page, black & white)

Preparation & Materials

All you need to prep this name activity is a medium-sized container, tape, and scissors. You may also want cardstock/tagboard to print on, and a laminator.

The printable is easy to personalize for your kids:

1. Fill in the Name Entry page with student names and initials.
2. Then, scroll to the first “dog bone” page and type in nonsense names in the spaces at the bottom. You may like to type names that look similar to student names, challenging them to look closely at each word to see if it’s their name or not.
3. Print on cardstock, cut out, and laminate if desired. You can trim the “bones” closely (what a great excuse to indulge in a favorite show while you work!), or you can leave them as rectangles – those will also fit into the dog’s mouth.

4. Cut out the dog card and the opening for the dog’s mouth. Then, tape the card to the top of a plastic container. Tape it on just one side so that it can hinge open and closed to remove the “bones”.

I’m sorry that I missed taking a side-view photo for you. The card is attached to an empty plastic container – the kind you would use to put leftovers in.

I put all the “dog bones” into a little collapsible dog water bowl for a cute extra touch.

How to Play

The child will shuffle all the “dog biscuits” together and then pick up one. Is their name on it? If so, set it aside. If not, feed it to the pup! Repeat until all the bones have been used.

To continue, or to give the next child a turn, empty the bones back into the food/water bowl and start again.

Extension Ideas

Here are a few other ways to set up this dog-themed name activity:

• Put the paper dog bones in a sensory bin and have the children pull them out with plastic tweezers. For bin filler, try dried chickpeas  – you could even dye them a darker brown to look more like dog kibble. Further bump up the play and learning value by adding a toy dog, kid-safe dog toys, wood or plastic letters, and a dog food bowl.
• If you set up a sensory bin, students can use the chickpeas to spell out their names in pretend dog food.
• More advanced students can search for their classmates’ names as well.
• Make this activity a game for two students. Flip all the bones upside down and have the children draw one of them at a time. As they go, they feed the nonsense names to the dog. The first child to find their own name twice is the winner.