A bowl of shredded paper sitting on the table. "What is this?" he asked.
"Names of you and your friends are hidden in the paper," I said.
He searched and searched, finding name after name, but not his own name.
"Your name is in there," I reassured him.
Another boy had a different method for finding names.
At this point, my kids recognize their names and most of the other kids' names. We play games with names and think about what names begin with.
Using names immediately connects kids to an activity. Names are powerful.