Every school seems to have their own approach to unit 6 for both 3rd and 4th grades. For the past few years, we've used stamps to make name cards. Over time, using stamps got out of control. All sorts of problems (stamps breaking, misplaced letter stamps, plus they don't sell the same size stamps). With that we decided to do something new and I felt like sharing the coding aspect of this project I've been involved in. I won't get into lesson plan specifics unless requested.
I came up with a quick way to printout colorful letter cards to make name cards. All you need is a csv file, nanDECK, and the code included below. nanDECK is a free program for Windows for making card games.
The csv file isn't too complicated. It only needs two columns, one column for letters, and one for the card count. It's better to make multiple rows for each letter and set the counts somewhere between 2 to 4 each. This will make more sense when you see the code. You might need to turn off auto capitalization, or else all of your Is will be capitalized.
The csv file should look something like this.
| Letter | Count |
|---|---|
| A | 3 |
| A | 2 |
| A | 3 |
| B | 2 |
| C | 3 |
| a | 4 |
| …and so on | 2 |
Take all the names in your class and figure out how many of each letter you need (Do it however you do it. We use capital letters for 3rd grade and a mix of capital and lowercase for 4th grade). It helps to add 3-6 additional cards for each letter so that there are extras.
nanDECK
I've included the code for nanDECK below.
The second line of code should point to the csv file. Just put all these files in the same directory and copy this code.
LINKMULTI = Count
LINK = "lettercards/studentnames__.csv"
BORDER=RECTANGLE,#000000,0.4,MARKDOT,#FF0000,0.1
UNIT = CM
PAGE = 21,29.7,LANDSCAPE,HV,
DPI = 200
CARDSIZE=3.5,6.5
BASERANGE=,ON
{[MY_COLORS]=#7ded4a|#48d108|#fcd5d7|#0096FF|#FFFF00|#FFA500|#FF00FF|#10bfc8|#fc7494|#D2042D}
N[RANDOM_COLORS]=[MY_COLORS]
[ALL]=1-{(RANDOM_COLORS)}
VISUAL=, 10, 10
RECTANGLE=,0%,0%,100%,{10039/100}%,#000000
RECTANGLE=,0%,{27187/800}%,100%,{2125/32}%,[RANDOM_COLORS]
FONT=UD Digi Kyokasho NP-B,96,BT,#000000,#000000
TEXT="1-{(NAME)}",[NAME],0%,{28843/800}%,100%,{12617/200}%
FONT=Arial,24,BT,#FFFFFF,#FFFFFF
; write class name below
TEXT=,"4-1",{19519/431}%,{1289/200}%,{23111/431}%,{525/32}%
ENDVISUAL
You might want to experiment with the border line. I've set mine to 0.4, but thicker lines will be easier when bulk cutting using cutting machines. The string for MY_COLORS includes ten colors and will apply a random background color for each card. I tried to spend as little time on this as possible, but if you really wanted to you could create backgrounds for the card backs and go wild with designs.
Once everything is finished, you'll have about 12-16 pages of letter cards with 24 letters on each page. The top of each card will have the year and class (easy to keep track of) and nanDECK includes cutting guides. Lots of cutting involved… best to use a paper trimmer if you have access to one!
Alternatively you could set aside eight letters per student per horizontal line. That way you'd only have to cut horizontally and the students would cut the rest of the cards on their own (extras for the JTE / ALT). Sounds simple, but the csv file would need to be written in a specific way that may take more time than actually cutting the cards. Otherwise one student would have all of the As and Bs and it wouldn't make for a good task.
by T1DinJP