FREE Handwriting Practice
Handwriting can be tricky to teach.
Sometimes it must be done 1:1 with students, and it requires rigorous, thorough practice and follow through.
Some teachers and administrators will tell you that handwriting really isn’t important, but I disagree.
In kindergarten and first grade, we are learning how to read and write.
By second or third grade, the focus becomes writing and reading to learn content .
I have also taught the upper grades, and when students do not form their letters correctly, it takes them longer to write and it is hard to read what they write.
Plus, they are sometimes more focused on the act of actually writing and forming their letters rather than their content. The entire writing process becomes frustrating and overwhelming for them.
One reason it is so important to start off on the right foot with writing is that to un-teach a child bad habits can be almost impossible.
I remember a professor in college told us that to “unteach and reteach” a bad writing habit (like forming a letter the wrong way) the child will have to write a letter the correct way over 100 times to make it a new habit. Wow!
WATCH THIS QUICK VIDEO ON HOW I USE THIS HANDWRITING UNIT
Let’s get started!
I teach letters in groups that have similar formation.
This has worked so well for my students, and I know you’ll enjoy these worksheets as much as we do.
BIG LINE DOWN
Big line down letters are just that … big lines that go straight down. We start at the top and fall straight down all the way until we bump that bottom line.
The obvious one to start with is lowercase l.
Then we move on to capital L.
These are the easiest letters to start with.
BUNNY JUMPS
Now that we know how to write straight lines, we are ready to learn bunny jumps.
A bunny jump is when you have to actually pick up your pencil and move it to a new spot on the paper… I tell students their pencil needs to jump.
There are many bunny jump letters, but I teach them in a very specific order. I label lesson numbers on the bottom of each page so you know exactly which letter to teach next.
Our first bunny jump letter is F. Students know how to make a straight line after lessons 2 and 3. So for F, it is a big line own, a bunny jump to the top and they make a little lines.
After F, the next lesson is E because it is the exact motions of F, but they simply add one more little line across the bottom.
Following F, we learn T and then capital I.
Teaching letters in an order that follows formation patterns builds muscle memory and confidence.
We are practicing the same strokes over and over.
Our bunny jump group has six letters, and then we are ready to learn the next formation.
CURVE LETTERS
Next up is learning how to make a curved line. Before learning a new letter formation, I use a preaching activity (shown at the top of the blog post.)
We trace and practice making curved lines, and then learn our next letter.
Curved letters include P, R and B and seven other letters.
P is simply a big line down, a bunny jump and then a curve on top. R would be next because it is the same as P, but with a little line out at the end.
B is a continuation of P but with one more curved line.
Do you see how the skills and formations are building on each other?
Students already know how to make big lines, little lines and bunny jumps.
We learn 10 letters in the curve group and then move on to learning push up letters!
PUSH UP LETTERS
Are your little ones feeling squirrelly? Have them do a push up and get ready for the next few letters!
I call these push-up letters, because we push our pencils back up (do not bunny jump these letters!)
Their pencils should not leave the paper until their letter is complete.
We start with either a big line/little line down and then push up to finish the letter.
With this group, we start with lowercase r.
Lowercase n is simply a continuation of r, but instead of stopping at the middle line, lowercase n continues to the bottom line.
Lowercase m is a continuation of lowercase n, but with one more push up and curve around.
Learning to recognize these patterns is incredibly helpful for children to master handwriting with correct directionality.
Once I realized this, I could never go back to teaching handwriting starting with Aa and ending at Zz.
MAGIC C
Now we are ready to learn Magic C!
Students love this formation.
I teach letter Cc, and then once students have mastered Cc, I teach them the letters that start with making a “magic c” such as lowercase a, lowercase g, lowercase d and lowercase q.
Their hand/brain connection remembers that movement of the magic c so this trick becomes incredibly helpful with their handwriting.
ZIG ZAG LETTERS
This is the last formation we learn!
Below I show examples of the preaching activities we do before learning a new group of letters.
I tell students that ZIG ZAG letters have lines that go at an angle like the edge of a triangle.
This group of has letters including Vv, Ww, A, Zz, etc.
My comprehensive handwriting unit comes with everything you nee to teach students all 52 letters of the alphabet.
Each activity even comes in two differentiated versions so it is easy to provide scaffolding.
This will 100% take the guesswork out of how to teach your students to write with correct directionality.
Plus… this makes handwriting FUN for students and ZERO prep for you!
I even include pre/post assessments and handwriting booklet covers to help you stay organized.
I offer a FREE SAMPLE of these handwriting pages so you can see how well they work with your students!
Teaching students to recognize how letters are formed just makes sense.
"This is the best resource I have found for handwriting. I love how the lessons have days on them to keep me organized."
CLICK HERE TO PRINT THE FREE WORKSHEETS
PURCHASE THE COMPLETE KIT
“This is a wonderfully complete handwriting curriculum! Everything from this seller is well thought out and consistently reliable! Plus it's CUTE!”
“These hand writing pages are amazing to use with kindergarten students. I have seen an incredible improvement in their letter formation and handwriting neatness! I use this resource every day!”
“After searching for months for handwriting lessons that were easy to follow, organized, and actually work for my kids, I finally came across this. It did not disappoint in any aspect.”
JUNE 2023 UPDATE!
After many requests for additional handwriting practice pages, I have finally completed our brand new handwriting extension pack!
This kit comes complete with:
Follow up practice pages for lessons taught in our curriculum
Formation review with all letters in each group on one page
Assessments and progress reports
Awards for student achievement…. and so much more!
READ THE REVIEWS ON TPT
“This unit is comprehensive, simple to teach, easily understood by students, paced appropriately in an order that makes sense! Awesome! :)”
“A very thoughtful sequentially-organized product. Parents will be able to see the purpose behind practicing handwriting at a young age.”
“As all your other products I love this one also! Thank you!”
“I cannot wait to use this next year! I've struggled to find a way to teach handwriting and this seems to be the answer I've been looking for!”
