Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers Kindergarten

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Choosing the right handwriting practice sheets is important to make handwriting practice helpful and fun. Here are some things to look for when choosing handwriting practice sheets for your child. Capital or Lowercase, Printing or Cursive? Handwriting practice sheets should include guide lines so children know where to put their letters. Traditional handwriting programs usually use a 3-line system to show where the top, middle, and bottom of each letter should be. Look for handwriting practice sheets that reinforce how to form new letters with arrows, numbers, or other helpful hints. Is it Fun?

Take a look at the Frog Jump Capitals that start at the left corner (F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M). Notice several of these letters are more complex with diagonal lines. This can be a challenge for some students that struggle with the pre-writing lines, specifically diagonals. Additionally, this grouping of letters includes several different pencil stroke patterns, which can also be a challenge for some students. Vertical cursive eliminates complicated loops and curlicues. It’s easy to write and read. We keep cursive simple and allow students to develop their own personal style as they become confident in their writing skills.Children learn their lowercase letters first, and then transition to capitals. In cursive, we teach lowercase letters first to help children learn cursive skills in the easiest, most efficient way. It’s also developmentally planned to start with letters that are familiar from printing, making an easier transition from print to cursive. Poor handwriting might just come down to mechanics. Simply holding a pencil at the wrong angle or using the wrong grip can make a child’s writing sloppy or hard to read. It can also lead to pain in the wrist, hand, or fingers. If your child is uncomfortable, they might try to avoid writing. Your handwriting practice sheets should use the same kind of lines that your child is used to seeing in their handwriting curriculum. Consistency will help kids practice without getting confused or frustrated. Reinforcement for Forming Letters Correctly When focusing on the starting point for letters, Handwriting Without Tears groups the upper case letters into three catagories, depending on where the pencil starts:

I have had the exciting opportunity to be trained in the Handwriting Without Tears program, so I was honored when they asked me if I would be willing to review and host a GIVEAWAY of a few of their products here on Mama OT! Many handwriting practice sheets will include arrows, numbers, or other hints to help kids remember how to form the letters. However, it is important to watch your child forming their letters and make sure that they are following the correct letter formation. 3. Writing Legibly: Pencil Control I hope you get the opportunity to try out the many wonderful hands-on materials that Handwriting Without Tears has to offer. Cursive leads to personalized writing. As students master cursive, they begin to develop their personalized writing style, which is proven to be faster and more efficient.Children with confident reading abilities typically struggle less with their studies and have a confident approach to their education. If your child is struggling to develop handwriting skills because of a mechanical issue or a condition like dyslexia, dysgraphia, or ADHD, Lumiere Children’s Therapy can help. Our trained Occupational Therapists incorporate the Handwriting without Tears® program to help teach students the writing skills they need to succeed in school and life. We work with you and your child’s teachers to develop a comprehensive plan to meet their physical, cognitive, and developmental needs. Once kids learn how to form their letters, the next step is to give them a lot of practice. This will help them learn to control their pencil and make their letters consistent. The Handwriting Without Tears program uses a 2-line system that eliminates the top line to make it easier for kids to see where letters should go. Today’s cursive is not about style, or being fancy. With correct formation habits, students develop the speed and legibility necessary for cursive success.

Grab our Letter B Worksheet for sensory motor practice to form the semicircles that make up this circular letter. This app repeatedly uses the specific terminology and “letter stories” used when teaching children to write letters with the Handwriting Without Tears method (such as “Big line down, frog jump [ribbit sound]…”). Because consistency is an important part of learning, this is really good. A-Z Cotton Swab Cards– Includes upper case and lower case letters. Dot the cards using a cotton swab or laminate the cards and use them over and over again. A-Z Color and Cut Letter Memory Cards– These upper case and lower case letter cards can be used to color for letter formation. Then use them in fine motor matching tasks or in sensory bins.An additional method HWT uses to group uppercase letters is their starting position. This is not my personal method of teaching, as I prefer the developmental sequence. While R, is a circular letter, it also contains a diagonal, which segues into the third uppercase letter formation group. The capital letters and numbers in this app are appropriate for Pre-K and Kindergarten students. The lowercase letters in this app are appropriate for Kindergarten students after they have already learned how to write their capital letters. Because this app requires precision, it will be difficult for the child who is impulsive, does not listen to or follow directions, cannot slow down, has low frustration tolerance, or has difficulty isolating their index finger/pinching a sponge/holding a stylus. The Wet-Dry-Try app is sensitive to mistakes and will make a child try again if they don’t start in the correct starting spot, pull their finger off the tablet in the middle of a stroke, start to reverse the stroke and go the wrong way, or go too far off the line/don’t stop at the end of a line. It can be pretty frustrating. Based on my experience with this app so far, it should primarily be used with children who are able to pay attention to the instructions, can imitate a demonstration, have enough frustration tolerance to handle mistakes and multiple attempts, and can control their arm/hand/finger movements. As the earliest stage of literacy development, emergent literacy is the first moment that a child begins to understand letters and words. While many of the behaviors of the emergent literacy stage are not fully formed and irregular, these are still some of the first signs that a child is beginning to form literacy ability. Most children learn to write using the “ tripod grasp ,” which is the most functional grasp. In this grasp, a person holds the pencil about an inch from the tip, balanced between the thumb and index finger. The middle finger should be used as a resting/balance point.

It encourages correct letter formation, including starting position, sequence, directionality (facing the right way) and overall height.Their second grouping is the starting corner capitals (H, K, L, U, V, W, X, Y, Z). This grouping of letters also includes a mix of straight line letters, diagonals, and curves. The fact that the app tells you exactly how to phrase the instructions you should use when teaching children letters makes it much easier for the adult. Come on, do we really always say it exactly right? I don’t think so. Left-handed writers are often at a bigger disadvantage when learning to write than their right-handed classmates. The mechanics of writing left-handed are different and require a modified teaching method. Rather than pull a pencil across a piece of paper, for example, left-handed students must push it away from their hand, which can cause skipping or breaks in letters and lines.