Handwriting Fun!

Since returning from Winter Break, my littles have been workin' hard on letter formation and name writing! We have come SO far!

Right before break, I sent home a laminated copy of my Name Writing Templates for each student. (follow the link or see the photo below!) 

So many parents emailed me sweet pictures of their babes using finger paints, dry erase markers, playdough, and all sorts of materials to practice their names at home! I was amazed at how many of them came back after break so confident in naming the letters in their names and knowing how to form them! 

In our classroom, we are super motivated by anything new. Brand new materials (no matter how simple!) are always exciting, so we do our best to switch up the way we make our letters on the regular. Of course, our Handwriting Without Tears Pencils for Little Hands and paper are always available for use at our Writing Center. 

However during whole group Table Time, we love trying the variations below! 

It doesn't get much simpler than shaving creme on the table! Messy for sure, but you learn to embrace the mess real quick in a classroom full of 3-5 year olds! ;) Yes it ends up everywhere, but so worth it when they are willingly tracing their names all over!  

Salt Trays are a quick and easy way to check in with students to see how they are doing on Letter of the Week formation:

Weekly Writing Journals! Our students journal at the minimum once per week. We practice skills such as name writing, forming our letter of the week and making pictures of items that begin with our letter of the week, we draw picture reactions to read-alouds and teachers handwrite their dictaions, we create photos for moms and dads...the topic changes all the time. But parents LOVE to flip through these whenever visiting our classroom. Every page is dated and it is SO neat to see handwriting progression from the beginning of the year. 

The Letter School App is fabulous as well! Our classroom is fortunate to have a class set of iPads for students to use for activities such as these. This download is amazing at teaching and encouraging proper letter formation! Plus the app follows our rule of "Always Start Your Letters At The Top!" 

Bulleted below are some of my go-to's when helping my students work on their letter formation and letter-sound awareness. These tips work in the classroom and at home! There is no doubt that children grasp a concept with a little more ease when they are able to practice at home and at school! Here are some things you may find helpful:

-Practice pointing to and saying the name of each letter in your child’s name and have them repeat the letter names to you. For example, you could start by saying “Your name starts with “S”. “S” says ssss.”

-When writing, hold the writing tool correctly. Your child will be watching both how you make the letters and how you hold the crayon or pencil. Help the child to hold the writing tool while not grasping it too high or too low.

-Start every letter at the top.

-Write on paper strips with a smiley face in top left corner, to show where the “top” is

-Students who are between the ages of 3 and 4 years begin the name writing process by forming all uppercase letters. If your class uses the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum, you may use lowercase if you and your child’s teacher think that your child is ready.

-Students who will be preparing to enter Kindergarten are encouraged to begin practicing writing using an uppercase letter for their first letter, with the rest of the letters in lowercase. They are also encouraged to begin working on recognizing and forming the letters in their last names. If they are not quite ready, it is ok! Continue to practice name writing using all uppercase letters and progress when your child feels confident in doing so :) 

Happy Handwriting!