Helping With Handwriting.
Remembering how to write letters correctly and being able to do so neatly is proving a little tricky for our girls (who are in Grade one) at the moment. Not being able to write as quickly or as well as they’d like is proving frustrating as their handwriting can’t keep up with their reading, spelling or imaginations. So I put the call out via twitter last week for some ideas and activities to make practising writing and proper letter formation fun and I got lots of great ideas!
Marita from Stuff With Thing and Mummy MacTavish (from Samster.com) suggested writing in shaving cream or other sensory activities and I think the idea to use multi-sensory approach is a great way to help them really feel the correct letter formation, and it’s fun! We’ve used finger paint on a clear plastic table cloth and started out sliding a printed sheet underneath the plastic with the correct letter formation arrows etc. then just writing letters on our own. We also used a similar approach with a sand tray.
Mummy MacTavish also suggested using bath crayons as another, fun and different want to encourage writing. I found this great recipe for home made bath crayons that we will have to try sometime!
Sukurululu reminded me that using our dot markers for writing would also be a fun idea.
Vegemite (aka Sue from 2 kids +2 dogs + a puppy = pandemonium) suggested water painting letters onto concrete, or using side walk paint. Here is a recipe for home made sidewalk paint.
Clever Sue also suggested mnemonics – little rhymes and sayings to help the girls remember how to write each letter. We’ve been using some of these but also making up some of our own.
Marita has also written two great blog posts about how visiting an OT and working with letter families helped her girl improve her writing. Find them here and here.
There are lots of printable worksheets online, but often they are the same old things kids have done before. So, to mix it up and bit and to target some specific letters the girls have trouble with I’ve been using this cool site that lets you create your own handwriting work sheets. I’ve also printed off lots of copies of their handwriting paper with the space above and made them into books so the girls can write and illustrate a story.
My Twitter friends had lots more great suggestions for ways to make practising writing fun and interesting:
Playing hang man.
Drawing shapes and patterns.
Writing a shopping list or wish list.
Writing a story or a play.
Writing letters (we write to a goblin – more on that soon).
Using fancy coloured pens or pencils.
Writing on different things – a note book, black board, white board etc.
Writing with a blunt pencil in rolled out play dough.
And of course any activity that encourages or practices fine motor (small muscle) control is good for handwriting skills.
We’ve had lots of fun practising correct letter formation thanks to my lovely twitter friends.
I’m linking up with JDaniel4’s Mom’s Read, Explore, Learn link up today.
Do you have any new ideas for us to try? What’s your favourite activity to encourage handwriting practice?
Lots of great ideas there.
I’m bookmarking the worksheets page.
Heidi’s grade has a letter of the week they focus on – I just found some little alphabet cookie cutters, so I’m cutting out the letter of the week from cheese to add to her school lunch box. Saving the left over cut out bits of cheese to use on top of pasta bakes :D This week it was little cheese L’s in her lunch box.
Great wrap up kate, thanks for sharing those links, I hadn’t seen the worksheet maker before.
It could also just be a developmental ‘thang’ – my son’s handwriting has improved dramatically between grade one last year and the first half of grade two this year both in terms of speed and readability.
Practice has definitely helped though – he’s simply writing more and more – particularly short stories. One thing we did was encourage him to draw his ideas – that way he could get the idea down quickly and then take his time writing the story around it.
Sand, pudding, and Kool aid mix are great to write in to.
These are fabulous ideas.
We have used most of them, all helping some sort of improvement and they did obviously sink into her resisting brain.
My lil one is in Grade 6 and still had difficult to read writing. Part of the problem was her complete lack of caring about it. Then, both her tutors (who confer with each other) introduced our little artist to the idea that each number and letter is an individual piece of artwork. Within a week, her writing had improved to being not just readable but neat.
Two weeks later and they began developing little swirls… Oh well!
My daughter’s OT had her using a slant board — sort of looks like a large 3-ring binder. That really helped. Also, to help with posture, we tie a stretchy elastic band around the base of the chair so her feet can stay down and play with it.
P.S. She’s 9 though – a bit older. :)
I have some handwriting worksheets on my site that include fun coloring activities. The handwriting generator also lets you print out exactly what you want and in three different sizes, making it appropriate for kids of all ages. Check them out if you get a chance!