Just how fast should a kindergarten teacher go with teaching handwriting to kindergarten? This is my first year to teach K and some of my students do well with this, while others don't know how to hold a pencil. The other teacher jumped right in and started having them to write on line paper. How can they do this if they don't know how to form letters at all? Any advice would be wonderful! Thanks
I don't think it is appropriate for them to write on lined paper to begin with, they need to focus on forming the letters correctly first. I would train proper grip and capital first letter--rest lowercase with name to right from the start. They should be able to do lined paper by end of K, I would think.
I usually have the students trace over dotted letters, make letters using play doh, form letters in sand, trace letters in the air,etc. Children will get frustated if they feel that they can't get the printing on lined paper right. Same with holding a pencil, try to practice as a group rather than pointing it out to a child who is trying to write, this can also lead to frustration.
I have taught kindergarten for 8 years. I have the children trace the dotted letters as we learn each letter. They can then turn the paper over and try to write the letter on the back. As I teach each letter, we write the ones we have done on the back for practice. I do not introduce lined paper until after Jan. The children can practice writing their name by writing it on all their worksheets etc. I start with capital letters and then in Jan. change to capitals and lower case letters. At a center you can leave out paper and pencils and have the students practice their writing by playing postoffice or writing letters to people.I teach a new letter each week and review the other ones as we go along. chalk boards are great for practicing their letters.
I use both unlined and lined paper. Over 90% of my class went to preschool at our school, so they already know how to form many of the letters. I model everything I do on the board as if there were lines. For example, my top line and middle dotted line are always blue and the bottom line is always red. The reading series we use starts the kids learning a letter a day for 26 days. No sounds, just letter recognition at the beginning. I have tried using the reproducibles that have lines for practice writing and those that just have a box. The kids have a much easier time writing using the dotted line as a guide. However, this may not be the way you teach, so you have to do what is comfortable to you and your students.
We teach lowercase and capital at the same time because of so many similarities in letter formation. We use D'Nealian.
I have about three students in my class who haven't the slightest idea how to grasp a pencil. I use a device that another teacher showed me using two rubber bands, ribbon and a bead. This helps the child hold their pencil in place. Let me know if you are interested in seeing what this looks like. Register and send me a private message and I can e-mail you a picture of it. It's very simple to make.
Originally posted by DizneeTeachR We use highlighters to have them copy over.
That's what I do too. I like it better than dot letters because it gives the kids thick line to trace and it's easier to see their handwriting vs. the dots.
I wouldn't use lined paper until Feb. or March. Letter formation is the most important thing to focus on in the beginning of the year.
My daughter has been in kindergarten since July (year round school) and from day one her teacher had all the students use lined paper and write their name using capital and lower case letters. My daughter knew how to write her name using caps (she was in preschool) but never used lower case. I can't believe how offended I was when her teacher sent home her beautiful written name (all in caps) with red marker correcting her (the first week!). It is so different being the parent than the teacher!
That is hard. I know when I first started teaching pre-k I taught all my kids to write in caps, because I thought it was easier (which it is). I realized that I wasn't really helping the child, since they were going to have to write in lowercase in K, so I stopped. I still focus more on them recognizing the uppercase letter in Pre-K, but do exposed them to both.
Kindergarten Handwriting
