Friends~With the age of technology, I am seeing a major decline in handwriting development with our elementary students. We are all moving towards techonology as a way to communicate. That is all well and good but there are times when a person/student needs to be able to write a response or sign a check.
My school has begun a search for a new handwritng program for our elementary students. We hope that if we take just a few minutes a day to focus solely on letter formation our students will be free to focus more on the thought process of tasks and not get tripped up about forming the letters.
Let's face it, improving their handwriting helps me out too! Deciphering the phonetic spelling of a first grader can be tricky but if the handwriting is poor, it can be almost impossible.
My friends at Zaner Bloser asked me to review one of their new handwriting products and I couldn't believe the timing!
After visiting their site and looking over sample materials, I found that the program runs from pre school to grade 6. I love that the K-2 products are manuscript. Manuscript allows students to make connections to environmental print and support literacy growth.
Cursive comes into play at the end of 2nd grade and it is a gradual build from the manuscript fundamentals.
Below is the first grade student book and it came with a teacher manuel as well. There are great visuals for the students like the man on the lines below showing where letters need to fall.
Headline
Midline
Baseline
Desender Space
(Desender is great vocabulary word for students!)
The Keys to Legibility are also a great visual for students to self check!
~Shape
~Size
~Spacing
~Slant
One of my total favorite parts is the Handwriting Tutor! Scan the QR code to meet your handwriting tutor!
These little videos are perfect for the handwriting center!
The teacher's manual is filled with more goodies!
The songs are fantastic way to give the students a brain break and also tap into auditory learners.
Each lesson has occupational therapist support too!
One of my favorites was having students practice pushing push pins into foam. The students were encouraged to use the correct pencil grip.
Thumb
Index
Middle Finger
(GREAT for my kinesthetic learners!)
Be sure to click DIGITAL GOODIES to grab some FREE sample masters to try out in your classroom!
I am really impressed with Zaner Bloser and their handwriting program. Lots of great hands on lessons that meet manydifferent learning styles!
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