Libby Public School Series: Other ways to practice handwriting

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For most kids handwriting is not fun or a  preferred activity. It is something that is part of school. Some kids struggle so much with writing that it becomes a trigger for dys-regulation and out of control behavior. We are not talking about that today though. This post is for those kids that want to write and try hard, they may have struggles with letter formation, memory, sizing and spacing of the letters or the speed (fluency) with which to write. Writing is largely influenced by language, it is the way to express ideas and thoughts. What is writing if you don't understand what letters are, that letters make words, words make sentences, sentences make paragraphs. If the language piece is in tact handwriting is a fine motor skill that can be learned and improved upon with practice. When language is compromised writing may become an exercise in copying with little meaning. Just writing letters and or words is not much fun. However Today I will be giving you some ideas of how to practice writing in a playful and fun way.
  • Hang Man: Make sure when writing the letters to try to write them neatly and all the same size. One person picks a word and counts the letters. Put a line for each letter. The other person will start naming letters, if they pick the wrong letter you draw a body part on the hangman. The goal is to guess the word before you are hanging. 
  • Figure Eight: The figure eight is a great number to play around with with different colors and moving in different directions left, right, up and down, large and small, slow and fast. 
  • Writing a story with illustrations: Write your own story and draw pictures with it
  • Write a journal with pictures: Write about your own adventures in a journal (make sure to put the date, when reading back your adventures years later it is fun to see a date)
  • Making a card: Folding a sheet of paper in half. Use a ruler and a pencil to draw lines for text. (the text could be anything from Happy fathers day, Thinking of You, I Love You, Hello), With a pencil write the text, add a line who it is for and who it is from. Once it is written in pencil you can trace it with a marker and erase the lines. Draw a picture to accompany the text. You can do the same for the envelope to write the address in the case you want to mail the card
  • Write a Letter: Write a letter to a friend or loved one who you are not able to see right now
  • Guess What: Draw a picture and the other person (s) has to guess what it is 
  • Categories: Pick a category (e.g. fruits, car makes, colors, animals, countries) set a time for one minute and write as quickly as many words in that category, compare with the other person, or  if you are by yourself do it again a few days later and see if you can improve on your number. The words do need to be legible in order to count
  • Make a comic: Divide a page in 4 or more boxes, draw a story in pictures and use text bubbles to add conversations.
Writing is a great and useful tool to express and share our toughs and ideas.The saying "Practice Makes Perfect" sums it up for handwriting, have some fun with the above activities while practicing handwriting. 

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Comments

  1. Rum TanFebruary 27, 2023 at 11:37 PM

    The correct formation of words or alphabets can be done with good handwriting. Letters must be the correct height in relation to each other – if the height of your letters is wrong, your writing will be difficult to read. If you particularly admire a different style, get some tracing paper and start to copy it – the more you imitate a particular way of writing, the easier it will be to bring elements of that into your own script. Starting a daily journal will give you a reason to practise your handwriting every day – if only for five minutes. Little and often is best. A good English teacher can help you to improve your handwriting and more expressive.

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