Handwriting the fun way

by Bec Smith
(Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia)

Hi, I was always finding that my students were not keen to do handwriting, particularly with pages from a photocopy book. I wanted to make handwriting purposeful for them, but also fun, as I had quite a few students that needed a lot of assistance with writing legibly.

I came up with the idea of deciding with the students to make up a silly sentence (alliteration) usually 4 to 5 words, all starting with the letter. We focus on this silly sentence for that day/week. The kids had a ball with it and looked forward to handwriting every time.

At the beginning of the lesson I would give an explicit lesson on writing the letters, first capitals then lower case. During the instructions, the students (grade 1/2) would sit and watch, then when asked they would do their capital letters (5 in a row)then repeat the process for the lower case. Whilst they were writing, I had a chance to roam and assist/check students writing.

Once they had completed their letters, we wrote the silly sentence. After they had completed their work, they were allowed to draw a picture in relation to the sentence. E.g. "Silly sharks singing songs" etc.

The students writing improved dramatically, and it also gave me a chance to teach spelling concepts as well. When we had gone through all of the alphabet, we would make up sentences based on blends e.g. 'ch'..... "Cheeky chimps chomping chocolate" etc.

The lesson would usually take about 20 minutes, depending on how much time you allowed for the students to do their pictures. Hope this gives you an inspiration to do handwriting a different way that is fun and easy with any grade and age.