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Handwriting Booklet Final

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

136 views31 pages

Handwriting Booklet Final

Uploaded by

mohammed Ali Mohammed al ghanim

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You are on page 1/ 31

My

Journal
Name: _________________________ Grade: ______
Welcome
This booklet is designed to help you improve your handwriting.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE GOOD HANDWRITING?

Handwriting is an essential skill for both children and adults.

For younger children:

Handwriting activates the brain more than keyboarding because it involves more complex
motor and cognitive skills.
Handwriting contributes to reading fluency because it activates visual perception of letters.
Handwriting is a predictor of success in other subjects, because good handwriting has a
positive impact on grades.

As children get older:

Many standardised assessments are based on written work, particularly in time-limited
written examinations. Without fast and legible handwriting, students will miss out on learning
opportunities, under-achieve and may fall behind. Good handwriting remains as a major
form of assessment for many formal qualifications.
Illegible handwriting can cause poor self-esteem. Poor self-esteem can trigger loss of
confidence.
Children who experience difficulty mastering handwriting may avoid writing and produce
poor written work. Children with poor handwriting will find it hard to proof read their own
work. They will then fail to spot their mistakes and their confidence may dip even lower.
Examiners need to decipher what is written. Otherwise, pupils will achieve lower marks,
even where the content may be good. Many state standardised assessments and
handwritten essays emphasise the importance of handwriting. Without fast and legible
handwriting, students may miss out on learning opportunities and under-achieve
academically.
Handwriting is critical to creative, well-crafted text affecting both fluency and the quality of
the composition. Legible writing that can be produced comfortably, at speed and with little
conscious effort allows a child to attend to the higher-level aspects of writing composition
and content. Handwriting contributes to better writers. Children who have mastered it are
better, more creative writers.
Handwriting is crucial for note taking. Taking notes by hand is vital for all students of all
ages because it improves attention, comprehension, and results. Students’ notes must be
self-legible, otherwise they are worthless.

PLEASE MAKE SEVERAL PHOTOCOPIES OF THE PRACTICE PAGES OF

THIS BOOKLET BEFORE COMPLETING THE EXERCISES.
Warming up

When you write, you use muscles in your hand, wrist and
shoulder. If you don’t write very often, your hand might cramp
or get tired easily. Spending a couple of minutes doing the
following warm-up exercises will help the muscles in your hand
get stronger and more flexible.

Stretch and wriggle your fingers Make a fist and then stretch
for a few seconds. out your hand.

Touch each finger to your thumb. Play an imaginary piano

Try it to your favourite tune! on the table.

Move your wrists in a circle. Roll your shoulders

forward and back
Warming up
Are you sitting comfortably?

Before you write, ask yourself...

• Do I have a table/hard surface to write on?

• Can I rest my hands easily on the table/surface?

• Are my arms and shoulders relaxed?

• Can I place my feet flat on the floor?

• Do I have enough light?

• Do I have enough space?

TIP: If you’re doing a

long piece of writing,
give your hand a rest
from time to time.
New words
Some of the words used in this booklet might be new to you.

The table below gives the meaning of some words that you will come across.

Capital letters The large letters in the alphabet also known as

uppercase. For example, ‘capital A’.

Descenders Five letters of the alphabet that have tails that dip below
the line. The five letters are: g y p q and j

Doodle A simple drawing, using shapes or pictures.

Grip How you hold your pen or pencil between your fingers
and thumbs.

Letter formation Means how letters are shaped. If letters are formed
properly, they are neat and easy to read.

Pangram A sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet.

Style The individual way each person writes.

Small letters Also known as lowercase, for example ‘small a’.

Choosing a pen

Have you ever heard the saying ‘Always use the right tool for the job’?

Think of your pen as your handwriting tool. The right pen can help avoid
smudging and make your writing look smarter. It can also prevent hand
strain. Picking the right one for you can be tricky because there are so many
different types.

Pens come in all shapes and sizes and you might have to try out a few before
you find the one you like.

Ask yourself:

• Is it short or long, thick or thin?

• Does it have a cushioned grip?

• Is it smooth to the touch or bumpy?

• Is it heavy or light?

A pen with a thick barrel or a cushioned grip is easier to hold and can be more
comfortable to write with. Shiny or very slim pens can be slippery to hold and
could cause your hand muscles to strain.

Pens that write thickly may be smoother to write with and fine nib pens
may help you write more neatly.

Tip: Try out different nib types

and see which ones you like
best.
How to hold your pen

Hold your pen firmly, but without squeezing, between fingers and thumb.

Top tips for getting started

1. Warm up your hand muscles with some exercises.

See page 3.

2. Choose a time when you’re not feeling rushed.

3. Don’t worry about what to write – start with

the doodles on the next page, copy a few lines
from a book or write out some of the words or
sentences from Handwriting Practice pages.

4. Try out some pens – pick one that writes

smoothly but doesn’t smudge easily.
Doodles

These shapes are found in all the letters of the alphabet.

Practising them will help your handwriting.

Lines Practise here

Waves and mounds Practise here

Are you left-handed?
For every 100 people, about 7 write with their left hand.

If you write with your left hand, you can’t see what you are
writing. Left-handers solve this problem in different ways.

Some people hold the pen or pencil higher up.

Top 5 tips

1 People should write with their preferred writing

hand.

2 Grip the pen higher up so that you can see your

writing. Hold it at least 2cm (about 2 finger-tips)
away from the tip of the pen.

3 Turn your page to the right.

4 Don’t use notebooks with a spiral binding.

5 Make sure there is plenty of room to your left to

move your arm when writing.
Common handwriting problems and
solutions
1. Running out of steam

Does your handwriting start off well and then get more untidy as you write,
like this?

This is probably because your hand is getting tired or cramped.

Fix it
• Don’t try to write too much at one time.
• Take plenty of breaks.
• Regular writing will help your hand become stronger,
and with practise, you will be able to write for longer without tiring.

• Doing some of the hand exercises on page 6 will also help.

2. Problem letters

Some letters can cause confusion if they are not carefully formed.
For example this ‘t’ looks like an ‘r’ and this ‘a’ could be a ‘u’.

Check your handwriting for letters that might be unclear.

Fix it
• Take a look at the standard style of handwriting in the middle section
of this magazine or look at other handwriting styles that you find easy
to read. Try writing the letter in the new way – first by itself, and then
in words.
• The more you practise, the easier it will get.
Common handwriting problems
and solutions
3. Spacing

Getting the spacing right is an important part of handwriting. Some people

have very small spaces between their letters like this:

small letter spacing

Other people have small spaces between their words like this:

small word spacing

This can make our handwriting harder to read. Look at what happens when
better spacing is put between the words or letters on both these samples:

small letter spacing

better letter spacing
small word spacing
better word spacing

Fix it
If you think your writing is cramped, try stretching it out to see if it makes
it easier to read. This will slow you down at first but with practise it will get
easier. As a guide, spaces between words should be around the width of
a pen. For spaces between letters, your letters should only ‘touch’ with
hooks or tails, not with the actual letter shape.

goal goal
Common handwriting problems and
solutions
4. Size of letters

Some people write all their letters the same size. If you would like to give your
handwriting a more standard appearance, start each sentence with a large
capital letter and end the sentence with a full stop.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

5. Keeping it on the line

Make sure your letters sit on the line.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Remember: all letters should sit on the line except for these six letters.

gjpyqf
These letters are called ‘descenders’ because their tails ‘descend’ or go below
the line.

Tall letters reach almost to the top of the line – there are six tall letters.

bdhtlk
Look at the sentence below and see how the letters are placed on the line.
Write out the sentence and practise placing the letters correctly on the line
below:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Staying on the line is much easier if you write slowly.

Common handwriting problems
and solutions
6. Making mistakes

We all make mistakes! If you make a mistake when you’re writing:

• Do use a corrector fluid if you have it handy. For example, Tippex.

• Do look at the shape of the letter and see if it can be changed easily.
For example, a ‘c’ can easily be changed into ‘a’ or ‘d’ or ‘o’.

• Don’t write over letters if they are a different shape for example:
writing ‘w’ over ‘s’.

Fix it.
If you can’t start again, put brackets around your mistake and draw a line
through it. This is better than trying to write over a word (which usually
makes it look worse). It also looks neater than scribbling the word out.

Mary,
Your mother rang this
(morming) morning at 10.
Ring her when you get back.
Liz

TIP: Practise what you want to write on a spare piece of paper.

Write a few drafts until you are happy that you have no mistakes
When to keep it neat

The neatness of your handwriting is important if someone is going to read it.

Here’s Jennifer’s shopping list.

It’s not very neat, but that’s ok because Jennifer is the only person who
is going to read it.

Write a note to yourself here in the second box.

Here’s a note she wrote to her sister, Ann. She kept it as neat as she could so
that it would be easy to read.

Write this note for someone else in the second box.

Now, practice tracing and writing out the paragraphs on the following pages.
Pre-Cursive Handwriting Practice
Name: Date: