Cursive Writing Set

This year I made a set of cursive handwriting activities for my elementary class. So far the children have only been working with the Sassoon Montessori font and regular print. However, after much discussion in my college, I have decided that writing in cursive is much better for my class. Since my children are all elementary aged [6-11yrs] and I do not have to give them much instruction, I have set up these activities so that the children can naturally progress without much support from me.

This photo shows all the materials in the set. In the top left are the control cards which show the correct placements and formation for all lower case and capital letters. Below this are a few practice handwriting sheets that I downloaded from here.  These sheets focus on individual letters. These are the sheets the children start off with. Everything else is handwritten. I felt it was important for the children to see real writing instead of perfect printed text. In the top middle are a few lists of words which the children can copy out once they have practiced with all the letter sheets. In the top right are cards which contain phrases written on cursive paper. The children can choose a card and copy it into their cursive handwriting book [bottom of pic]. The final cards are phrases written in pen on plain paper. The children are shown how to place the line guides behind their plain paper and copy a phrase or choose their own phrase.

 Cursive writing control cards made using a download from here.

This is an example of a saying I wrote using a pen on plain paper. I have never before written in cursive and was surprised that it looks so lovely. Making the handwritten materials took a very long time but it has paid off. The children are so eager and excited to work through all the materials. Even the children who showed not interest in handwriting are now spending long periods of time practicing. In fact, last week I had two boys who worked on their cursive handwriting for almost the whole workcycle.