Handwriting is a key component of our students' transcription skills that we are keen to improve. Taking inspiration from The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge, we are committing to 15 minutes of handwriting practice daily, in each classroom.
Why should we be investing in handwriting?
Teaching students how to automatically write letters leads to better quality writing. When children can form letters easily, they gain memory space to express more interesting ideas.
Practising letter shapes builds brain pathways for reading, helping students learn and remember letter patterns and words.
Handwriting builds confidence and motivation. When students are able to hand-write easily, they feel better about their writing and are more motivated to write.
Teaching handwriting is easy and fun. Students love it, and we can teach it effectively in just ten minutes a day.
From The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge
Also, it’s now a requirement in the new English Curriculum!
The objective of this meeting was to arrive at a common understanding of the key components of our handwriting programme and what handwriting will look like for our students as they progress through the school and build their skills.
Prior to the meeting, we reviewed these resources, including material from Dr Helen Walls and The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge, plus relevant sections of the new English curriculum.
These provided foundational knowledge that enabled us to draw up a plan for each year group, from beginner writers in Autahi to writers with greater fluency in Mahutonga and Matariki.
Handwriting: the Worser Bay plan
Initial resources
Year 0/1
Curriculum requirements | First 6 months Form most lower-case letters and numerals correctly and legibly, with each letter or numeral on the line. Sit comfortably, apply a comfortable amount of pressure, and use a functional pencil grip, with support.
During the first year Form most lower-case letters and numerals correctly and legibly, with each letter or numeral on the line, and attending to size and spacing. Sit comfortably, apply a comfortable amount of pressure, and use a functional pencil grip, independently.
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Benefits we hope to see | Correct book orientation, sitting position and pencil grip. Increasing hand strength and writing stamina. Correct formation and orientation of letter shapes, starting at the top, sitting on the line. Lower case letters a priority, followed by caps. Correct use of caps and no random mixing of caps and l.c. Growing speed of letter writing. Letter writing develops alongside, and supports, letter i.d. (e.g. especially with tricky mirror image pairings like b/d, m/w, n/u. Growing awareness of relative size (short/tall) of letters, use of descenders, finger spaces. Children are able to write their own names correctly. Growing knowledge of number writing (shape, size, orientation).
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When? 15 mins per day | Taught Caterpillar writing using mini black boards and chalk, 1.45 - 2.00, daily.
(Other opportunities to engage with is knowledge: PHoM, Writing, independent practice, Reading groups.) |
Who? Target writers; differentiation | All Students with a sound grasp of letter shapes may graduate to doing Caterpillar writing in 12mm lined exercise books. |
Which? Which programme or guidance resource will we follow? | Caterpillar writing (provides key language for all component letter shapes). Letters using the same formation are taught together (e.g. c, a, d, g, e). |
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating? | Mini chalkboards and small chalk (to ensure pinchy grip) OR 12mm exercise books.
For Writing: all at tables, a variety of pencils available, including tripod grips.
Erasers in play for corrections. Alphabet cards available for reference.
For those building hand strength/fine motor skills: big writing (outdoor chalk boards, pavement, felt tip pens and large books); beading, Lego, tweezers, drawing and painting, playdough modelling (rolling balls, sausages etc.), PMP and yoga. |
Year 2/3
Curriculum requirements | During the second year Form all letters and numerals legibly, attending to the size, placement and spacing. Consistently practise good posture and comfortable grip when writing.
During the third year Print all letters and numerals correctly and legibly, attending to size, placement, spacing, and slope with ease and automaticity. Consistently practise good posture and comfortable grip when writing across the curriculum.
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Benefits we hope to see | Correct book orientation, sitting position and pencil grip. Continued increase in hand strength and writing stamina. Maintaining correct formation and orientation of letter shapes, starting at the top, sitting on the line.. Lower case letters are a priority, followed by caps. Correct use of caps and no random mixing of caps and lowercase. Growing speed of letters, words and numerals. Letter and word writing develops alongside, and supports, letter i.d. (e.g. especially with tricky mirror image pairings like b/d, m/w, n/u. Growing & continued awareness of relative size (short/tall) of letters, use of descenders, finger spaces. Legibility of letters and words. Growing & continued knowledge of number writing (shape, size, orientation) Introducing slope. Getting into the flow of writing, forming letters correctly every time.
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When? 15 mins per day | Monday - Thursday straight after lunch. Tautoru iti for Spiders. |
Who? Target writers; differentiation | Names of target writers provided here but removed for Blog. |
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Which? Which programme or guidance resource will we follow? | Caterpillar writing language - Casey the Caterpillar Story Helen Wall grouped letters - including capital letters and numbers |
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating? | Books and 6B pencils Sit at tables Dragonflies go to Tautoru Iti classroom
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Year 4
Curriculum requirements | During the fourth year Handwrite with increasing stamina and fluency while maintaining legibility when writing multi-paragraph texts. Organise their writing environment, including seating position and the position of their book.
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Benefits we hope to see | Teaching Considerations from the Curriculum may give you a starting point for this. Students developing greater fluency and legibility leading to improved engagement in writing. Increased self-confidence among target writers. Taking pride. Writing with ease and automaticity when working across the curriculum. |
When? 15 mins per day | 10:45-11:00 |
Who? Target writers; differentiation | Names of target writers provided here but removed for blog. |
Which? Which programme or guidance resource will we follow? | Casey Caterpillar: Handwriting Programme
Practicing spelling patterns.
Phonemes: incorporated. |
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating? | Blackboards and chalk for some Handwriting: initial resources
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Year 5/6
Curriculum requirements | During the fifth year During the sixth year |
Benefits we hope to see | Teaching Considerations from the Curriculum may give you a starting point for this. Students developing greater fluency and legibility leading to improved engagement in writing. Increased self-confidence among target writers. Taking pride. Writing with ease and automaticity when working across the curriculum. |
When? 15 mins per day | 10:45-11:00 |
Who? Target writers; differentiation | Yes
Names of target writers provided here but removed for Blog. |
Which? Which programme or guidance resource will we follow? | Casey Caterpillar: Handwriting Programme |
What? What resources will we use e.g. writing instruments, seating? | In the air, on the carpet, on your hand
Blackboards and chalk for some Handwriting: initial resources
Etymology
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Teachers in years 2-6 have already taken handwriting samples, providing a baseline against which we can measure progress. It will be important to revisit and refine our strategy as we beginning putting our plan into action.
It will be exciting to see what differences to our students writing legibility, fluency and confidence we begin to notice...
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