Handwriting

 

Learning to write in cursive is one of the highlights of third grade. Most students are excited about learning to read and write "grown-up" writing. We will begin the year by polishing manuscript writing, but will move in to cursive writing during the second nine weeks of school.

We use a simplified cursive alphabet from Zaner-Bloser that should be easy and enjoyable for your child to learn.

We begin learning cursive writing using lined handwriting paper. After we have mastered al the cursive letters, we will move into writing on notebook paper. Starting around the second semester, after we have mastered all of the letters, Rockets will be required to do all written work in cursive.

Handwriting is very difficult to grade because each person has an individual style of writing. I am not as concerned with having a student make "picture perfect" letters as I am with developing writing that is legible and neat. You will see very few handwriting papers graded because most are simply for practice. Usually, I will put a star or a smiley face above the best letter or word on the paper. Grades are based handwriting practice papers and handwriting on daily work. Handwriting is graded for effort, neatness, and improvement.

You can print a model of what the cursive letters should look like.

If you would like to help your child practice cursive writing at home, you can print out worksheets  from abcteach.com.

Please make sure your child is using the correct strokes in the correct order to form each letter. Sometimes students can make the cursive letters look correct, but they are not making the strokes in the right order. Then they will have difficulty connecting the letters correctly.