Learning Objectives:
- Improving both reading and writing skills
- Practice in reading aloud to others
- Expressing one’s thinking and feeling through pleasing handwriting
Materials:
- Cursive Alphabet Chart
- Lined paper (Print your own from this template)
Tools:
- Your favorite books
- Pens (blue and black)
Steps:
- Start the activity with exercise and letter practice “in the air”. It may be helpful here to tape the alphabet chart on a wall and use fingers to “trace” (not touch) the letters as they practice from 4-5 feet away.
- Time to create their own alphabet charts. Go over practice papers, “perfecting” the starred letters from Activities 1 & 2, and when confident they are satisfied with each, write out their alphabets on cardstock or heavier paper. This chart will be for their own personal reference -creativity and individuality counts here! This chart will be their own model from now on (or until they get more experienced next year!)
- Read a favorite story aloud to a listener at home. Ask the listener to pick a favorite sentence.
- Practice writing that sentence in cursive on lined paper. Ask the listener to read it aloud to check for legibility. Now add surrounding sentences, until an entire paragraph is complete. Again, check for legibility as all available readers read the same thing!
- Give the writer some time to go back to lined paper and practice the letters that have given him/her the most trouble, and try for star * quality in each line completed.
- Remember to relax hand and body at the end of each complete line.
- To continue into the “homework phase”, students now write their own, or find a favorite short story, and copy into cursive. Artistic students will, of course, want to illustrate with their own drawings. Encourage putting the final “best copy into a book format, with cover pages, a title, etc. When completed and satisfied with work, students should read it aloud to their family and friends!