Handwriting Freebie

A couple of years ago while I was still teaching kindergarten, I was looking for something to help the kids with handwriting. I had attended a Handwriting Without Tears conference. I really liked it, but no one else at my school was using it, so I wasn't sure how that would work. I didn't want to confuse the kids. I found other paper that had different colored lines for the sky and grass.

I really liked that one, but I thought I might be able to make own.  decided to go with dirt, grass, and sky. I made individual alphabet charts for the kids and then I printed one poster size to hang in the room. When I first started using it. I would sit at home in the evening with colored pencils shading handwriting paper to match. That, as you can imagine was very time consuming.

I had one of those "DUH" moments ( I have those a lot more frequently than I would like to admit). Why don't I just print some of the charts w/o the letters. I really feel like my kids handwriting improved.

Now that I moved up to first grade, I still use the alphabet charts, but I don't really have to print out the handwriting paper. When we are writing, I'll remind them that the short letters are afraid of flying so keep them down in the grass. When they are writing j, g, y, p, q, or y, I remind them that the tail goes down in the dirt. It's pretty simple, but the kids can really understand the comparison.

After I made my own, I found one very similar at Really Good Stuff  last year. Too bad I didn't sell them my idea, I could have made me some money. : D  I want to share them with you for free. I hope you can use them.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4viYvUGzTgqbjdkb21PN0pyMkE/edit

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4viYvUGzTgqUFdhd0JKdkZqU2M/edit

Kelly