Homeschooling 4 Him

Handwriting Without Tears Practice Sheets (Free PDF for Homeschool)

My family loves using the Handwriting Without Tears program in our homeschool. But, we have found that we need more practice than the books provide. I started writing out additional words for my son to practice on handwriting paper, but I was constantly wishing for something better. So, here are some free Handwriting Without Tears practice sheets in PDF format that you can download to use in your homeschool- and tips for how to use them!

Handwriting without tears practice sheets free pdf for homeschool

I only recommend products that I use and that we love. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission for purchases made through those links.

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Get the Bugs Multi-Level Handwriting Pack!

Over 60 pages of handwriting, coloring, bug facts and more delivered right to your inbox! Have fun learning with your kids this spring!

Please check your email for your printable!

.

Why Practicing Handwriting is Important

Handwriting is a crucial skill for all students to learn. However, practicing handwriting has gone out of favor in education recently. Here are some reasons why it is important for your child to learn to write with good handwriting, even in a tech-focused world.

Handwriting Practice Helps Kids Communicate

The reality is that no matter how much technology our world has, it is still helpful to be able to communicate in writing from time to time. Children need to know how to be able to write themselves a note. A handwritten thank-you note is still a great follow-up to a job interview, or a present from a relative.

By practicing handwriting with copywork , children are exposed to great works of literature. This can help to improve writing skills as well, as kids copy the style of famous authors.

Good Handwriting is Helpful for Spelling and Reading

Kids who can read what they have written will have an easier time knowing if they spelled the words correctly. This means that handwriting practice, when done correctly, can also help reinforce spelling for kids.

In addition, when children are using correct spelling they will begin to see connections between the letters that they are writing and the sounds that those letters make within the word. This can help with reading skills as well.

Practicing Handwriting Helps with Learning in Other Subjects

Research shows that having good handwriting is helpful for learning in almost every other subject area. Kids who can write quickly and easily will have a much easier time taking notes on what they are learning or completing written assignments.

Good handwriting can even be helpful in a subject like math that doesn’t use words. Kids who can write numbers neatly and organize them in rows and columns will have a much easier time completing complicated math problems.

Lack of Handwriting Skill can be Frustrating

One of the biggest reasons to use handwriting practice sheets in your homeschool is that struggles with handwriting are often contagious, leading to frustration in other subjects and with school in general.

Kids who struggle with handwriting often get frustrated when they know the answers but can’t communicate what they know through their writing. This can lead to resistance from kids and homeschool burnout for families.

Kids who struggle with handwriting will also have a hard time working independently in any subject area. They may need an adult to sit with them and write down the answers to questions they can solve on their own.

At What Age Should a Child Use Handwriting Practice Sheets?

Handwriting is an important skill for students, even at a young age, so it is ok for kids to begin practicing when they are young.

Most kids should be able to hold a pencil with the correct pencil grip sometime between age 4 and 6. This means that it is especially important for younger kids to develop their fine motor muscles with activities like playdough, cutting and gluing, stringing beads, or playing with blocks. This will help them develop the muscles necessary to hold a pencil correctly.

Fun and age-appropriate practice sheets will help kids develop handwriting skills that will help them in learning other subjects, too. No matter what age your child is, it is important to make handwriting practice fun and attainable for your child’s age and maturity level.

Handwriting without tears practice sheets free pdf for homeschool

Which Handwriting Skills Should My Child Practice?

Good handwriting is made up of several components. Kids should work through each of these components in order as they are learning handwriting.

1. Pencil Grip

The foundation of good handwriting is the correct pencil grip . By age 6, kids should be holding their pencil with a tripod, or three finger, pencil grasp. If your child is not using the correct pencil grip, this is the first thing to correct when practicing handwriting.

2. Letter Formation

It is critical that children learn to form their letters correctly. This means that they are writing with the correct strokes, in the right direction, and in the right order.

Many handwriting practice sheets will include arrows, numbers, or other hints to help kids remember how to form the letters. However, it is important to watch your child forming their letters and make sure that they are following the correct letter formation.

3. Writing Legibly: Pencil Control

Once kids learn how to form their letters, the next step is to give them a lot of practice. This will help them learn to control their pencil and make their letters consistent.

This step takes time and practice to develop. Extra handwriting practice sheets can help to reinforce what students are learning in their handwriting curriculum.

4. Letter Sizing

It is important that children pay attention to where their letters fall on the lines. Are the tall letters touching, but not crossing, the top line? Are the tails of the letters hanging down below the bottom line?

The Handwriting Without Tears program is unique in that is only uses 2 lines, instead of the usual 3. This can make it easier for kids who struggle with the number of lines on traditional handwriting paper. However, students who are used to using Handwriting Without Tears paper should use handwriting practice sheets that have 2-line paper as well.

handwriting without tears uppercase m

You can learn more about the Handwriting Without Tears program in my Handwriting Without Tears Preschool Curriculum Review .

5. Letter Spacing

Another important consideration for writing legibly is the spacing between letters and words. Kids need practice to learn how to space the letters in a word close together, but not touching.

Children also need to learn how to leave space between words. This is usually not intuitive for kids when they first learn to write. It can help to teach them to put a finger on their paper where they need to leave a space. This can help them judge how much space to leave between words.

6. Efficiency

Over time, as children continue to practice handwriting, they will learn to write more quickly and easily. This efficiency will help them be able to use their handwriting skills when learning a variety of different subjects.

If you are struggling to teach any of these skills in your homeschool, check out my post on how to improve handwriting for children for more advice and tips.

Handwriting without tears practice sheets free pdf for homeschool

What to Look for in Handwriting Practice Sheets

Choosing the right handwriting practice sheets is important to make handwriting practice helpful and fun. Here are some things to look for when choosing handwriting practice sheets for your child.

Capital or Lowercase, Printing or Cursive?

First, it is important to look for printables that focus on the kind of letters your child is learning. Most kids learn to print capital letters first, then lowercase letters, and finally to write in cursive. Kids usually spend a year or two working on each of these skills before moving on to the next one.

Make sure the handwriting practice sheets that you choose focus on the kinds of letters, and even the specific letters that your child is learning.

What Kind of Lines?

Handwriting practice sheets should include guide lines so children know where to put their letters. Traditional handwriting programs usually use a 3-line system to show where the top, middle, and bottom of each letter should be.

The Handwriting Without Tears program uses a 2-line system that eliminates the top line to make it easier for kids to see where letters should go.

Your handwriting practice sheets should use the same kind of lines that your child is used to seeing in their handwriting curriculum. Consistency will help kids practice without getting confused or frustrated.

Reinforcement for Forming Letters Correctly

It is important that when kids are practicing handwriting, they are forming their letters correctly each time they write them. Practice is only helpful if kids are practicing correctly.

The common saying is that “practice makes perfect,” but a better saying is that “perfect practice makes progress.” Practicing forming letters incorrectly won’t help your child. In fact, it will cement bad habits and make it harder for your child to learn to write correctly.

Look for handwriting practice sheets that reinforce how to form new letters with arrows, numbers, or other helpful hints.

It is also important to make sure that handwriting practice is fun for your child. Kids will be more likely to want to practice if they enjoy doing so. Look for themed practice sheets or worksheets with fun facts to copy. This will help kids enjoy their handwriting practice more.

Handwriting without tears practice sheets free pdf for homeschool

How to Use Handwriting Practice Sheets

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your PDF Handwriting Practice Sheets!

Use a Laminator

The best way to get the most out of your printables is to laminate the pages. Pages that are laminated will hold up better to repeated use by multiple kids. In addition, your child can write on laminated pages with a dry erase marker.

If you don’t have one yet, a single sheet laminator is a fantastic investment for your homeschool. You will save the money that you spend on a laminator many times over as it will allow you to re-use consumable resources!

If you don’t want to invest in a laminator, you can also slip individual practice sheets into a plastic page protector sleeve to get the same result.

Focus on Quality over Quantity

When kids are using handwriting practice sheets, it is important to focus on quality over quantity. Make sure that your child is doing only as much handwriting as they can do carefully and well. If that’s only one page, or even part of a page, it is better to practice less with correct letter formation.

Sometimes, when kids have too much to do, they get overwhelmed and just try to “get it done” rather than doing their best work. Avoid this by asking your child to do less.

Free PDF Download: Handwriting Without Tears Practice Sheets for Your Homeschool!

This bug-themed multi-level handwriting practice sheet pack includes both 3-line and 2-line Handwriting Without Tears style practice pages for both capital and lowercase letters. Enjoy handwriting practice with your kids this spring with this fun resource!

Similar Posts

Our Homeschool Schedule for Kindergarten

Our Homeschool Schedule for Kindergarten

Here’s how we created a homeschool schedule that allows us to do kindergarten in 2 hours or less every day! The Biggest Secret to Homeschool Schedules Here’s the biggest secret I learned as a new homeschool mom: Homeschool is not public school. Full stop. When I first started, I thought that since the public schools…

5 Tips for Choosing an Online Homeschool Vocabulary Curriculum

5 Tips for Choosing an Online Homeschool Vocabulary Curriculum

As a homeschool parent, finding the right online vocabulary curriculum for your child can be a challenge. With so many options available, it can be difficult to know which one is the best fit for your student’s learning style and needs. In this post, I’ll share five tips for choosing an online homeschool vocabulary curriculum…

Free Bible Verse Tracing Sheets

Free Bible Verse Tracing Sheets

In our homeschool, memorizing scripture is an important part of our lessons. I wanted to find a way for my kids to practice the verses they were learning as a part of our homeschool time. So I created these free Bible verse tracing sheets to help them practice handwriting while learning verses. And I’m excited…

Teaching Math to Students with Dyslexia at Home

Teaching Math to Students with Dyslexia at Home

Math can be tricky for students with dyslexia because they see often numbers and math concepts differently. Remembering math facts and solving word problems can be especially hard, and mixing up numbers and misunderstanding math ideas can make it difficult to learn. But, teaching math to students with dyslexia doesn’t have to be hard. In…

The Best Homeschool Schedule Tips for Multiple Grades

The Best Homeschool Schedule Tips for Multiple Grades

Getting started with homeschooling can be a challenge, and one of the hardest parts for many families is creating a homeschool schedule for multiple grades. Even though I’m an experienced homeschool parent and former teacher, I still spend time each school year creating a daily routine for my family that allows me to homeschool multiple…

5 Tips for Your Homeschool College Search

5 Tips for Your Homeschool College Search

As a homeschool student, the process of choosing and applying for a college can seem daunting. But the good news is that as the number of homeschool families has grown in recent years, the higher education industry is adapting too. Many colleges are actively recruiting homeschoolers for their academic achievement, work ethic, and creative thinking….

Thanks for the info!

I’m so glad this was helpful, Kacie!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Handwriting Without Tears ® : General Education Effectiveness Through a Consultative Approach

  • Standard View
  • Article contents
  • Figures & tables
  • Supplementary Data
  • Peer Review
  • Open the PDF for in another window
  • Get Permissions
  • Cite Icon Cite
  • Search Site

Denise K. Donica; Handwriting Without Tears ® : General Education Effectiveness Through a Consultative Approach. Am J Occup Ther November/December 2015, Vol. 69(6), 6906180050p1–6906180050p8. doi: https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.018366

Download citation file:

  • Ris (Zotero)
  • Reference Manager

OBJECTIVE. This study explores the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears ® (HWT) kindergarten printing curriculum in general education through a consultative approach with occupational therapy.

METHOD. One cohort of students was the control ( n = 19), whereas two other cohorts were experimental groups learning printing through the HWT curriculum ( n = 20 each). The Test of Handwriting Skills–Revised (THS–R) was used to collect end-of-year legibility scores for all cohorts.

RESULTS. Both experimental groups individually and both experimental groups combined into one group outperformed the control group on all 10 of the THS–R subtests—scoring significantly higher ( p < .05 using analysis of covariance controlling for age and gender) on 6 of the subtests for the former and 7 for the latter—and on overall score. Large treatment effects were found for the standard score for each experimental group ( d = 0.81, 1.03, and 1.00).

CONCLUSION. This study supports the consultative role of occupational therapy with teachers in general education for handwriting curriculum implementation and the success of HWT for printing instruction.

The role of occupational therapy practitioners in the school system is evolving. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA; Pub. L. 108–446) broadened the scope of the original legislation ( Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1990 ; Pub. L. 101–476) to focus on improving student outcomes, preventing problems, and setting expectations for students with disabilities to achieve high standards ( Jackson, 2007 ). Preventive strategies in the school systems are addressed through mechanisms such as early intervening services (EIS) and response to intervention (RtI; American Occupational Therapy Association [ AOTA], 2011 ; Jackson, 2007 ). IDEA allows occupational therapy practitioners to consult with and sometimes provide direct services for students in general education, especially for students struggling with learning or behavior. This expanded role for practitioners fosters both a consultative and collaborative environment between practitioners and teachers ( AOTA, 2011 ).

  • Occupational Therapy in General Education

Within general education, occupational therapy practitioners may be involved in EIS and RtI. EIS is a provision that allows schools to use some of their federal IDEA funding to provide training for teachers or to fund services for general education students. For example, practitioners may provide consultation regarding education concerns observed in general education students or may be asked to recommend a multisensory handwriting instruction approach to implement schoolwide ( Jackson, 2007 ).

RtI, an example of EIS, is a process that monitors the success of instructional strategies and services that are being implemented individually, in small groups, or classwide ( Jackson, 2007 ). RtI, although implemented differently by state, is typically a three-tiered model in which the first and foundational tier is focused on the effectiveness of education for all students, thus requiring evidence-based curricula and high-quality instruction ( AOTA, 2014 ). Through the RtI model, occupational therapy practitioners may be involved at any level of implementation ( AOTA, 2012 ). Because the importance of handwriting instruction and handwriting skills continues to be documented ( Puranik & Alotaiba, 2012 ), it is an important area of concern for school teachers and administrators that is often addressed by occupational therapy ( Asher, 2006 ; Case-Smith, 2002 ; Hoy, Egan, & Feder, 2011 ). Examples of the practitioner’s involvement in general education at Tier 1 include providing training for school personnel on handwriting strategies, assisting with handwriting screening, and suggesting research-based handwriting curricula ( AOTA, 2011 , 2012 , 2014 ).

When exploring current advancements in the roles of occupational therapy within an RtI model, a recent study of 276 school-based occupational therapists indicated that more than half had been involved in problem-solving teams, coaching and consultation, and one-on-one intervention. Other methods of involvement in RtI included identification of students needing extra support, in-services, progress monitoring, data collection, universal screening, program and curriculum development, and leadership or coleadership of groups ( Cahill, McGuire, Krumdick, & Lee, 2014 ). Occupational therapy practitioners also advocate for occupational therapy services to enhance student education under IDEA provisions ( AOTA, 2011 ).

  • Evidence-Based Practice in General Education

The implementation of EIS and RtI requires evidence to be used in decision making regarding educational practices and curriculum selections. Therefore, successful steps have been taken to ensure that school-based occupational therapy practitioners are equipped to use evidence-based practice in the school setting ( Cahill, Egan, Wallingford, Huber-Lee, & Dess-McGuire, 2015 ). Recent research includes studies that have involved the implementation of occupational therapy–based approaches aligning with RtI in general education. Although this area of research is in its infancy, studies have been published supporting the consultative and collaborative efforts of practitioners and teachers to address student skills in general education ( Howe, Roston, Sheu, & Hinojosa, 2013 ; Ohl et al., 2013 ). In addition, the Write Start program is a recent example of a coteaching model for handwriting skills involving a general education teacher and an occupational therapy practitioner. Multiple studies have documented the effectiveness of this model ( Case-Smith, Holland, & Bishop, 2011 ; Case-Smith, Holland, Lane, & White, 2012 ; Case-Smith, Weaver, & Holland, 2014 ).

Handwriting Without Tears ® (HWT), used in this study, is an established handwriting curriculum historically used by occupational therapy practitioners in traditional one-on-one service delivery but also designed for full-classroom implementation and instruction ( Olsen & Knapton, 2008 ). The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of HWT in general education kindergarten classrooms through teacher-led implementation supported by occupational therapist consultation.

  • Handwriting Without Tears Evidence

Recognizing and incorporating evidence-based interventions are important not only to occupational therapy practitioners but also to other school personnel. Therefore, it is important to review existing evidence for HWT. Most of the published studies support its use in a variety of contexts. Studies have been done on HWT implementation in general education through full-class instruction or with students who have identified disabilities through individual or small-group instruction.

At the preschool level, the full preschool HWT curriculum was supported through full-class implementation with at-risk students in inclusion classrooms at a rural Head Start ( Donica, Goins, & Wagner, 2013 ; Lust & Donica, 2011 ). In addition, specific HWT techniques were supported for name writing and capital letter writing in full-class, small-group, and individual settings with preschool-age students ( Carlson, McLaughlin, Derby, & Blecher, 2009 ; Griffith, McLaughlin, Donica, Neyman, & Robison, 2013 ; LeBrun, McLaughlin, Derby, & McKenzie, 2012 ). Studies have also supported the use of HWT in general education first-grade classrooms ( Hape et al., 2014 ; Roberts, Derkach-Ferguson, Siever, & Rose, 2014 ; Salls, Benson, Hansen, Cole, & Pielielek, 2013 ). However, studies reviewing the use of HWT at the critical developmental grade of kindergarten are limited. Therefore, this study addresses this gap by asking the research question, Will students instructed using the kindergarten HWT curriculum at a private half-day kindergarten program have better end-of-year handwriting legibility scores than students in the same setting taught with teacher-developed lessons using the D’Nealian style of writing?

Research Design

This pilot study used a static group comparison. Because the elementary school administrative decision to implement HWT in the kindergarten classrooms was made near the end of an academic year, a control group was identified as the current students who had been receiving teacher-led handwriting instruction during that year. Therefore, a traditional pretest–posttest design could not be used. Additionally, the instrument used was not standardized for children under age 6 yr, so standard scores could not be calculated for a pretest–posttest comparison because the children were not yet 6 yr old during the pretest. Likewise, because the school administration decided to implement the HWT curriculum schoolwide, a traditional control versus experimental classroom approach was not possible. Instead, the control group was identified as the group of students in kindergarten the year before HWT implementation. The research study was approved by the head of the school and the university institutional review board. Parent permission was received for all study participants.

Participants

The participants were half-day kindergarten students in a private school (kindergarten to 8th grade) in rural eastern North Carolina. Although the school did not specifically use the RtI model, the consultative approach of the occupational therapist with the teachers mirrors a commonly identified expanded role of occupational therapy practice with general education students. All students enrolled in kindergarten during the last month of school were invited to participate in the study as the control cohort. Control students subsequently learned handwriting using HWT in first grade the year after they participated in the study. Likewise, all students in the first-year experimental group (HWT 1) and the second-year experimental group (HWT 2) were invited to participate, but students were not included if they did not have parent permission, withdrew from the school or joined the school during the academic year, or were under age 6 yr at the time of data collection. Therefore, the sample sizes were n = 19 (out of 25) for the control group, n = 20 (out of 29) for HWT 1, and n = 20 (out of 39) for HWT 2. Student demographics are presented in Table 1 .

Data collection occurred consecutively over 3 yr and included data from the control group and HWT 1 and 2. Data collection was completed using the Test of Handwriting Skills–Revised (THS–R; Milone, 2007 ), which was designed to assess a child’s neurosensory integration skill and is implemented to gather data on either manuscript (print) or cursive writing. For this study, the manuscript assessment was used. The test is standardized for children ages 6 yr 0 mo to 18 yr 11 mo and consists of 10 separate subtests. The activities in these subtests are described in Table 2 . The THS–R was administered to one class at a time and took about an hour per class.

The THS–R was selected to measure differences in handwriting skills because it is standardized and allows for a variety of scores to be used for analysis. The overall standard score, scaled subtest scores for each of the 10 subtests, and subsequent percentile scores were determined. Scaled scores have a mean ( M ) of 10 and a standard deviation ( SD ) of 3, whereas standard scores have an M of 100 and an SD of 15. The test–retest reliability was .82 for the total test score, with interrater reliability ranging from .75 to .90 based on the authors of the assessment ( Milone, 2007 ). Unfortunately, no standardized handwriting assessments exist with standard scores for students under age 6 yr, which limits the ability to collect standard scores from the beginning of the kindergarten year. Because the use of standard scores is ideal for data analysis, students younger than age 6 yr (72 mo) at the time of data collection (end of the school year) were excluded from data analysis.

Intervention

Throughout the kindergarten year, the control group received teacher-developed instruction using the D’Nealian style of writing, and HWT 1 and 2 learned printing through the use of kindergarten HWT. At the end of the kindergarten year, the students completed the THS–R to determine the quality of their handwriting skills. The end-of-year scores for the control group were compared with the end-of-year scores for HWT 1 and 2 and with both experimental groups combined (HWT combined).

Intervention Description.

HWT 1 and 2 were instructed by their classroom teachers, who followed the lesson plans in the HWT Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide ( Olsen & Knapton, 2008 ). The kindergarten HWT curriculum included the following materials: wood pieces for capital letters with mat; slate chalkboards (one classroom used the stamp-and-see screens with similar teaching techniques as the slates because of the teacher’s aversion to chalk); Roll a Dough set; Rock, Rap, Tap, and Learn CD; and Letters and Numbers for Me student workbook ( Olsen, 2008 ).

The lesson plans ( Olsen & Knapton, 2008 ) required approximately 15 min per day of teacher instructional time, which was typically adhered to throughout the 2 yr. Each lesson was taught to the full class and typically began with a gross motor activity coordinated with a handwriting-related song on the Rock, Rap, Tap, and Learn CD. Next, the teaching guidelines ( Olsen & Knapton, 2008 ) were followed to implement a learning activity, which was either forming specific letters with multisensory manipulatives or writing in the Letters and Numbers for Me workbook ( Olsen, 2008 ). In addition to the formal handwriting instruction time, an occasional review activity, often using the manipulatives, was used as an independent morning work activity. A classroom assistant helped with materials in all classrooms throughout the 2 yr.

As part of the consultative role for this intervention, a registered occupational therapist (the author) or two occupational therapy graduate students were present in the classrooms during the handwriting lesson one time per week. This presence allowed the occupational therapy personnel to answer questions about the implementation of the curriculum and to provide occasional assistance to struggling writers. Lessons were implemented similarly for both HWT 1 and 2. Consultation by an occupational therapy practitioner with the teachers did not occur with the control group.

Interveners.

Three kindergarten teachers were involved in the study. Two teachers with 17 yr and 4 yr of teaching experience at the beginning of HWT 1 intervention participated in all three cohorts. The same two teachers who taught HWT 1 also taught the control group. After the control year, these two teachers attended a full-day printing and cursive training workshop on the HWT curriculum, which is recommended but not required of the program. The teachers worked together to develop their lesson plans based on the HWT Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide ( Olsen & Knapton, 2008 ).

After HWT 1 completed kindergarten, an additional kindergarten teacher with approximately 6 yr of experience was added. The new teacher attended the same HWT training as the other two teachers, but this training occurred after HWT 2's school year had started. She collaborated with the former teachers to create her lesson plans and understand the materials.

Intervention Fidelity.

To address fidelity to instruction, approximately one lesson per week of HWT 1 was observed by the author. The author consulted with the teachers and provided feedback on the teaching strategies, checked for proper use of handwriting activities and verbal cuing, and assisted as needed to address handwriting needs of specific students. This process helped establish consistency in instruction for both HWT 1 and 2. Weekly visits from the occupational therapist were unnecessary during the second year because the teachers indicated they understood how to implement the program, but the author did periodically check in with the teachers to answer questions if they arose.

Data Collection

The THS–R assessments were coded and scored semiblindly. Handwriting assessments for the three cohorts (control, HWT 1, and HWT 2) were scored by trained occupational therapy graduate students at different times, so the scorers were not blind to the cohort. However, this kindergarten study was part of a larger study that included first-grade THS–R assessments and two additional administrations of the THS–R throughout the year (approximately 4 mo apart) for the experimental groups. Therefore, even though the scorers were aware of which cohort assessments they were scoring, they were blind to the grade level and when during the academic year the assessment occurred. Scorers were trained by the author and by the DVD included in the THS–R assessment. They scored four sample handwriting assessments and discussed their differences in scoring for consistency before scoring the participants’ assessments, and they were randomly assigned assessments to score. However, interrater reliability was not established formally.

Data Analysis

The scaled scores, standard scores, and percentile scores of the THS–R were used for data analysis. Data analysis was completed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 22; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Descriptive statistics were calculated to determine the M scores and SD for each group on each of the subtests to identify specific skills and on the overall standard score for legibility. In addition, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to make statistical comparisons, controlling for age and gender because of documented differences in handwriting skills between boys and girls ( Graham, Berninger, Weintraub, & Schafer, 1998 ). Using ANCOVA, we compared the control group with HWT 1, HWT 2, and HWT combined. Treatment effect (Cohen’s d ) was calculated for each subtest comparison and for the overall score of the THS–R. This calculation serves as a frame of reference for the effect of the intervention on the outcomes and is valuable because of the small sample size. The effect size is considered small if 0.20 ≤ d ≤ 0.49, medium if 0.50 ≤ d ≤ 0.79, and large if d ≥ 0.80 ( Cohen, 1992 ; Thalheimer & Cook, 2002 ).

This study sought to determine whether students who completed kindergarten having learned handwriting skills from the HWT kindergarten printing curriculum would outperform students who learned printing from teacher-developed methods in D’Nealian-style writing in handwriting legibility skills. Table 2 includes the mean end-of-year THS–R scores for the control group compared with such scores for HWT 1, HWT 2, and HWT combined.

The experimental groups outscored the control group in all THS–R subtests and on overall score. ANCOVA showed that in 6 of the 10 subtests, both HWT 1 and HWT 2 scored significantly higher than the control group ( p < .05). In addition, ANCOVA showed that in 7 of the 10 subtests, HWT combined scored significantly higher than the control group ( p < .05). Figure 1 illustrates that the control group scored below the mean in 9 of the 10 subtests while almost all of the subtests for the experimental groups were above the mean (28 of 30). The control group performed at mean 36.63 percentile, whereas HWT 1 performed at mean 61.85 percentile and HWT 2 at mean 68.10 percentile. Refer to Table 2 for the specific results for scaled and standard scores.

Treatment effect (Cohen’s d) was calculated for each comparison. For all experimental groups (i.e., HWT 1, HWT 2, and HWT combined), a large treatment effect was found for 5–7 subtests and a medium treatment effect was found for 1–2 subtests. For HWT 2 and HWT combined, a small treatment effect was found for 2 subtests. In addition, for all experimental groups, a very large treatment effect was found for the overall standard score ( d = 0.81 for HWT 1, 1.03 for HWT 2, and 1.00 for HWT combined). The treatment effects for each subtest and overall standard scores are included in Table 2 .

The results from this pilot study show that the students who received handwriting instruction with HWT outperformed the control group consistently and across all skill areas. For uppercase letters, students in the HWT groups demonstrated a large treatment effect for printing the uppercase alphabet from memory (airplane), uppercase from dictation (butterfly), and copying selected uppercase letters (tree). These results are not surprising because the HWT curriculum begins with the students learning all uppercase letters before lowercase ones. The curriculum is diligent in instructing each uppercase letter individually in a developmental sequence through multiple multisensory mediums and in the workbook Letters and Numbers for Me ( Olsen, 2008 ).

Lowercase letters are taught in the HWT curriculum after all of the uppercase letters because of their complexity in line placement, stroke, and sequence. Each letter is instructed through multisensory techniques in a developmental sequence. The students in the HWT groups showed the largest treatment effects for printing lowercase from memory (bus). The experimental groups also demonstrated small to medium treatment effects for copying selected lowercase letters (horse) and medium to large treatment effects for copying words from a model (truck). Printing lowercase letters from dictation (frog) was not statistically significant but did demonstrate small treatment effects with the HWT 2 and HWT combined groups.

The formation of numbers from memory was also included in the THS–R (bicycle). Although the experimental groups demonstrated higher scores, differences were not statistically significant. The students began learning number formation early in the year through their math curriculum, which varied somewhat from the HWT number formations. Therefore, their introduction to this skill was not initially through the HWT curriculum.

The results for the skill level comparisons between individual upper- and lowercase letters were expected. However, large treatment effects were consistently seen for copying two sentences (book), and medium to large treatment effects were seen for writing words from dictation (lion). These effects were higher than expected because these skills are more complex than printing individual letters and are typically not well established at the end of kindergarten. Anecdotal teacher feedback supported these results, and teachers were pleased with the skills of the experimental groups.

Research supports the effectiveness of HWT in a full-class general education classroom ( Hape et al., 2014 ; LeBrun et al., 2012 ; Roberts et al., 2014 ; Salls et al., 2013 ); however, there is a gap in the literature for HWT use in kindergarten classrooms. This study was done in an effort to help bridge that gap while demonstrating how occupational therapy practitioners may serve as consultants to teachers in general education as supported by the current legislation.

  • Limitations and Future Research

Although this study has produced some important results, it has limitations that must be considered when interpreting its usefulness in evidence-based practice. First, because of the way the school administration chose to implement the curriculum, it was impossible to do a pretest–posttest comparison for each of the groups. However, pretests were done on each of the HWT groups to ensure that their scores at the beginning of the treatment year were not higher than those of the control group at the end of kindergarten. In addition, a confounding variable is that the THS–R was completed 3 times by each experimental group but only one time by the control group. However, approximately 4 mo passed between administrations to minimize learning effects.

Limitations also exist because interrater reliability was not formally established, and although some level of blinding occurred, it was not complete across all three data collection points. Lack of formal intervention fidelity monitoring is somewhat of a limitation. However, this study was designed to see whether the curriculum instructed by a teacher with collaboration from occupational therapy was effective. Therefore, it was important to let the teachers implement the curriculum as they saw fit using the guidelines provided by the curriculum as a guide.

Further research should include more involvement of occupational therapy practitioners, not only with individual students but also at the classroom and system level. To establish more evidence regarding best practices in handwriting instruction, further research should be done at the kindergarten level. However, before that research, the development of a psychometrically sound tool to measure handwriting legibility skills for the kindergarten population should be considered.

  • Implications for Occupational Therapy Practice

This study supports collaborative efforts between teachers and occupational therapy practitioners in teaching handwriting skills and gives occupational therapy practitioners more evidence on which to base recommendations in school problem-based teams and curriculum committees. The results have the following implications for occupational therapy practice:

Occupational therapy practitioners must continue to advocate for their involvement in general education problem-solving teams at the school level, which may include providing recommendations for handwriting curriculum.

Occupational therapy practitioner consultation with teachers can be successful in implementing handwriting curricula.

HWT is an evidence-based curriculum that can be recommended by occupational therapy practitioners for effective printing instruction at the classroom or institutional level.

  • Acknowledgments

The author thanks the students and teachers who were involved in this study and the East Carolina University master of science in occupational therapy graduates who assisted with data collection: Simone Barnes, Kristen Gibbs, Anne Thomas, and Caitlin Zawistowicz. In addition, Suzanne Hudson, associate professor at East Carolina University, consulted on the statistical analysis. The author also thanks HWT, which provided discounted trainings for the teachers and graduate students involved in the study.

handwriting without tears uppercase m

  • Previous Article
  • Next Article

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Data & Figures

Figure 1. Mean scaled scores on end-of-year Test of Handwriting Skills–Revised subtests. / Note. Dark horizontal line indicates mean scaled score of 10. HWT = Handwriting Without Tears.

Mean scaled scores on end-of-year Test of Handwriting Skills–Revised subtests.

Note . Dark horizontal line indicates mean scaled score of 10. HWT = Handwriting Without Tears.

Participant Demographic Characteristics ( N = 59)

Note. HWT = Handwriting Without Tears; M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

Comparison of THS–R Mean Scaled Scores Between Control and Experimental Groups

Note. For all results, p < .05 is significant. p values were calculated while controlling for age and gender. HWT = Handwriting Without Tears; LC = lowercase; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; THS–R = Test of Handwriting Skills–Revised; UC = uppercase.

Supplements

Citing articles via, email alerts.

  • Collections
  • Conference Abstracts
  • Browse AOTA Taxonomy
  • Online ISSN 1943-7676
  • Print ISSN 0272-9490
  • Author Guidelines
  • Permissions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Copyright © American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

The Curriculum Choice

Making homeschool decisions easy

in Elementary · Handwriting · Language Arts · Preschool

Everything You Need To Know About Handwriting Without Tears

Are you looking for a way to teach handwriting to your little one? Maybe you are looking for a cursive writing curriculum? Either way, you should check out all that Handwriting Without Tears has to offer!

This is not only a guide to all things Handwriting Without Tears , but also several of our Curriculum Choice authors share their personal experiences using Handwriting Without Tears in their homeschools.

Handwriting Without Tears is a simple to use, affordable, print through cursive handwriting program for kids in Pre-K through grade 5.

What is Handwriting Without Tears?

Handwriting Without Tears (HWT)is a handwriting program created by an occupational therapist. It is a 40 year program with proven success for thousands of students. From emergent writing in Pre-K to Cursive mastery in fifth grade, Handwriting Without Tears helps students develop fluent writing success through explicit handwriting instruction.

Levels of Handwriting Without Tears

There are seven levels available starting in the Pre-K/K level up to 5th grade.

1. Letters and Numbers is recommend for Kindergarten.

Handwriting Without Tears - Letters and Numbers for Me

Letters and Numbers for Me is where Kindergarten students, or those working at that level, learn capitals, lowercase letters, numbers, words, and sentences. Activities form good handwriting habits and develop strong writers.

A Review of Letters And Numbers By Kyle

Handwriting Without Tears Letter and Numbers

When we first began our Handwriting Without Tears journey I read a lot of the kindergarten manual. But after that I have never read or used a teacher’s manual with this curriculum. You may want to but I just haven’t found it to be necessary.

We have a lot of optional items that we use with this program (See the Hands-On Materials section down below) but you really only need the book and a pencil to do this. Keep in mind I’ve done this with five children, including one with special needs and one with learning disabilities.

How we use it in our home:

  • First I demonstrate how to follow the instructions HWT provides for creating each letter.
  • During the first semester I often had the children make the letters using either the wood pieces, roll a dough or stamp & see.
  • After about 1/4 to 1/2 of a year they start being able to follow the instructions themselves. I then just hover to make sure they are writing the letter correctly and in the correct order. HWT tells them which lines or curves to draw and in which order.

Handwriting Without Tears Letter and Numbers

HWT provides clear instructions for letter creation. So clear in fact that my five-year-old boy completes his handwriting independently and well. We run the gamut on the kind of learners that we have! HWT has served each of our unique children well. It is also very easy for the teacher to use. ~ Kyle

2. My Printing Book is recommended for 1st grade.

Handwriting Without Tears - My Printing Book

My Printing Book gives your students opportunities to review their printing abilities and reinforce other language skills such as grammar, writing paragraphs, and recognizing key word roots. The hands-on material is also suggested for this grade. There is the 4″x6″ slate chalkboard used to practice making letters. (See more about the chalkboard down below)

3. Printing Power is recommended for 2nd grade.

Handwriting Without Tears - Printing Power

With Printing Power the student continues to master his printing skills with advanced paragraphs, poems, and language arts activities using single line practice pages. With Learn & Check, teachers and students can seamlessly review letter, word, and sentence skills. Combine your handwriting instruction with punctuation, paragraph, poem, and language arts.

4. Or you can choose Cursive Kickoff 2nd grade.

Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive Kickoff

Cursive Kickoff is the first book that teaches cursive, it facilitates an easy transition from printing to cursive. Cursive Kickoff gives second grade students the option of beginning cursive instruction earlier. After a quick review of print, lessons progress to teaching cursive letters in developmental groups based on formation.

5. Cursive Handwriting is recommended for 3rd grade.

Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive Handwriting

With Cursive Handwriting for 3rd graders they will easily transition from printing to cursive with fun, engaging warm-ups. Students cover cross-curricular lessons that focus on paragraphs, poems, and composition with incorporated letter review for words and sentences.

6. Cursive Success is recommended for 4th Grade

Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive Success

With Cursive Success students develop cursive fluency with lessons that feature advanced language arts and cross-curricular activities. Review & Mastery pages help your students practice their cursive handwriting while giving them opportunities to review letters and connections.

A Review of Cursive Success from Stephanie

The Cursive Success book focuses on making cursive letters connect and forming them into words and sentences. The publisher recommends these workbooks for 3rd and 4th grade but if you feel that your child is ready then I am sure they could be used in the earlier grades as well.

HWT Cursive Success workbook contains the following sections:

  • An introduction.
  • A warm up for basic letters and connection of  letters to make simple words.
  • More difficult cursive letters, special letter connections (ex. o, w, v, b) and more complex words.
  • Capital letters.
  • Activity Pages which apply cursive to real writing of sentences and paragraphs.

Inside Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive Success

The first fifty-five pages review and give instruction for the lower case letters. Then capital letters are covered. 

And in addition to all this, the last 20 pages incorporates grammar concepts such as: compound words, synonyms and antonyms, homonyms, use of contractions and apostrophes, poems, similes, use of quotations, acronyms, dictionary definitions, and more.

This really impressed me because the curriculum doesn’t just go through the letters and random sentences to copy but applies cursive to real writing skills. This is so important because the objective of handwriting skills is to help children write proficiently enough to aid them in all their studies.  All the while, it never loses the feel of a handwriting text so you never find yourself somehow teaching grammar instead of doing a handwriting lesson.

What Sets Handwriting Without Tears Apart From Others Is It’s Vertical Style Approach

What I believe sets this curriculum apart form all others is its ease of use. It truly does take the tears out of handwriting.  It uses a vertical style approach and most children develop a vertical stroke first when learning to print, so it is much easier for a child to transition from print to this form of cursive. ~ Stephanie

7. Can-Do Cursive is recommended for 5th grade.

Handwriting Without Tears - Can-Do Cursive

Practice makes perfect when it comes to cursive writing. Can-Do Cursive is perfect for the child who needs another year to master their cursive writing skills. Designed for fifth grade students and above, Can-Do Cursive gives your students opportunities to review their handwriting abilities and reinforce other language skills such as grammar, writing paragraphs.

Real Life Example Of Using Handwriting Without Tears (Daughter Is a Lefty!)

We started using Handwriting Without Tears right from the beginning of when we started homeschooling. It has proven to be an excellent program in our home. The beauty of the curriculum is how simple it is for the child to learn! We started using the program at the 1st grade level. My daughter is a lefty and I knew I wanted a handwriting program that would help her to write beautifully.

What is a typical lesson like? It is a simple program to implement. My children do 1-2 pages for each lesson. Each new skill is clearly taught in the child’s book. HWT uses simple explanations for each new skill. In the lower grades, HWT uses “magic bunny” to show how to make new letters.

In the older grades, HWT continues to use simple explanations and drawings that the child can easily understand. The lessons are short and can be done in 15 minutes or less! The teacher guides provides tips and activities for each lesson.

About HWT Unique Writing Paper

Their unique writing paper is unlike any other handwriting program. The writing paper does not have the typical three lines with the middle line being a dotted line. HWT believes typical handwriting paper causes line confusion for many students. 

Handwriting Without Tears is a no-fuss program created by an occupational therapist that is simple to use! It is very affordable. The teacher guides are simple but do provide plenty of instructions, tips, activities, and lesson plans.

HWT created writing paper with only 2 lines.

  • The bottom line keeps the child’s writing straight.
  • The second line called the mid-line controls the size of the letters.

HWT believes by having only 2 lines will cause less confusion for the child.

3 Different Paper Levels:

  • wide double line
  • regular double line
  • narrow double line

Handwriting With Tears Hands-on Materials

Handwriting Without Tears Hands-on Materials are great for tactile and visual learners to begin forming letters and numbers. A review from The Curriculum Choice

The Handwriting Without Tears Hands-on materials are multi-sensory materials designed for children who are getting ready to learn to write and for those who are developing their handwriting skills.

Shannon says, “ I have used these with my children starting at age three, and even my oldest at age seven still enjoyed and benefited from using them.”

Capital Letter Wood Pieces

handwriting without tears uppercase m

These are used to teach formation of the capital letters.

For example, students learn to take a “big line”, put it on the left, then add a “big curve” on the right to make the letter “D”.

The wood pieces are also used to teach children how to make “Mat Man”, a simple stick figure person.

Children also learn positional concepts such as top, middle, bottom, left, and right as you use the pieces with them. This vocabulary, as well as “big line”, “little line”, “big curve” , “little curve”, is used in teaching letter formation with all of the HWT products.

Stamp-and-See-Screen

Shannon says, “My children have enjoyed all of these HWT materials over the years, but the Stamp-and-See is probably their absolute favorite.”

Handwriting Without Tears Hands-on Materials - Stamp and See Screen

This is a 4″ x 6″ magnetic screen that comes with a set of four magnetic wood pieces (big line, little line, big curve, little curve), and a chalk-sized magnetic writing tool.

You use the laminated cards that come with the roll-a-dough set, place one on the magnetic screen, and then use the magnetic wood pieces to stamp the letter on top of the card. When you remove the card, voila – you have made the letter!

After working with the magnetic stamps, you can then use the writing tool to trace over the letter card. Once again, when you remove the card, you can see the letter that you’ve made. I want to mention that the writing tool is the size of a small piece of chalk. Handwriting Without Tears encourages using short pencils and pieces of chalk to help children achieve a correct pencil grip as they are learning to write. This approach has worked wonders with my own children’s pencil grips.

Roll-A-Dough Letters

Handwriting Without Tears Hands-on Materials - Roll-A-Dough Letters

This product includes a 4″ x 6″ plastic tray, a set of 18 double-sided, laminated capital letter and number cards, and a container of dough.

A letter or number card is placed in the plastic tray, and then the child forms the dough into the shapes needed to make the letter and places them over the letter card.

The dough is terrific for strengthening finger and hand muscles, as children roll, push, and shape the dough into “snakes” to form their capital letters. The tray can also be used for letter practice with rice, shaving cream, or sand.

(Shannon says, “Occasionally I am brave enough to do the “messy” stuff because my children are such tactile learners and really do enjoy it. I just make sure there is a plastic tablecloth underneath the work surface for easy clean-up.)

Slate Chalkboard

Handwriting Without Tears Hands-on Materials - Slate Chalkboard

This is another favorite in Shannon’s home. It’s a 4″ x 6″ slate in a wood frame with a smiley face in the top left-hand corner. The smiley reinforces top, bottom, left, and right, and also reminds children to start their letters at the top.

The chalkboard is used in combination with a method called “Wet, Dry, Try” to teach letter formation.

First the teacher writes the letter with the chalk, the child uses a wet sponge and makes the letter strokes to erase the letter, and then uses his finger to trace over the wet strokes. Then the child uses a paper towel to dry the wet strokes. Finally, the child gets to use the chalk to write the letter. The child has practiced writing the letter four times using four different methods and typically has had fun doing it!

Hands-on Materials: The Bottom Line

Shannon says, “Using this tactile approach with all the handwriting Without Tears Hands-on Materials to teach letter formation has helped my children to gain confidence in their handwriting skills while having fun at the same time.”

Purchasing Handwriting Without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears is a no-fuss program that is simple to use and very affordable. You can purchase everything you need right from their website.

The Student Books are $12.45 a piece.

Teacher Guides are $24.99 each. The teacher guides are simple but do provide plenty of instructions, tips, activities, and lesson plans. Korey says, “ As homeschool moms we often ask “Do I even need the teacher’s guide?” I do recommend using the TG to get the full benefit of the program. There are manipulatives available for all the grade levels. As the parent you can chose to incorporate the manipulatives or not. The manipulatives are wonderful for a tactile learner.”

Bundles – Plus they offer a variety of money saving bundles.

More Handwriting Options For Your Homeschool

This collection of Homeschool Handwriting Resources is designed to help you teach your children to legibly write in print or cursive.

20 Top Handwriting Resources for Your Homeschool – Even in this digital age, being able to clearly handwrite and read handwriting is an important skill. Most public schools no longer teach cursive. So how will kids learn to sign their name? How will they read things like their grandparents letters, old documents, etc.? This collection of Homeschool Handwriting Resources is designed to help you teach your children to legibly write in print or cursive.

' src=

Heidi Ciravola is mom to three kids who were all homeschooled. Two have graduated college and one is finishing homeschooling high school. She spends much of her time navigating the high school waters (from electives to college prep) and reviewing homeschool curriculum for all ages. You can find her writing about these things as well as her love of books and homeschool life in general over at Starts At Eight .

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Reader Interactions

' src=

July 15, 2009 at 9:43 am

LOVED this review!

' src=

July 15, 2009 at 1:03 pm

I’ve been wondering about this program. Thanks for the review.

' src=

July 15, 2009 at 1:08 pm

HWT is by far the best handwriting curriculum that we have ever used–and we have tried many! I am just sorry I didn’t know about it 15 years ago when we started our homeschooling journey.

' src=

September 5, 2009 at 2:40 pm

I will say that the one drawback of the program is that I found it difficult to find my way around in it at first. There is so much information to absorb. I would have preferred a format that had Lesson 1 and suggest game/activity/practice for each day instead of pages and pages for me to read and try to absorb as a teacher. Philosophy notes could be inserted throughout the text with an TOC for that, too. I taught handwriting in the public school for years but just found this program while homeschooling my daughter. I’m on week 2 of using the K version and I do think it is the best and already purchased the PK to use with little brother.

' src=

October 25, 2009 at 10:08 pm

Unfortunately I do not agree with the majority of reviews of this program. I find absolutely no reason to not integrate the learning of letter formation with the knowledge of letter names and sounds. The heirarchy of learning submits that first, children learn to listen as infants, later begin to speak, they they begin to apply that knowledge of speaking and sounds to the abstract symbols of letters. Following this extremely challenging process, is the ability to put those sounds together within text along with understanding that text’s meaning. Once this begins, the children are able to begin to write their letters with meaning. It is absolutely beyond me as to why this program initiates teaching the children upper case letters first when all of written print for the children to read consists of a majority of lower case letters. If the reason is merely because, “it’s easier,” a new reason needs to be found.

' src=

May 6, 2011 at 10:53 pm

I too thought that kids should learn the lowercase letters first since the vast majority of what they read and write will be lowercase. Then I began teaching my daughter to print her letters. After over a year, I finally realized my stubbornmess on this issue was a stumbing block on HER path to learning to print.

Truly, “it’s easier” is the only reason needed to teach uppercase first. Kids develop fine motor skills at vastly different rates. The uppercase letters are simply easier to write and mastering them gives kids a confidence boost, encourging them to continue learning to write. Forcing kids with average or even lagging fine motor skills to try to master lowercase letters first is almost cruel.

Now, why should learning to form the letters be separate from learning the letter sounds? Same reason – kids gain the necessary fine motor skills at vastly different rates that are not related to their developmental abiltiy to learn to read. My daughter could recognize all of the alphabet and knew her letter sounds at 2.5 years. She was sounding out words by the time she turned 3.5 and is reading at an early first grade level now at 4.5 years. But she only just developed the fine motor skills necessary to draw decent lines and curves. Should I have held off on teaching her to read? Of course not. And if she HAD been ready to learn to write as she was learning her letters, then I could have easily integrated the two lessons myself.

' src=

May 27, 2010 at 3:50 am

Just wanted to say that you’ve some awesome content on your weblog. If it is OK I wants to use some of the information you supplied on my web site. If I link back to your web site would it be OK to do so?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

handwriting without tears upper case letters

All Formats

Resource types, all resource types.

  • Rating Count
  • Price (Ascending)
  • Price (Descending)
  • Most Recent

Handwriting without tears upper case letters

Preview of Handwriting Without Tears® style Capital Letters Handwriting Practice Upper case

Handwriting Without Tears ® style Capital Letters Handwriting Practice Upper case

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Handwriting Without Tears ® style CURSIVE CAPTIAL LETTERS upper case cursive

Preview of Handwriting Without Tears® style CAPITAL LETTER Handwriting Practice Uppercase

Handwriting Without Tears ® style CAPITAL LETTER Handwriting Practice Uppercase

Preview of Handwriting Without Tears® style CAPITAL LETTER Practice BOOK UPPERCASE

Handwriting Without Tears ® style CAPITAL LETTER Practice BOOK UPPERCASE

Preview of ALPHA WORK: BUILDING LETTERS (uppercase and lowercase) HWT

ALPHA WORK: BUILDING LETTERS ( uppercase and lowercase) HWT

handwriting without tears uppercase m

ALPHA WORK: CHALKBOARD LETTER CARDS ( uppercase and lowercase) HWT

Preview of Handwriting Without Tears Inspired Letter Formation - Capitals / Uppercase

Handwriting Without Tears Inspired Letter Formation - Capitals / Uppercase

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Handwriting Without Tears Style Uppercase Letter Formation Worksheets

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Tracing Letters - Colorful Neon - Uppercase - Handwriting without Tears

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Tracing/Imitation Worksheets & Datasheets (Lines, Shapes, Letters , Numbers, HWT )

handwriting without tears uppercase m

J - Jellyfish Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

handwriting without tears uppercase m

H - Hippo Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

Preview of Upper case letters CAPITAL LETTER Handwriting Without Tears® style BUNDLE

Upper case letters CAPITAL LETTER Handwriting Without Tears ® style BUNDLE

Preview of Letter Formation Handwriting Without Tears | Alphabet Upper Case Tracing Strips

Letter Formation Handwriting Without Tears | Alphabet Upper Case Tracing Strips

handwriting without tears uppercase m

T - Turtle Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

Preview of R - Raccoon Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

R - Raccoon Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

Preview of MAT MAN Handwriting Without Tears Style Letter Formation Task Cards and Guides

MAT MAN Handwriting Without Tears Style Letter Formation Task Cards and Guides

Preview of A TO Z Upper Case Capital Consonant & Vowel Alphabet Letter Craft Bundle

A TO Z Upper Case Capital Consonant & Vowel Alphabet Letter Craft Bundle

Preview of MAT MAN Handwriting Without Tears Style Letter Formation Task Cards and Guides

P - Penguin Upper Case Alphabet Letter Craft

Preview of Dive Down, Swim Up Around Letters (Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) and Normal)

Dive Down, Swim Up Around Letters ( Handwriting Without Tears ( HWT ) and Normal)

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Learning About Letters : Line Down, Lift, Cross, and Dots ( HWT and Normal Lined)

Preview of HWT Style Cursive Font

HWT Style Cursive Font

handwriting without tears uppercase m

HWT Style Cursive Font Bundle

  • We're hiring
  • Help & FAQ
  • Privacy policy
  • Student privacy
  • Terms of service
  • Tell us what you think

This Reading Mama

A SIMPLE Handwriting Trick {FREE Printable}

By thisreadingmama 44 Comments

Handwriting isn’t something we practice in isolation every day. We have our handwriting notebooks and handwriting is addressed as we write together .

But lately, as I have been watching my Kindergartner and 1st grader write, I’ve noticed that they aren’t forming several of their letters the conventional way.

I jotted down a little list of the ones we needed to work on, based on my observations, and came up with a SIMPLE Handwriting Trick that got them more excited than I anticipated. {Click on the oval towards the end of this post for the freebie!}

1 Simple Handwriting Trick that Makes a BIG Difference - This Reading Mama

*This post contains affiliate links.

Why Does Handwriting Matter?

What is this simple handwriting trick? We’ll get to that in just a moment.

First I wanted to address this question: Why do I even care about my kids’ handwriting? There are several reasons I care, but there are two reasons I want to quickly mention.

1- Writing letters with the correct formation generally is easier on the hand and wrist. Instead of pushing the pencil across the paper, we are dragging or pulling it. Pulling the pencil across the paper doesn’t tire the hand and wrist the way that pushing it does. 2- Writing letters with conventional formation can also help the handwriting to be neater. While this isn’t always true, I find that when my kids form their letters the correct way, it’s easier for me and for them to read.

Letter Trace App - letter formation practice for beginning or struggling writers - This Reading Mama

Check out our Letter Trace App . It organizes both uppercase and lowercase letters to help learners with letter formation PLUS there’s a letter reversals section!

A SIMPLE Handwriting Trick that Makes a BIG Difference

So, back to the simple handwriting trick. I went through the lower case letters in particular and grouped a few letters together by how they are formed.

For example, a, d, g, and q are all formed by starting with the letter c . My kids knew how to form a c , but would start in all kinds of places to write the other letters. I also noticed that b, h, k and t all start by forming an l first.

handwriting trick with the letter c

So, we practiced writing all the letters we could write by starting with c . Then we practice writing all the letters we could write by starting with l. It was truly amazing to watch their eyes light up! At one point, my first grader exclaimed, “Whoa! This is awesome!”

handwriting trick with the letter l page

Then, I created some simple handwriting pages that they are now using for extra practice. We slipped into plastic sleeve protectors  and use dry erase markers . If you look carefully, you’ll notice that each letter is practiced three times on the page.

  • The first line provides a lot of support with the letter l (or c), a dot where the letter starts, and then dotted lines to complete the letter.
  • The second line provides a little less support with just the l (or c) and the dot where the letter starts.
  • The third line only has the dot at the top.

handwriting trick lined page

This one trick has already made a BIG difference in how my kids write some of their letters. I find myself saying, “C,” or “L,” when they forget, as just those two letters remind them of this simple handwriting trick!

Just a quite side note {as this was a concern of one reader}- I taught my kiddos that the pencil stays on the paper until the letter is finished. The only exceptions in this pack are the letters k and  t .

You Might Also Like:

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Want MORE Free Teaching Resources?

Join thousands of other subscribers to get hands-on activities and printables delivered right to your inbox!

' src=

October 16, 2015 at 8:08 pm

Yes! Thanks for the trick!!

' src=

October 17, 2015 at 9:57 am

Love your stuff– thank you sooooo much for sharing!

' src=

October 18, 2015 at 2:23 pm

Can’t say enough how genius this is! I’m very excited to practice it with my Kindergartener!

' src=

October 19, 2015 at 10:15 pm

Thank you, Jasmine!

' src=

October 19, 2015 at 12:10 pm

What about for lefties? Should I be worried that my daughter does things like crosses her t’s the wrong way since that would be a pull for her rather than a push?

October 19, 2015 at 10:14 pm

Yes, lefties should cross their t’s from right to left, as they need to pull and not push the pencil.

' src=

October 19, 2015 at 9:40 pm

Becky, THANK YOU, thank you, thank you. I have actually been trying to teach the “magic c” as a lead in to other letters for a few years. I made up my own “printables” for the students to use. But yours are so much BETTER! I also love your simple reasons for learning correct letter formation. Many of my intervention kiddos have poor directionality when reading and writing. they form their letters every which way, which your observed in your own kids. Since letter formation is not prominent in common core standards, many teachers have abandoned teaching it. I have downloaded many of your wonderful printables, but this one has me very excited (almost panting) to get to school tomorrow and print it out for my students. Thank you. I am a reading interventionist at a public school, and your ideas are so useful to me and my students. I am so grateful that you share them FREE to everyone. Thank you. You are wonderful…and oh, so smart.Thank you!

October 19, 2015 at 10:12 pm

Aw, you are so welcome! You’ve made my day!!

' src=

October 24, 2015 at 12:36 pm

LOVE these–They are absolutely brilliant! Thank you!

' src=

October 24, 2015 at 1:12 pm

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had not seen this trick before. My 2nd grader is still struggling so much with so many aspects of handwriting. She writes notes to herself in all capitals since they need so little reversing or picking up of the pencil. Since the all-capital note-taking was neat, I let her go with it and let her know that draftspeople and architects have to label drawings with neat block capital letters. As for k, a D’Nealian type can be formed without picking up one’s pencil. Then one only has to pick up the pencil to cross a t or dot an i. It doesn’t stay true to one method, but it can work.

' src=

October 24, 2015 at 9:02 pm

This is similar to the method used by Handwriting Without Tears. I start that curriculum with my Pre-Kers by teaching them 4 “pieces” to use: Big Lines, Little Lines, Big Curves, and Little Curves.

October 24, 2015 at 9:56 pm

What a great idea! We’ve been using Keyboarding without Tears and those terms sound familiar. They use them even there. I’ve never personally used HWT, but have heard so much about that program over the years. I was excited to learn of their “magic e” after I shared this idea.

' src=

October 24, 2015 at 9:54 pm

This method is taught with the “Handwriting Without Tears” program as well! Love it! Making letters with correct formation helps with speed and legibility especially as kiddos performance damands increase.

October 24, 2015 at 10:19 pm

Yes, it does! It’s similar to decoding words and comprehension. When the mind is freed up from figuring out all the words, it can usually better comprehend. Same with writing. It’s difficult to communicate a message when you’re bogged down in forming the letters. 🙂

' src=

October 25, 2015 at 10:11 am

Thanks a bunch!!! I will include this.

' src=

October 29, 2015 at 12:12 pm

I can’t find where on this page to download this amazing idea…an oval? …help!

October 29, 2015 at 2:08 pm

Yes, click on the oval towards the bottom of the post that says, “Click HERE to get your free printable”.

October 30, 2015 at 2:19 pm

There isn’t one…maybe it’s being blocked since I’m on my school laptop. I’ll try it from home later.

' src=

November 1, 2015 at 12:48 pm

Love these pages!!! Would you please consider making pages for ‘slanted line’ letters–v, w, x, and y; and ‘short line’ letters that begin at the broken line–i, m, n, r?

November 1, 2015 at 2:46 pm

I actually considered the short line one, but didn’t even think of the slanted letters. Let me put it on my list. 🙂

November 1, 2015 at 6:41 pm

Thank you for considering! Please let me know if you do. [email protected]

' src=

November 14, 2015 at 6:12 pm

This is SO BRILLIANT! I can’t wait to use these with my kinder and 1st grader this week!! Thanks for sharing 🙂

' src=

March 3, 2016 at 9:15 am

I am the handwriting go-to person at my school, and this is exactly how I teach it! In addition, the b starts like an h (my kids never confuse the b and d), and an r, n, m, p all start like an i.

' src=

January 31, 2017 at 6:56 am

Thank you so much for the tips !! It will really help how I teach my year 1 kids to write….. Thank you so very much.

' src=

March 17, 2017 at 12:45 pm

Have you heard of Riggs, or the Orton-Gillingham method? It is a reading/writing/spelling method that is very phonogram-based. They refer to the round letters as ‘clock’ letters, and these letters start at 2:00! The b,l,i and some others are the line letters. That really struck me while I was reading this post!

March 21, 2017 at 6:53 am

What a cool idea!

' src=

April 24, 2017 at 10:51 am

I liked your handwriting trick idea so I decided to create my own chart using this same concept but putting all of the letters into five categories. The categories are: c, l, i, n and v. I call it the “S” chart. I had to stretch the idea a bit but I got them all in there. I follow your website and The Measured Mom. I’m a retired teacher. I’ve been homeschooling my daughter since fifth grade, she’s in the eleventh grade now and I tutor when her school day is done. I specialize in helping kids get “caught up” in school. I’ve just recently started to tutor dyslexic kids. I’ve been teaching for about twenty-five years. I really appreciate all the work that you do and the energy that you spend sharing it with us.

April 25, 2017 at 8:49 pm

That sounds like a great way to teach handwriting! Sounds like you are very creative yourself! 🙂

' src=

April 24, 2017 at 2:27 pm

Hi Becky, I’m certainly going to try this. With reference to an earlier post above do you have any tips for teaching a lefty to write? My son is really struggling with writing e.g. He writes r’s back to front and he gets b’s and d’s muddled. It’s really difficult for me to understand as I’m right handed. Any help or suggestions gratefully received!

April 25, 2017 at 8:48 pm

Have you tried any of the left-handed pages I have for free on the blog–> https://thisreadingmama.com/left-handed-handwriting-pages/ . Maybe that could help? I wish I knew more, as all my kiddos are right-handed.

' src=

September 19, 2017 at 6:19 am

I love this. Thanks 🙂

' src=

November 19, 2017 at 6:41 pm

I found your site on handwriting tricks. Many of my kiddos struggle with writing their letters. I cant wait to use this with them. Would you happen to have the slanted line letters, v-w-x and y; and also the short line letters, i-m-n-r. Thank you again for sharing this idea with us.

November 23, 2017 at 3:58 pm

It’s coming. 🙂

' src=

December 4, 2017 at 12:50 pm

That’s so helpful! Thank you! This gives me a great idea on how I can transfer this same kind of scaffolding for cursive handwriting. 🙂

' src=

January 31, 2018 at 12:36 pm

I have looked until I am cross-eyed trying to find the little line handwriting trick practice pages….HELP! Thank you so much for have so much that is free because that sure does help us teachers a great deal.

February 4, 2018 at 7:39 am

Scroll towards the bottom of the post the find the teal download button. Click on that and you’ll get the PDF.

' src=

February 5, 2018 at 1:00 pm

I’m so thankful to see someone that still feels handwriting and correct letter formation are IMPORTANT! This has been lost in our public schools and I find it quite frustrating. Thank you for your persistence in this and encouraging others to do the same!

' src=

February 27, 2018 at 8:55 am

genius thank you!!!

February 28, 2018 at 7:37 pm

Aw, thanks. 🙂

' src=

January 14, 2020 at 3:24 pm

Can someone please let me know what are the very BEST dry erase markers that will actually wipe off without ruining materials? I have tried many brands but a lot of them will ruin laminated sheets or sheet protectors. Many even mess up the nice dry erase boards that I have. What brand works the best for you? Thanks!

January 19, 2020 at 7:05 am

I sent you an email. Did you get it?

' src=

April 13, 2020 at 11:55 pm

Thanks for sharing all your downloads they are really appreciated

' src=

September 20, 2020 at 3:34 pm

It’s called the magic c in my classroom!!

' src=

December 11, 2020 at 12:29 am

Thank you so much this will be so helpful.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

The Smarter Learning Guide

Handwriting Without Tears Review

Science curriculum

Handwriting doesn’t have to be a nightmare for students…or their parents. With an easy to use, structured format, activity-rich lessons and strong multisensory component, if you’re looking for an effective, engaging and even fun way to help a student learn to write by hand, Handwriting Without Tears might be just the solution you’re looking for.

What We Like

But watch out for …

What Is Handwriting Without Tears?

Created by Learning Without Tears, a leading provider of accessible and easy to teach learning materials, Handwriting Without Tears is a handwriting program aimed at preschool students and up. 

Designed by occupational therapist Jan Olsen, Handwriting Without Tears systematically teaches students everything from the proper pencil holding through correctly writing letters, numbers, sentences, cursive and more.

The program teaches through a combination of workbook exercises, hands-on activities and even music and song, and consequently has become a very popular program for traditional schools and homeschools alike. 

What Grades Or Ages Is The Program Intended For?

Handwriting Without Tears is largely a curriculum aimed at students in K-5. 

That said, it is more of a skill-based program than one intended for a particular age or grade range. 

That is, rather than having a book for Grades 1, 2 or 3, there are books that cover readiness and pre-reading skills, capitals and lowercase, letter groups, words, numbers, cursive and more, with lessons, exercises and activities that match different levels of skill development and fluency. 

Consequently, the program can more easily be used by those outside of a traditional age range for handwriting instruction, which is actually pretty helpful as students tend to develop differently. 

Precocious students who take to handwriting can feel more free to move through the various books as their skills progress, while those who are a bit behind or have learning difficulties can take their time and work on the fundamentals without feeling as embarrassed since there are no obvious references to grade or age. 

This focus on skill means that the books in the Handwriting Without Tears tend to have a rather unique naming system. 

Rather than referring to recommended grades or ages, they have different titles that somewhat relate to their main content. 

As can be seen by these titles, there is something of a progression of skill throughout the series. 

Earlier in the series, students learn the very basics of letter formation and handwriting and then progress through learning print writing, developing their printing skills, before tackling cursive and then honing these skills through more complex exercises in later books. 

As with other skill-based curricula, however, this does mean those that transition into Handwriting Without Tears from another handwriting program can find it a little less intuitive to figure out where to start. 

Because there is no obvious and direct correlation to grade or age, homeschooling parents need to make an honest assessment of their child’s skill level, which itself requires a bit of thought and knowledge about the student. 

To make things a little easier, Learning Without Tears offers a type of placement test that parents can use, which they call their Screener of Handwriting Proficiency , which can be downloaded online. 

Parents coming into Handwriting Without Tears can also use it to figure out where their students are strong and where they need help, which in turn can help when selecting the appropriate book from the series. 

Unfortunately, while accessible to homeschool parents, it requires parents to set up a free account using their email. 

To use it, parents set up an account and select an administration packet based on an approximate grade level or skill (beginning print, intermediate print, beginning cursive, etc).

Parents give students a short quiz sheet, where students are given different tasks depending on their assumed level of skill. Kindergarten students are assessed on their ability to find letters and numbers, 2nd Grade students are given letter, number and short sentence tasks, while more advanced students may have to identify and write in cursive.  

The assessments are pretty straightforward and easy to administer, in our opinion, even for parents who have never homeschooled before. 

While pretty obviously designed for classrooms and teacher/professional use, they do include a homeschool option. 

The instructions are fully scripted, providing parents with a ready, proctor-style dialogue to use as well as detailed, step-by-step instructions for the test’s administration. 

When it comes to scoring and evaluation, the Screener offers pretty detailed information concerning what parents should be looking for and offers pretty clear examples and illustrations of what to watch out for (both good and bad), which is quite helpful. 

screenshot of learning without tears screener test page

On the downside, the Screener is set up as an self-administered and grade leveled assessment. 

As a result, parents of students who are very behind or who really just don’t know where their student would otherwise fit in a traditional school framework may still find themselves hunting around the different grade levels and reading a few different assessment options to figure out where to start with the assessment itself.  

What’s Required To Teach With Handwriting Without Tears?

Teacher’s guide.

As with other educational programs, there is a teacher’s guide for Handwriting Without Tears.  

These spiral bound books are printed in color and are a couple hundred pages long. 

As might be expected, the teacher’s guide contains full lesson plans for each handwriting lesson, outlining lesson objectives and required materials, as well as providing step-by-step guidance, detailed illustrations and suggested dialogues. 

Given the very visual nature of handwriting, and the fact that the workbooks often contain a step by step diagram of letter and word formation, some parents can world directly from the workbooks and make do without these formal lesson plans. 

Other parents, such as those who are new to homeschooling, are teaching students who are struggling or are unsure of their own ability to teach proper handwriting techniques, can certainly benefit from the structure and teaching tips that these teacher’s guides provide. 

It’s also important to note that the teacher’s guides contain a lot more than just lesson plans.

They also contain enrichment ideas, support and tips for differentiation and English Language Learners, as well as offering suggestions for linking a lesson to broader language arts learning and other social studies courses. 

They also contain various activities, which can make Handwriting Without Tears a far more engaging and dynamic program, allowing students to get up, move around and enjoy their learning a lot more. 

picture of handwriting without tears lesson guide showing multisensory activities included in lessons

One thing we found interesting and, honestly, kind of cool was that lessons often include a scannable QR code. 

Once scanned with a smartphone, these QR codes open to the Learning With Tears Website and offer parents a variety of helpful resources for teaching that level’s lessons, including videos, lyrics to songs, various printables, digital worksheets, enrichment activities and more. 

screenshot of digital resources available from handwriting without tears website

These extra resources can provide a lot of value and in many cases make lessons a lot more fun and engaging than a typical copywork-based handwriting program might offer. 

They can also offer important tips for instruction that can be useful for some parents, such as further remediating the learning or making sure that left-handed students are progressing without any bad habits.

One thing parents should note is that these teaching guides, while certainly useful, can be extremely detailed and activity-rich. 

While this may be no problem for most homeschooling parents, who are often used to taking what they need from a curriculum, these guides can be a little overwhelming for some newer homeschooling parents, particularly those who are simply looking for handwriting practice. 

Student Edition Workbooks

What is effectively the heart of Handwriting Without Tears, the student guide is where students put pen to paper and practice their letter formation and handwriting. 

These books are consumable, printed in black and white and are well-illustrated and straightforward to use. 

Each worksheet contains a good amount of illustrated instruction, clearly outlining what is expected of the student, and generally providing a highly detailed review of how students should approach letter, sentence and number formation, both in print and cursive. 

sample of handwriting without tears showing workbook exercise for practice of letter

Because they are so straightforward and detailed, they can be (and are, by some parents at least) used independently of the teacher’s guides as a main form of instruction or in tandem with another program. 

That said, the student editions sometimes make reference to activities outlined in the teacher’s guides and so those using them alone may miss out on some of this extra (and fun) learning. 

picture of student book from handwriting without tears referencing teachers guide

One thing that we like about the student workbooks is that they open flat, rather than curving, and so are a little easier for left handed kids to use compared to other programs out there.

Slate and Other Handwriting Tools and Manipulatives

In addition to its workbook exercises, Handwriting Without Tears includes a variety of hands-on exercises using different learning tools and manipulatives, which make learning a bit more interactive, engaging and even fun for students compared to many other programs. 

Below, we discuss some of the more interesting ones we found. 

Slate 

One of the more central manipulatives used in the program, the Handwriting Without Tears Slate is a 4”x6” wood-framed chalkboard that is used to help students learn to properly write letters and numbers. 

picture of handwriting without tears slate chalkboard

The slate is designed to work with the Handwriting Without Tears program, giving students an opportunity and space to work on letter and number formation outside of the workbooks and formal lessons, letting them strengthen their skills and develop proper writing habits. 

The slate is periodically referenced in lessons and workbook exercises and, being essentially a chalkboard, it is designed to be pretty intuitive to use. 

In fact, there is a big smiley face on the top left corner, emphasizing the top-down/left-right directionality of proper penmanship. 

It is also integral to the program’s interesting Wet-Dry-Try practice activities, where students use a wet sponge to “trace” a letter with water, dry it with a cloth and then try their hand at writing the letter with chalk. 

Interestingly, there is an app-based version of the slate available, which digitally replicates the slate chalkboard. 

With the app, students use their fingers on the touchscreen to write with virtual “chalk,” and try their hand at a digital version of the Wet Dry Try activity using a virtual wet sponge. 

Although not quite as tactile and physical as the real life version, the app is perhaps a little more travel-friendly and parents might appreciate the lack of chalk dust and residue after lessons. 

Stamp and See Screen

Handwriting Without Tears also offers a Stamp and See Screen, which is a magnetic screen about the size of the Slate (4”x6”) and is essentially a magnetic drawing screen or Magna Doodle that has been configured for use with this program. 

picture of handwriting without tears stamp and see screen

Students use it much like a chalkboard, drawing letters with a chunky, magnetized, chalk-like stylus and can erase what they’ve done with a sliding eraser located on the side of the device. 

In this way it is much like the Slate chalkboard, only without the mess and without the ability to do Wet-Dry-Try activities. 

 Wooden Letter Shapes

Interestingly, Handwriting Without Tears also offers a set of big, wooden shapes – big lines, little lines, big curves and little curves. 

Students can use these shapes to “build” letters on a table and even use them in tandem with the Stamp and See Screen, kind of like a giant Magna Doodle stamp.

Using these shapes to build letters lets kids work on their lettering in a very hands-on, interactive way and without putting pen to paper (or chalk to board) and can make for an interesting, 3D activity of sorts.

Handwriting Without Tears Approach To Handwriting

Developed by occupational therapists, rather than educators or curriculum developers, Handwriting Without Tears approaches teaching handwriting skills a little differently than most companies out there. 

Developmental teaching

Handwriting Without Tears is designed to follow what the company calls a developmental teaching order. 

In other words, the program has been designed in a specific way, presenting the teaching material while taking into account how students learn and how they develop cognitively and physically. 

The series starts off with the easiest and most fundamental skills and slowly builds on that as it progresses through the series. 

In Handwriting Without Tears students learn uppercase before lowercase, block before cursive, and learn letters according to similarity of formation rather than alphabetical order (more on that later). 

Further, in the earlier books of the series, students are given gray blocks to write their letters in, providing them with a defined space to work in, helping them develop good habits of size control and proportion when writing by hand.

Later on, as students get more used to working with white space, they move on to more traditional, two-lined worksheets and then single-line worksheets. 

The books are also designed to be as clear and simple to look at as possible, which is great for younger kids, and, interestingly, reinforce left-to-right directionality of writing by having all illustrations and drawing go from left to right across the page, helping students get in the habit of tracking words (and later write them) in the correct direction. 

Systematic approach

Handwriting Without Tears is also a very systematic handwriting program. 

That is, it provides very specific, very clear and simple step-by-step instruction throughout all aspects of pre-writing and writing, providing not only explicit direction on how to form letters and numbers according to a specific methodology, but also providing pretty detailed and precise instructions for proper posture, pencil holding and more. 

picture of handwriting without tears showing fundamentals of writing posture

As a more practical example, when students are taught to write a certain letter, they are expected to follow a pretty precise sequence of steps, often being told precisely where to start with a dot.  

screenshot of handwriting without tears showing step by step approach to drawing a letter

The idea is to provide students with a handwriting base, rooted in occupational therapy best practices, that will help prevent issues before they start, rather than allowing students to work things out naturally and correcting any issues later. 

While some homeschooling students and parents may chafe somewhat at this directive, fundamental and more rules-based approach to handwriting, it does provide parents with a firm and consistent teaching methodology that they can more easily implement. 

Multisensory lessons

Handwriting Without Tears is a strongly multisensory handwriting program, as well, engaging far more of a student’s senses than simply pencil-paper skills.

Aside from handwriting practice, throughout its lessons students can work with various manipulatives, such as wooden blocks or magnet boards, engage in a variety of activities,  such as doing Wet-Dry-Try or working with playdough or cards, and even engage in song and rhythmic movement. 

Aside from making handwriting practice and learning far more engaging and fun for the student, there is evidence that engaging more pathways in the brain can better help students remember and recall information. 

A multisensory also makes Handwriting Without Tears better suited to students with different learning preferences or styles. 

Whether a student learns best through written work, listening, touching or getting up and moving around, they are pretty likely to find at least some activities that work for them in this program.

In addition, by shifting handwriting practice away from solely traditional pencil and paper practice, the program can be less intimidating for students who initially find holding and using a pencil difficult, allowing them to work on their letter formation in a more adaptable and less frustrating way.

Multidisciplinary 

Finally, and one thing that we find interesting about Handwriting Without Tears, is that it can be fairly multidisciplinary. 

In addition to straightforward handwriting practice, the program also offers various exercises and activities that integrate with other subjects and topics the student may be learning. 

picture of activities in handwriting without tears that integrate with other subjects

For example, there can be exercises that work on grammar and mechanics, with students learning and working on synonyms, homophones, root words, rhyming words, singular/plural and more, as well as the occasional exercise that incorporates things from broader social studies lessons, such as geography. 

Although Handwriting Without Tears doesn’t really dive too deeply into these other topics (it is a handwriting program after all), this does mean it can be a little more of a natural fit for homeschoolers and can be incorporated into a student’s studies in a number of different ways. 

How It Works

Handwriting Without Tears is designed to be parent-led, with parents introducing and presenting information to the student. 

In later grades and as students’ reading skills improve, however, we feel students can do a lot of the work more independently, particularly given the clear instructions and illustrations in the workbooks. 

The books’ are broken up into different units, made up of 4-5 lessons and a unit review, which is a kind of exercise page that assesses how well a student has mastered the different letters and skills taught in that unit. 

The program’s lessons are pretty consistent, straightforward and tend to follow a particular format. 

They are also pretty short, typically taking around 15 minutes or so to complete, so they’re not as overwhelming for younger students as other programs can be.

At the top of each page, the objectives, multisensory activities and multimedia resources (QR Code) are all neatly laid out, providing parents with a clear overview of the lesson and what’s required to teach it. 

sample of teaching lesson outline in handwriting without tears

The lesson then begins and goes through a three-step process of instruction:

Direct Instruction

First, parents themselves actively demonstrate how a letter is formed. Following the instructions laid out in the lesson guide, they verbalize each step of the process as they draw each stroke. 

screenshot of demonstration by parent in handwriting without tears lesson

At this stage, parents can also take advantage of the many multisensory activities found in the lesson guides. 

Many lessons have a particular activity associated with them, and their particular page numbers are listed clearly at the top of the page, so parents should have no trouble finding them.  

Generally the activity guides are found towards the back of the lesson guides and are pretty clearly laid out, providing a good deal of background about the activity, its objectives, what materials are required and how to go about implementing it.  

Guided Practice

Following this, students then practice under the watchful eye of their parent, tracing the letter (by hand and then with a pencil) and following the same step by step approach the parent just demonstrated, all the while verbalizing what they are doing, which can further strengthen their learning. 

screenshot of guided practice in lesson

Independent Practice and Check – After the guided practice, students can work on their handwriting and, later, writing independently. 

Then (with their parents at first) check their written work for proper sequencing, size, placement and so on.

Following the lesson, optional learning is laid out for parents. There are ideas for enrichment, differentiation for English Language Learners and those struggling with handwriting, and some activity ideas that connect topics in the lesson to other subjects the student might be learning (usually Language Arts but occasionally other Social Studies subjects as well). 

screenshot showing other activities a parent may want to include in handwriting without tears

Handwriting Without Tears Letter Order

One thing that parents should be aware of, and that tends to separate Handwriting Without Tears from other programs, is the order in which it presents the alphabet. 

Most programs tend to introduce letters according to alphabetical order, generally following how students would have learned them in the first place, and generally students are taught the uppercase and lowercase formats together (or one after the other). 

In other words, lessons tend to go from A to Z. 

In Handwriting Without Tears, however, letters are instead grouped according to how the program wants them to be constructed, i.e. how they are supposed to be written from start point to end point.

For example, students might work on so-called “Frog Jump Capitals” – i.e. the letters F E D P B R N and M. 

These letters are grouped together since they are drawn starting with a big line on he left, starting at the top and moving down before jumping back to the top and moving rightwards, as demonstrated in the video below. 

Similarly, the capital letters H K L U V W X Y Z are grouped together as “Starting Corner Capitals,” since students start at the top left corner, before moving down/left to right. 

As the series progresses, it groups various capital letters and lowercase letters in similar ways, both in block and cursive print.

Across the series there are, for example:

  • Diver Letters
  • Center Starters
  • Slide letters
  • Tow Truck Letters

This grouping system, while perhaps a little unusual for parents and students used to thinking of letters in relation to their alphabetical order, is actually in line with the program’s developmental approach to teaching.

When it comes to writing by hand, the alphabet can be something of a jumble of different techniques and forms, some are easier to draw while others are harder. 

This is especially true with cursive, considering its now less familiar shapes and issues students have when joining different letters.

By breaking the alphabet apart and regrouping the letters by how they are formed, Handwriting Without Tears can start by introducing the easiest to draw ones first before moving on to the more complex, making the system actually pretty thoughtful.

It also makes the program quite useful for students who struggle with handwriting, as by letting them work on easier letter formations first, they can achieve some quick wins that can boost their self-confidence and perhaps reduce their anxiety around handwriting a little more. 

Our Thoughts on Handwriting Without Tears Lessons

Overall, we feel that Handwriting Without Tears lessons are very effective, well-designed and can be very engaging, especially for students who struggle with handwriting or who may  otherwise roll their eyes at the prospect of pen-and-paper writing in the digital age. 

The lessons are short and to the point, often taking less than 15 minutes to go through, so they’re not too much of a burden to fit into even a busy homeschool schedule and aren’t so long that students get bored or lose interest.

The program’s lessons are also very straightforward, moving from introduction of a letter to guided practice to independent practice pretty fluidly. 

The instruction is also very clear, providing parents and students with easy to understand, step-by-step instructions for producing letters and offers plenty of helpful illustrations that can make things a lot more understandable and act as a model against which parents can check student work.

Although the program does offer activity options for each lesson, these don’t really ever feel like busywork, and they can add a lot of value to the learning, particularly with kids who have different learning preferences (tactile and auditory learners, for example) and can be a change from more workbook-oriented programs, such as A Reason For Handwriting , Zaner-Bloser and others. 

Handwriting Without Tears offers a good deal of practice, as well, offering a good amount of guided and independent practice in each lesson and providing a unit review after every few lessons. 

In this way, it can be a very helpful program for students who need a lot more practice and reinforcement when learning fine motor skills.

One thing we enjoyed about the lesson plans was their integration of technology through the printed QR codes. 

By simply scanning the page (or inputting a provided url) parents can immediately access a wide variety of multimedia digital resources that can add some fun and useful activities, exercises, videos and songs to use during a lesson.

Through these QR codes there’s no need for parents to move to a computer and hunt around for files or websites, they can simply use their phone or tablet and access the materials right away. 

Another thing we found interesting about Handwriting Without Tears is how flexible it can be for homeschooling parents, something that surprised us given the program’s systematic, rules-based nature. 

While the program offers a lot of options for activities, as well as extra exercises for remediation or enrichment learning, parents are largely free to choose what they would like to include in their lessons. 

Depending on time constraints, as well as how distractible a student is, parents can choose to include all, some or none of the activities recommended by the book. 

Some parents have focused solely on the workbook exercises and, while probably not the most engaging, recommended or comprehensive way of using the program, have reported finding handwriting success with their students. 

There are some things about Handwriting Without Tears that we feel parents should be aware of before starting, however. 

It is, for example, very different from many other handwriting programs out there. 

It is a very structured, detailed and rules-based approach that teaches students a very particular and explicitly taught method of forming letters and numbers, providing detailed instruction on everything from size, proportion, stroke method and directionality, and even covers things like proper posture and grip. 

While very helpful and effective for most students (and parents who have never taught handwriting before), some other students and homeschooling parents may chafe a bit under this structured and systematic approach, preferring a program that offers a little more individual creativity and freedom.

Similarly, students who have gone through a large part of a handwriting program already and have learned certain habits may not appreciate having to go back and relearn some of the fundamental methods of the program.

Another, admittedly minor, issue homeschooling parents may have is with how the books are structured. 

By and large, the activities, tips and guidelines are all located in different sections of the book, meaning there can be some flipping around during lessons. 

Finally, parents should note that the lesson guides are quite detailed and expansive. 

While this makes the lessons very comprehensive, clear and easy to teach, at times it can be a lot of information for homeschool parents to take in, and can be a little overwhelming for some and it can be somewhat easy for those not used to homeschooling to get distracted by all the information, potential exercises and activities. 

How Easy Is Handwriting Without Tears To Teach?

Handwriting Without Tears is very easy to teach in our opinion.

The lessons are fully scripted, providing parents with all the information they’ll need to introduce topics and teach them in a step-by-step manner, including a ready dialogue they can fall back on if they aren’t really sure about how to explain things themselves. 

Further, the program’s lesson guides and workbooks are illustrated, providing an easy to understand visual guide that effectively outlines each step in the handwriting process very clearly for both parents and young students. 

The activities themselves are similarly well scripted, detailed and illustrated, making it quite easy for parents to quickly and easily set up and run them with a minimum of prep-time.

As a result, we feel that new and experienced homeschooling parents alike should have no issue teaching Handwriting Without Tears. 

On the downside, however, while the program is fairly easy to teach once parents get used to it, its format, letter grouping and methodology does take some getting used to on the part of parents, who would probably be best served by reading up on the program’s structure and way of doing things. 

Pros And Cons 

Developed by topical experts.

Rather than being developed by a curriculum provider or educational company, Handwriting Without Tears has been developed by occupational therapists and teaches in a way that takes into account the development path and needs of kids. 

Consequently, the program isn’t just based on best practices, it’s also not as frustrating for kids, particularly for those who struggle with learning to write by hand, as some other programs might be.

Short lessons

Lessons in Handwriting Without Tears are pretty short, usually under 15 minutes or so depending on the student. As a result, they aren’t as overwhelming for students to sit through and can be easy to fit into just about any homeschool schedule. 

Very multisensory and activity-rich

Handwriting Without Tears isn’t just a worksheet and copywork based program, but rather involves a variety of multisensory activities that can fit different learning preferences.

There are, for example, a variety of manipulatives and games that can suit tactile learners, songs and videos to suit auditory and visual learners and get and and go activities to suit those who enjoy more kinesthetic learning. 

Easy to teach

With clear, step-by-step, fully-scripted and illustrated lessons, Handwriting Without Tears is easy for parents to teach and for students to understand. 

Very guided approach helps build good habits from the start

Handwriting Without Tears takes a very systematic and rules-based approach to teaching handwriting, guiding students through a deliberate and consistent step-by-step approach to writing out letters. 

Combined with its strong emphasis on practice and review, it can more easily get them in the habit of creating properly sized, spaced and drawn letters from the start. 

Embedded links to digital resources

Rather than inserting printed URLs or webpage names, the program’s lesson guides include readily-scannable QR codes that link to a variety of helpful digital resources, making it a lot easier and faster for parents to include these in their lessons. 

Flexible and scalable to suit homeschool needs

Although it offers a lot of activities, teaching suggestions and enrichment ideas, by and large Handwriting Without Tears leaves the decision of what to use up to the parent and relies on a fairly lightweight core of workbooks exercises and quick, step by step lessons. 

Its teaching can easily therefore be as comprehensively scaled up or paired down as parents require or would prefer. 

Can have a few moving parts to keep track of

Parents who want to take full advantage of the program and its multitude of multisensory components and activities can find that, as with other hands-on learning programs, there can be a lot of things to buy and keep track of during lessons, such as slates, chalk, magnet boards, wooden shapes, apps, playdough, CDs and more. 

Can be a little different than how most parents learned handwriting

Handwriting Without Tears has a very definite way of teaching handwriting, as well as grouping and introducing letters, that can be very different from the more traditional ways parents have been taught to write. 

As a result, parents may need to spend some time, at least at first, reading about the program’s methodology and familiarizing themselves with its lesson structure. 

Who Is Handwriting Without Tears Ideal For?

Parents and students looking for a fun, activity-rich way of learning handwriting.

With its plethora of hands-on activities, digital resources and manipulatives use, Handwriting Without Tears can be a very engaging way of learning to write by hand, making it a lot more fun for parents and students to use than other programs.  

Students who have had a hard time with traditional copywork-style handwriting programs

Some students can learn handwriting by simply copying sentences and letter forms, but for a variety of reasons other students can have a hard time with this, finding it tedious and/or preferring to learn in other ways.

In addition to traditional workbook exercises, Handwriting Without Tears offers a variety of multisensory teaching activities that can be really effective for tactile, auditory and kinesthetic learners. 

Parents looking for an easy to teach, step by step handwriting program

Handwriting Without Tears teaches its material clearly and simply, with lots of helpful illustrations, a fully scripted dialogue, and easy to follow, step-by-step instructions for producing letters. 

Consequently, parents who are new to homeschooling or who are unsure of their ability to teach handwriting themselves will likely find it quite easy and effective to use. 

Students who do best with lots of practice and review

Some students have an easy time learning to write by hand, while others struggle with the fine motor control required. 

In addition to providing students with a consistent, step-by-step process for producing letters, Handwriting Without Tears also provides them with lots of opportunities for practice and review, both in their workbook and through engaging multisensory activities, which can help them hone their skills over time. 

Students who have a hard time sitting through longer lessons

Handwriting Without Tears lessons are usually pretty short, often taking less than 15 minutes to complete. Consequently, students tend to have an easier time going through them without losing focus or becoming bored. 

Who Is It Not Ideal For?

Students who are already somewhat proficient at handwriting.

Students who have made significant progress in another program and have developed strong habits in creating some of their letters may have a harder time adapting to the particular way of doing things outlined in Handwriting Without Tears, often needing to go back to earlier levels to relearn/undo certain habits, which can be frustrating.

Parents looking for a complete self-study program

Although students can use some of the materials more independently later in the series, by and large Handwriting Without Tears is designed to be taught to students and requires a fair amount of parental involvement and time. 

Parents and students who want a handwriting program that lets them develop more naturally 

Handwriting Without Tears is a very systematic program that teaches students how to create letters in a particular, step-by-step way. 

It will, for example, detail where to start with a first stroke, where to end, directionality and so on, rather than allowing students to find their own preferred and natural way of doing things. 

As a result, students who like to do things their own way and parents who want to take a more natural, student-led approach to teaching may not find this to be a good fit for them. 

Note: Prices correct as of writing. All prices are in USD. 

As mentioned previously, Handwriting Without Tears can involve a number of different books, but generally involves a level-specific teacher’s guide, student workbook and some manipulatives. 

Pricing for the books in the series can be dependent on the precise retailer involved, the edition involved and any sales or discounts that may apply. 

That said, student guides typically cost around $11.85, while teacher’s guides tend to cost around $24.99. 

In terms of manipulatives, again it varies between the specific physical product (and the company offers quite a few), but in general they can be picked up for around:

Slate chalkboard – $5.25

Stamp and See- $15.50

Double lined blackboard – $14.95

Wood pieces set for capitals – $32.95

As always, it is important to check for current pricing and any deals or offers that may be in effect. 

Is It Worth The Price?

Overall, we feel that Handwriting Without Tears can add a lot of value to homeschooling parents and students.

The books are well-designed, easy to teach and, most importantly, easy for students to learn from with clear, structured and step-by-step instructions, diagrams and a logically laid out, developmentally appropriate curriculum structure. 

More than that the series makes learning handwriting a lot more engaging for students, going beyond a traditional workbook methodology to help them learn to write by hand using song, movement and lots of different activities and manipulatives. 

In this way, Handwriting Without Tears can suit a wider variety of learning preferences and can make learning handwriting a lot more approachable for students who struggle with it. 

Finally, while there are all kinds of activities offered by the program, in the end it is a very flexible curriculum to use. 

Parents can choose to use all of the various manipulatives and provide their students with a complete multisensory experience, or choose to use none of them at all and work mainly through the illustrated workbook.

Bottom Line

Handwriting doesn’t have to be a nightmare for students…or their parents.

With an easy to use, structured format, activity-rich lessons and strong multisensory component, if you’re looking for an effective, engaging and even fun way to help a student learn to write by hand, Handwriting Without Tears might be just the solution you’re looking for.

Picture of our author and editor Anne Miller

About the Author

Anne Miller is the editor of The Smarter Learning Guide and is a passionate advocate for education and educational technology. A mom of two, she majored in English Language and Literature and worked as a substitute teacher and tutor for several years. When not writing she continues to root for the Yankees and the Giants.

Privacy Overview

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

cropped-logo-2.png

By Audience

  • Therapist Toolbox
  • Teacher Toolbox
  • Parent Toolbox
  • Explore All

By Category

  • Organization
  • Impulse Control
  • When Executive Function Skills Impair Handwriting
  • Executive Functioning in School
  • Executive Functioning Skills- Teach Planning and Prioritization
  • Adults With Executive Function Disorder
  • How to Teach Foresight
  • Bilateral Coordination
  • Hand Strengthening Activities
  • What is Finger Isolation?
  • Occupational Therapy at Home
  • Fine Motor Skills Needed at School
  • What are Fine Motor Skills
  • Fine Motor Activities to Improve Open Thumb Web Space
  • Indoor Toddler Activities
  • Outdoor Play
  • Self-Dressing
  • Best Shoe Tying Tips
  • Potty Training
  • Cooking With Kids
  • Scissor Skills
  • Line Awareness
  • Spatial Awareness
  • Size Awareness
  • Pencil Control
  • Pencil Grasp
  • Letter Formation
  • Proprioception
  • How to Create a Sensory Diet
  • Visual Perception
  • Eye-Hand Coordination
  • How Vision Problems Affect Learning
  • Vision Activities for Kids
  • What is Visual Attention?
  • Activities to Improve Smooth Visual Pursuits
  • What is Visual Scanning
  • Classroom Accommodations for Visual Impairments

Affect modulation

Affect Modulation for Kids: Strategies and Insights

  • Free Resources
  • Members Club
  • Development , Handwriting , Letter Formation , Occupational Therapy Activities , resources

Letter Formation Rhymes

  • by victoria3515
  • November 20, 2023

Amazon affiliate links may be included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

When working on handwriting skills, letter rhymes are a tool to have in your toolbox! Whether you are looking for summer enrichment, or planning for the upcoming school year, the OT Toolbox is highlighting letters with posts on games, activities, worksheets, and this one on Letter Formation Rhymes . Pair these multi-sensory activities with hands-on letter formation activities and letter formation worksheets for engaging and motivating skill-building.

letter rhymes packet on green and white background with text that says "Free Letter Rhymes"

letter formation Rhymes

Before getting into letter formation rhymes, it’s important to understand the underlying skills necessary for writing letters with accuracy and automaticity when it comes to handwriting .

When it comes to auditory processing skills , auditory memory is a factor that improves carryover skills . The auditory memory tool of a rhyme to support letter creation is a spark for legible formation and the functional pencil stroke sequences in letter formation, however if the underlying components are not in place, a rhyme or letter song will not help.

As always, it is important to understand the basics before expanding your activities. Understanding development and the “why” before starting activities and games will improve your effectiveness and efficiency as a therapist. Knowing the reason a student is struggling on a particular task will point you in the right direction when it comes to treatment activities.

Difficulties with letter formation may come from a variety of different sources including:

  • visual perception
  • hand weakness
  • motor planning
  • bilateral coordination
  • executive function skills .

Our lengthy resource on letter formation covers the reasons why the letter formation aspect of  handwriting  can be so difficult. Be sure to check out all of the letter formation activities including ways to teach letters that use a hands-on and sensory approach to learning letters. You’ll also find resources on letter order, and information on teaching letters based on child development.

Alphabet formation rhymes

Now that you are familiar with the basics, and have some great resources to get you started, how about adding letter formation rhymes to your toolbox!

Some tips and ideas to get you started with incorporating letter rhymes into teaching handwriting:

  • Use consistent verbal prompts. If you use a particular letter formation rhyme, stay consistent with using that same verbiage each time.
  • Use a visual prompt. You can use our letter formation rhyme printable.
  • Use age-appropriate directions. Younger students may appreciate rhymes and cute visuals to go along with the letter formation directions. Older students may appreciate simple instructions for each letter, such as: “m – start at the top. Down up, over, down again, and over once more to finish your m”.
  • Add whole-body learning. Incorporate movement using our alphabet exercises along with letter formation rhymes that uses body movements to describe the letters.
  • Teach letters in groups based on the pencil strokes that make up the letters. These are called letter families . For example, letters L, E, F, I, H, T are in a letter family. And c, a, g, o, and q are in a letter family. All letters of the alphabet can be grouped with other similar letters based on the pencil lines that make up the letter. This goes for uppercase letters as well as lowercase letters. Teaching letters in a similar group promotes the motor plan needed, as well as improves pencil control skills .
  • Simple verbal cues- Handwriting without Tears (now called Learning without Tears) has great rhymes and songs to go with their learning program. Mat Man is a big theme in their program, and simple yet effective directions for forming letters include: big line, little line, big curve, little curve.
  • Interactive Activities: Plan interactive and multi-sensory letter formation activities that involve students actively participating in the letter formation process. For instance, use large motor movements to draw letters on a whiteboard or on the floor.
  • Try different strategies. Here are 10 ways to teach letter formation that incorporate different sensory tools. Use these activities along with the letter rhymes to really establish a motor plan for each letter.
  • Letter A Worksheet
  • Letter B Worksheet
  • Letter C Worksheet
  • Letter D Worksheet
  • More coming

letter formation Rhyme videos

Some therapists and teachers prefer to teach using videos. This is definitely a viable option, however you can also use the videos to learn the songs, then teach them to your students without video aids. Plus, you can send a list of the letter rhyme videos to parents to support handwriting carryover at home as part of OT handwriting homework or a home program.

If you are looking for songs rather than letter formation rhymes, Jack Hartman has many videos on YouTube.

Pairing lowercase letter workout with uppercase letter gross motor coordination tasks can be a great lesson plan for teaching letter formation. This video has a workout for forming upper case letters:

This video encourages air writing for letters:

This video allows users to learn the sign language for each letter as well for fine motor coordination and finger dexterity . This can be a great home program recommendation for targeting manual dexterity goals .

This Alphabet Song is a fun way to add music and movement to letter formation activities:

We also have a series of videos that you can pull specific letter formation tips from. Each letter of the alphabet has it’s own video:

The video can be paired with letter rhymes to teach the motor skills needed for uppercase A.

The video covers how to teach letter B and then carry the pencil strokes over to similar letters.

The video addresses how to create a motor plan for letter C.

and so on…Check out the full letter formation playlist here .

why teach letter formation rhymes?

Incorporating a rhythmic song or rhyme to letter formation is helpful for establishing a motor plan for letter forms. This is especially helpful for those who learn with auditory input. We know that every student has their own learning style. The acronym VARK is used to cover these various styles of learning.

V is for Visual Learners- Some learners are visual . These individuals learn through visual input: reading, watching others complete tasks, visual examples, viewing videos, worksheets, etc.

A is for Auditory Learners- Other learners are auditory learners and need to hear the information for it to sink in.

R is for Learning Through Reading- You may find students who need to read and write the information in order to learn. This may include a combination of visual input and or auditory input by reading back information.

K is for Kinesthetic Learners- There are students who are kinesthetic learners . These learners better retain information by doing the task. A multisensory approach is great for this type of student. One tool to support this learning style when teaching letter forms is our A-Z multisensory learning mats .

Letter formation rhymes can fit all of the VARK learning categories. Videos and visuals help the visual learner. Songs and rhymes satisfy the auditory learner. Reading and writing along with the rhymes or songs can help the “R” learner, while the kinesthetic learner needs to get up and move around with the songs and rhymes.

You can modify the lesson for each individual learner, or provide a plan that has all four styles of learning embedded to meet the needs of your students. Meeting the needs of your students will be far more effective than having them bend to your particular teaching style. The most effective managers and teachers have figured out how to morph to meet the needs of each of their individual students or staff.

Alphabet Formation Rhymes

We’ve created our own letter formation rhymes for uppercase letters and lowercase letters. We’ve also put these letter rhymes into a packet, which includes uppercase letters and lowercase letters.

This takes a developmental approach to writing letters, which is to focus on the uppercase letters first and focusing on the simplest pencil strokes first, which is straight lines down and then vertical lines.

Then, the pencil strokes which can carryover to other letters are covered. We tried to come up with letter rhymes that focus in on these key developmental concepts.

Below, you’ll find the uppercase letter rhymes and the lowercase letter rhymes that we love to use.

We included a visual image (like an apple, butterfly, and cookie) for each letter. This is so the play mat has a small image that the user can color to work on fine motor skills and hand strength.

If you are a member of The OT Toolbox membership, you can log in and get these letter rhymes in a printable activity set.

Uppercase Letter Rhymes

Below are uppercase letter rhymes.

Please don’t copy these and post them in other places. Content on this site is copyrighted and trademarked.

A- A is for Apple, so round and red, To make an uppercase A, here’s what’s said: Slant to the left, a diagonal flight. Then slant to the right, with all your might. Across the middle, a line so true. Completing the A, just for you!

B- B is for Butterfly, vibrant and bright, Let’s learn to write it, with all our might. Line down, from top to base. Then a little curve, adds some grace. Another little curve, we’re almost through. Uppercase B, look at what we can do!

C- C is for Cookie, sweet and round, Let’s learn to make it, hear the sound. Start at the top, curve around in glee. A big, round shape, like a smiling C.

D- D is for Dinosaur, tall and strong, Let’s learn to make it, join along! Start at the top, make a straight line down, a sturdy backbone, with no frown. Curve to the right, like a big smile, Uppercase D, it’s been worth the while!

E- E is for Elephant, strong and grand, Let’s learn to write it, hand in hand. A big line down, from top to base, Uppercase E finds its rightful place. Then three short lines, straight across, E’s horizontal friends, no time to pause.

F- F is for Firefly, glowing so bright, Let’s learn to write it, with pure delight. A big line down, from top to base, Uppercase F takes its rightful place. Two short lines, right across it goes, One on top, the other below.

G- G is for Giraffe, tall and so grand, Let’s learn to write it, holding our hand. A big curve, starting from the top, Round and smooth, it won’t stop. Then a short line, right in the middle, Uppercase G, let’s solve the riddle!

H- H is for House, standing so tall, Let’s learn to write it, one and all. A big line down, from top to base, Uppercase H finds its rightful place. Another big line, parallel and strong, Side by side, where it belongs. Then a short line in the middle, you see, Uppercase H, formed brilliantly.

I- I is for Igloo, tall and grand, Let’s learn to write it, hand in hand. Start with a long line, from top to below, Uppercase I, a letter we’ll know! Add a short line up top, not too far, Like a little hat, it’s just the right star. Then a short line at the bottom, oh so neat, Uppercase I, it’s now complete!

J- J is for Jellyfish, swimming with glee, Let’s learn to write it, come and see! Start with a line that goes down, curving with grace, Uppercase J, taking its place. Then add a short line, standing high, Completing Uppercase J, reaching for the sky!

K- K is for Kite, soaring up high, Let’s learn to write it, reach for the sky! Start with a straight line, from top to base, Uppercase K takes its rightful place. Then make a slant, from top-right to left, Another slant down, with a gentle heft.

L- L is for Lion, strong and bold, Let’s learn to write it, as we’re told! Start with a big line, straight and tall, Uppercase L, stands proud overall. Then draw a short line, just like a mane, Completing the L with a majestic reign.

M- M is for Monkey, swinging with glee, Let’s learn to make it, just you and me! Start at the top, make a mountain peak, Uppercase M, strong and sleek. Downward we go, like a slippery slide, Then up again, right by its side. End with a big line down, no time to frown!

N- N is for Night, starry and bright, Let’s learn to write it, with delight! Start with a big line, straight and tall, Uppercase N, stands proud and all. Then a diagonal line, slanting right, Creating N’s shape, oh what a sight! Finally, a straight line, reaching up high, Uppercase N, reaching for the sky!

O- O is for Octopus, in the deep sea, Let’s learn to make it, you and me! Start at the top, a curve round and true, Uppercase O, a perfect circle for you. Go all the way around, never break the line, Uppercase O, a shape so fine!

P- P is for Penguin, waddling on ice, Let’s learn to write it, it’s simple and nice! Start at the top, a straight line down, Uppercase P, wear your writing crown. Then curve it around, like a little loop, Creating P’s shape, a playful swoop.

Q- Q is for Queen, majestic and true, Let’s learn to write it, just me and you! Start at the top, like a crown so grand, Uppercase Q, take your royal stand. Curve around, like a swooping bow. At the bottom, add a tail, Uppercase Q, you never fail!

R- R is for Rabbit, hopping with glee, Let’s learn to write it, you and me! Start at the top, a line straight down, Hop to the top for a writing crown. Then make a curve, like a little bow, Creating R’s shape, let it proudly show. Add a slanted line, with a tail so neat, Uppercase R, now complete!

S- S is for Snake, slithering with grace, Let’s learn to write it, at our own pace! Start at the top, with a curve so round, Uppercase S, a shape we have found. Then curve again, just like before, Creating S’s form, we explore.

T- T is for Tree, standing tall and true, Let’s learn to write it, me and you! Start at the top, a straight line down, Then add a line across the top, wearing its writing crown.

U- U is for Umbrella, keeping us dry, To write it, let’s give it a try! Start at the top, go down straight, Then curve around, like a smiley gate. Go back up, just like you came, Uppercase U, that’s its name!

V- V is for Violin, playing a tune, To write it, let’s try very soon! Start at the top, with a slanting line down, Then go back up, like a hill’s crown.

W- W is for Whale, swimming in the sea, Let’s learn to write it, you and me! Start with a slant down, then another the same, Climbing back up, like a mountain’s frame. Go down again, a slant it will be, Then climb back up, just like the sea.

X- X is for Xylophone, making a sound, To write it, let’s trace lines we’ve found! Start with a diagonal line, left to right, Then cross it over, it’s quite a sight.

Y- Y is for Yo-Yo, up and down, Let’s learn to write it, top to ground Start with a slant down, left to right, Then slant up, it’s a playful sight. From the center, a line straight and long, Uppercase Y, standing strong!

Z- Z is for Zebra, stripes so bold, Let’s learn to write it, we’ll be untold! Start at the top, a line going right, Then slant down left, it’s quite a sight. Another line straight, from left to right, Uppercase Z, you’re not a fright!

Lowercase Letter Rhymes

Below are alphabet rhymes for making the lowercase letters.

a- a is for apple, juicy and red, To write it, follow these steps, it’s said: A curve on top, like a smile so sweet, Then a line down, to complete. Remember the shape, round and neat!

b- b is for butterfly, colorful and bright. To write it, here’s a simple guide: Line down, then a curved belly. A smaller hump, so lovely!

c- c is for cat, soft and sly, To write it, let’s give it a try: Start at the top, make a curve round, Then a line down, don’t make a sound! A simple shape, like a moon in the sky!

d- d is for dog, loyal and true, To write it, here’s what you can do: Start with a circle, nice and round, Then add a line, curving down. Writing d is easy, you’ll soon see!

e- e is for elephant, big and strong, To write it, it won’t take long: A line across, take a look! Then curve around. Writing e is fun, you’ll agree!

f- f is for frog, leaping so high, To write it, let’s give it a try: Start with a curve and then a line, straight and tall. Remember the line, like a lily pad, Writing f is easy, it’s not too bad!

g- g is for grapes, sweet and divine, To write it, let’s follow the line: A curve on top, just like a smile, Then a line down, it’s worth your while. Add a hook at the end, like a little swing, Writing g is fun, let your pencil sing!

h- h is for hat, worn with pride, To write it, here’s a guide: Start at the top, a line straight down, Then add a line, curved like a crown. Remember the shape, tall and true, Writing h is easy for me and you!

i- i is for igloo, icy and round, To write it, here’s what we’ve found: A line straight down, simple and neat, Dot on top, a tiny treat. Remember the dot, like a snowy flake, Writing i is easy, no mistakes to make!

j- j is for jellyfish, floating in the sea, To write it, let’s follow with glee: A line down, then a little hook, Like a curly tentacle, take a look! Remember the shape, curvy and bright, Writing j is fun, it feels just right!

k- k is for kite, flying so high. To write it, let’s give it a try: A straight line down, then a slant in and out, A shape like half a triangle or a spout.

l- l is for lion, fierce and grand, To write it, here’s what we command: A line straight down, standing tall, A line across, like a grassy stand.

m- m is for monkey, swinging with delight, To write it, follow this path just right: A little line down, like a playful dance, A hump in the middle, a joyful chance. Remember the shape, curvy and round, Writing m is fun, let’s make a joyful sound!

n- n is for nest, cozy and snug, To write it, here’s what we’ll plug: A little line down, Then one bump. Writing n is easy, up and down!

o- o is for octopus, in the deep blue sea, To write it, let’s follow this tip: A simple circle, round and true, Remember the shape, like a watery ring, Writing o is easy, let your imagination sing!

p- p is for panda, black and white, To write it, here’s what feels right: A line straight down, standing tall, Then a curve, like a bouncing ball. Remember the shape, curvy and clear, Writing p is easy, let go of any fear!

q- q is for quilt, cozy and warm, To write it, let’s follow this form: A curve round, just like c, but it’s neat, A tail curling out, like a cozy treat. Remember the shape, round and swirled, Writing q is fun, you’ll rock the world!

r- r is for rabbit, hopping the race, To write it, here’s what we’ll embrace: A line down, like a fast sprint, Then up with a curve. Remember the shape, bouncy and bright, Writing r is easy, let your imagination take flight!

s- s is for sun, shining up high, To write it, let’s give it a try: A curve on top, like a cheerful smile, Then a curve below, it’s worth your while. Remember the shape, like a wave in the sea, Writing s is easy, let your creativity roam free!

t- t is for tree, standing tall and strong, To write it, here’s where we belong: A line down, straight and true, A line across, like branches do. Remember the shape, simple and clear, Writing t is easy, have no fear!

u- u is for umbrella, keeping us dry, To write it, let’s reach for the sky: A line down, with a little hook, Then another line down, just like a book. Remember the shape, open and wide, Writing u is easy, enjoy the ride!

v- v is for Violin, playing a tune, To write it, let’s try very soon! Start at the top, with a slanting line down, Then go back up, like a hill’s crown.

w- w is for wagon, rolling with fun, To write it, here’s how it’s done: Start with a slant down, then another the same, Climbing back up, like a mountain’s frame. Go down again, a slant it will be, Then climb back up, just like the sea.

x- x is for xylophone, making a sound, To write it, let’s trace lines all around: A slant down left, then a slant right, They meet in the middle, just right. Remember the lines, crossing and strong, Writing x is easy, like a joyful song!

y- y is for yo-yo, going up and down, To write it, let’s spin lines all around: A slant down left, then a slant down right, The tail hangs down, just right.

z- z is for Zebra, stripes so bold, Let’s learn to write it, we’ll be untold! Start at the top, a line going right, Then slant down left, it’s quite a sight. Another line straight, from left to right, letter Z, you’re not a fright!

Free Letter Rhyme Play Dough Mats

Want to get your copy of letter rhyme play dough mats? We have put together a set for uppercase and lowercase rhymes.

Each alphabet rhyme play dough mat includes:

  • A large letter with directional arrows
  • A rhyme for the letter’s formation
  • A small picture to color or fill with play dough
  • A space to write the letter

You can laminate the play dough mats , or slide them into page protector sleeves. Add them to a binder and use it as a multisensory workbook for letter writing.

You can also practice the alphabet formation with other multisensory strategies, too:

  • Use wikki stix to form the letters
  • Use a dry erase marker to write the letter and color the letter picture
  • Finger trace the letter

These packets are both free downloads here on our site. You can get them by entering your email address into the form below. The printable packets will be delivered to your email address. This way, you can print them from any device and any location.

These uppercase and lowercase alphabet rhyme printables are also available inside the Membership Club, along with hundreds of letter formation and multisensory handwriting tools. Members do not need to enter their email address for each item, they are all in one place, sorted by topic! Not a member yet? Join us in The OT Toolbox Membership Club !

FREE Letter Rhymes Packet

Final thoughts on alphabet rhymes.

If after scrolling through this post and clicking on some of the rhymes and songs, you find yourself humming along to one particular tune, you may have found the perfect one for you! Generations ago, Sesame Street or Barney was the way to learn. Now it seems Jack Hartman and Heidi have taken over. Whatever works for your particular students is the best way to teach!

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

Want printable handwriting and sensory motor activities to target the visual motor skills needed for letter writing? Grab a copy of our Letters! Fine Motor Kit . The printable PDF contains 100 pages of hands-on letter writing practice for multisensory handwriting!

Letters Fine Motor Kit

Inside the Letters Fine Motor Kit , you’ll find:

  • A-Z Multisensory Writing Pages:  Roll a ball of dough letters, ASL sign language letters, gross motor movement, small-scale letter box writing task, finger isolation letter trace, and writing practice area
  • Alphabet Fine Motor Clip Cards – Clip clothespins or paper clips to match letters with various fonts to strengthen the hands and focusing on eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, visual processing skills, and more.
  • Cut and place Fine Motor Mazes – Cut out the letter pieces and trace the maze with a finger to work on eye-hand coordination and finger isolation. Place a small letter on the letter spots to address in-hand manipulation and dexterity skills.
  • A-Z Cotton Swab Cards – Includes upper case and lower case letters. Dot the cards using a cotton swab or laminate the cards and use them over and over again.
  • A-Z Pattern Block Cards – These cards include a section for tracing with a finger tip for separation of the sides of the hand, eye-hand coordination, and finger isolation during letter formation. There is also a space to “finger write” the letter using the fingertip. This multisensory letter formation activity can be a great brain break during handwriting or literacy tasks. Learners can then form the letter using parquetry blocks.
  • Fine Motor Letter Geo-Cards – These geo board cards include A-Z in upper case forms. Users can copy the letter forms in a variety of multi-sensory strategies.
  • A-Z Color and Cut Letter Memory Cards – These upper case and lower case letter cards can be used to color for letter formation. Then use them in fine motor matching tasks or in sensory bins.
  • Color By Size Sheets – Help learners discriminate between tall letters, small letters, and tail letters. This visual perception activity invites learners to color small areas, using hand muscles for strengthening and handwriting endurance.
  • A-Z Building Block Cards – These LEGO block cards invite users to copy the cards to form letters using small building blocks. Users can place the blocks on the cards or copy the letter to address visual shift and visual memory. This activity set comes in upper case and lowercase letter forms.
  • A-Z Play Dough Letter Formation Cards – Print off these cards and laminate them to create play dough mats. Learners can form the letters using the arrows to correctly form letters with play dough while strengthening their hands and visual motor skills. Each card includes a space for practicing the letter formation, using a dry erase marker if the cards are laminated.
  • Graded Lines Box Writing Sheets – Users can trace and form letters in boxes to work on formation of letters, line awareness, starting points, and letter size.
  • Alphabet Roll and Write Sheets – Roll a dice and form the letter associated with the number of dots on the dice. This is a great way to work on letter formation skills using motivation. Which letter will reach the top first? This activity is easily integrated with a rainbow writing task to increase number or repetitions for letter practice.
  • Pencil Control Letter Scan – Use the letter bubble tracks to scan for letters. Users can fill in the letters of the alphabet to work on pencil control skills.
  • Color and Cut Puzzles – Color the pictures to work on hand strength and letter formation skills. Then cut out the puzzles and build visual perceptual skills.

Get your copy of the Letters Fine Motor Kit today!

handwriting without tears uppercase m

More Posts Like This

Affect modulation

  • Mental Health , Occupational Therapy , Self Regulation

Symptoms of screen use in kids and research on screens and development in children and teens.

  • Occupational Therapy

Symptoms of Too Much Screen Time

drawing-journal

  • Fine Motor Skills , Handwriting , Occupational Therapy

Drawing Journal with Stuffed Animals

yoga poses printable-free

  • Attention , Development , Occupational Therapy , Occupational Therapy Activities , Proprioception , Self Regulation

Cross Crawl Exercises

Quick links, sign up for the ot toolbox newsletter.

Get the latest tools and resources sent right to your inbox!

Get Connected

handwriting without tears uppercase m

  • Want to read the website AD-FREE?
  • Want to access all of our downloads in one place?
  • Want done for you therapy tools and materials

Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Beginners Cursive Handwriting: Uppercase Letters

Class

Class experience

Us grade 2 - 5, beginner level, meet the teacher.

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Group Class

Financial assistance  , outschool international  , get the app  .

Get it on Google Play

More to Explore  

Classes by age  , classes by grade  .

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Occupational Therapy blog with tips and tricks for those who care for children

Main navigation

Handwriting without tears for preschoolers and kindergarteners: a review, a giveaway, and a discount.

October 23, 2013 by christiekiley 154 Comments

Do you dread the day when you will have to teach your child to write? Have you ever found yourself hating each time you have to embark on writing instruction in your classroom? Do you wish there was an easier, more fun way to teach kids to write and really make it stick?

Meet “Handwriting Without Tears”!

Handwriting Without Tears is a program that was designed by an occupational therapist to teach children how to write without frustrating them to tears. It uses hands-on, multisensory materials and was designed in such a way that it introduces shapes, numbers, and letters in an order that matches the progression of children’s developmental abilities so that it is easier for them to practice, learn, and remember.

I have had the exciting opportunity to be trained in the Handwriting Without Tears program, so I was honored when they asked me if I would be willing to review and host a GIVEAWAY of a few of their products here on Mama OT!

Below are reviews of two tools that are essential to the Handwriting Without Tears program (the Wood Pieces and the Wet-Dry-Try slate with materials), PLUS you will get to hear all about the newly updated Wet-Dry-Try app for iPad!! Handwriting Without Tears provided me with these materials for free so that I could play around with them and tell you all about them here on the blog. PLUS, Mama OT and HWT are partnering up so YOU can win some free stuff.

Here we go!

WOOD PIECES SET FOR CAPITAL LETTERS

What are they and how do they work? This set includes 26 wood pieces that are divided into the four basic shapes you would need in order to build any capital letter (except J and U) — big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves. These wood pieces are used to help children learn concepts such as size and shape (big/little, line/curve), which are important pre-requisites for being able to know how to form letters.

The first step to using the wood pieces is to teach children what each piece is called (big line, little line, big curve, little curve). This is SUPER important because you will use those very same terms when teaching them to build letters. Consistency is key! The next step is to teach kids how to use them to build Mat Man ! This is a fun exercise in body awareness (which is actually a secretly important skill for handwriting), as well as an introduction to spatial concepts such as top, bottom, left, right, and middle (also majorly important for learning to write). After that, you can use the wood pieces with the Laminated Capital Letter Cards to start teaching kids to build letters with a visual to guide them. And then, finally, you can use them with the Blue Mat (from Mat Man) to build letters without any visual to guide them…now they are ready to start writing their letters! Find a sample lesson for how to introduce wood pieces here . And here is a cheat sheet for you so you can see exactly how to build each capital letter, and what you can say as you teach kids to do so.

Why are they good? The wood pieces are good because they allow children to learn spatial concepts, become familiar with capital letters as they learn them in class, and form the letters in a developmentally-appropriate manner without being forced to use a pencil to write or trace letters (which they will likely not be ready to do).

Who should or shouldn’t use them? The wood pieces are perfect for hands-on learners and preschool-aged children who are new to learning how to form capital letters. They can also be used with slightly older students who need some reinforcement on concepts related to size (big/little), shape (line/curve), sequence (which line or curve goes first, second, third), or letter orientation (facing the correct direction). Additionally, they could be used with students who are learning to make capital letters, but do not quite have the motor control or strength to grasp and use a writing implement to form them (one example is cerebral palsy). Students using the wood pieces should be able to imitate actions, follow directions, and tolerate hand-over-hand assistance as needed. I wouldn’t recommend using the wood pieces with students who will not use them appropriately, such as being destructive or violent with them (yeah, it happens).

WET-DRY-TRY SLATE

What is it and how does it work? The Wet-Dry-Try slate is a 4″x6″ mini chalkboard that provides a multisensory opportunity for kids to learn and practice writing their capital letters and numbers. In order to properly use the slate, instructors and students must have little (slightly damp) sponge cubes , small paper towel crumples, and small pieces of chalk . As you can see in the picture, the Wet-Dry-Try slate has a smiley face in the top left corner. This is just like the blue mat you read about earlier, so kids who have been using the Handwriting Without Tears program will already know that the smiley face is a reminder to start all their letters at the top. Very smart!

Here’s how it works:

{Wet} First, the teacher writes the targeted capital letter or number on the students’ slate so they have the correct model to follow. Students pinch their slightly damp sponge cube between their thumb and index finger, go to the top of the slate, and “trace” their chalky capital letter with the sponge. Now they have a “wet” letter. They should do so using the letter formation sequence taught by Handwriting Without Tears.

{Dry} Next, students pinch their crumpled paper towel bit between their thumb and index finger, go to the top of the slate again, and then trace over the wet capital letter with the paper towel. They should use firm pressure, follow the same (correct) sequence and strokes they used with the wet sponge, and stay right on top of the wet path, just as if they were tracing. Now they have a “dry” letter.

{Try} Lastly, students pinch their little chalk bit between their thumb and index finger, go to the top of the slate for the third time, and draw the capital letter themselves, following the faint path left for them from the “Wet” and “Dry” repetitions. They have now had a chance to “try” writing the letter themselves!

Why is it good? 1) The Wet-Dry-Try materials (little sponge cube, crumpled paper towel bit, little chalk bit) encourage a mature “tripod” grasp to prepare young students to efficiently hold and write with a pencil. 2) It encourages correct letter formation, including starting position, sequence, directionality (facing the right way) and overall height. 3) Repetition, repetition, repetition! 4) It encourages multisensory repetitions of that correct letter formation, which basically enhances the brain’s ability to remember the correct motor plan needed to form the letters.

How else can you do Wet-Dry-Try? You can take an  “I do, We do, You do” approach. “I do” means I (the instructor) demonstrate how to form the letter and/or perform the Wet-Dry-Try sequence so the students can see how it is done. “We do” means we then do it together. The teacher and student(s) can perform each step simultaneously. Or you can provide hands-on assistance along with verbal or visual cues at first, and then fade out the physical assistance as you continue to provide the verbal or visual cues. “You do” means I (the instructor) now ask you (the student) to do it on your own. Make sure the letter is written correctly on their board in chalk so they can initiate the “wet” step with correct letter formation. I would not recommend Wet-Dry-Try practice for students who are impulsive, cannot follow verbal or visual directions, or who clearly will not be able to put in the effort needed to complete the correct strokes.

I have also used the Wet-Dry-Try slate to practice pre-writing strokes with students who are not yet ready to write capital letters. These pre-writing strokes include a vertical line, horizontal line, circle, criss-cross, square, triangle, and diamond (in that order).

Who should or shouldn’t use it? The Wet-Dry-Try slate and materials are meant for Pre-K and Kindergarten-aged students who are learning to write capital letters and numbers. As mentioned on the Mama OT Facebook page, the skill of tracing comes after copying and imitating letters (read more here ). Wet-Dry-Try is a tracing activity, it is developmentally appropriate for children who have already learned how to build letters (such as with the Wood Pieces or other manipulatives such as pipe cleaners). Wet-Dry-Try can be used by students without disabilities or special needs. It can also be used by students with diagnoses such as autism, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, dyspraxia, learning disabilities, or developmental/fine motor delays. Students who do Wet-Dry-Try should be able to physically grasp the materials, follow basic directions, and tolerate hand-over-hand assistance if needed.

WET-DRY-TRY SUITE APP

What is it and how does it work? The Wet-Dry-Try Suite app is a touch screen version of the real thing. It was updated this past August 2013 in order to make it better than it has been in the past. This app is extremely user-friendly in that as soon as you open the app, it is easy to figure out what to do. Music, sound, and voice instructions play as you open the app and use it, so be sure to either turn off the sound or turn up the volume, depending on what you prefer.

The Wet-Dry-Try app includes three sections: capitals, lowercases, and numbers. Each section can be completed in either alphabetical/numerical order, or in the specialized Handwriting Without Tears order.

If you are using this app as part of HWT handwriting instruction, then I would recommend doing the HWT order because it teaches the letters in an order that is developmentally appropriate, it groups letters with similar starting points and stroke sequences, and it promotes correct formation habits. I would also recommend having students do capitals first, then numbers, and then lowercases. This is because, developmentally, capital letters and numbers are easier to learn than lowercase letters. Learn more here .

Each letter or number has three “Star Levels”. The first Star Level includes audio and visual cues for where to start and how to form the letter, plus it allows for the greatest margin of error when it comes to staying on the original chalk marks. The second Star Level includes a temporary visual cue for where to start, and it requires greater accuracy than the previous Star Level. Finally, the third Star Level has no visual cues and requires the greatest accuracy in following the chalk marks. By the time a student completes all three Star Levels, they will have completed nine accurate repetitions of that particular letter. Practice makes perfect, right?

Each letter or number is like a “level”, and after that letter or number is accurately completed, then the next one in the progression is “unlocked” so you can move on. It goes like this all the way until you unlock all the letters, ensuring that you progress in the appropriate order with success at each letter.

Why is it good? 1. This app repeatedly uses the specific terminology and “letter stories” used when teaching children to write letters with the Handwriting Without Tears method (such as “Big line down, frog jump [ribbit sound]…”). Because consistency is an important part of learning, this is really good. 2. The fact that the app tells you exactly how to phrase the instructions you should use when teaching children letters makes it much easier for the adult. Come on, do we really always say it exactly right? I don’t think so. 3. This app requires precision and repetition. Handwriting Without Tears is very big on making sure that children make the CORRECT strokes in the correct sequence when learning to form their letters and numbers, and their app makes sure of that. This is because each attempt at forming a letter or number makes a small “impression” on the brain and, with each incorrect attempt, it takes roughly TEN correct attempts to “erase” that incorrect impression on the brain. Crazy, right?

How else can you use it? As I have tried this app with students, I am inclined to say that students should first become familiar with the actual Wet-Dry-Try slate before trying out the Wet-Dry-Try app. I don’t think the virtual slate, sponge, paper towel, and chalk will make much sense to them if they haven’t physically used those materials before. If you have access to a stylus, you could use it on this app for the child who is ready to work on lowercase letters (though sometimes it’s hard to use a stylus for writing practice due to the child’s palm resting on the touch screen and messing things up). But you know what’s really cool? You can use a very slightly damp sponge cube on the screen and it works just as well as using your finger while promoting a nice tripod grasp and age-appropriate wrist extension if the iPad is vertical. Check it out!

Who should or shouldn’t use it? The capital letters and numbers in this app are appropriate for Pre-K and Kindergarten students. The lowercase letters in this app are appropriate for Kindergarten students after they have already learned how to write their capital letters. Because this app requires precision, it will be difficult for the child who is impulsive, does not listen to or follow directions, cannot slow down, has low frustration tolerance, or has difficulty isolating their index finger/pinching a sponge/holding a stylus. The Wet-Dry-Try app is sensitive to mistakes and will make a child try again if they don’t start in the correct starting spot, pull their finger off the tablet in the middle of a stroke, start to reverse the stroke and go the wrong way, or go too far off the line/don’t stop at the end of a line. It can be pretty frustrating. Based on my experience with this app so far, it should primarily be used with children who are able to pay attention to the instructions, can imitate a demonstration, have enough frustration tolerance to handle mistakes and multiple attempts, and can control their arm/hand/finger movements.

This app could also be good for a Kindergarten teacher who wants to utilize it as part of his or her HWT handwriting instruction because the program can be used in a classroom setting. Students’ work and progress can be saved and tracked using the online +Live Insights feature, and up to three students’ progress can be saved per app download. The +Live Insights allows teachers to go online and see their students’ progress in real time, with reports, graphs, and analysis that will allow them to focus their teaching on areas where their students need support. Very cool!

AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY!

Handwriting Without Tears will be giving away the items included in the photo above: a sample of the Wood Pieces, a Wet-Dry-Try slate, a bag of little sponge cubes, a box of little chalk pieces, and a free download of the Wet-Dry-Try app! (iPad not included)

Will you be one of the THREE lucky winners?!

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter giveaway box below! It should prompt you to leave a comment on this blog post in order to officially enter, plus it will tell you how you can earn extra entries to increase your odds of winning simply with a few more clicks on your screen.

Oh, and whether or not you win, you should know that you are now privy to $10 off any Handwriting Without Tears workshop simply by entering the promo code MAMAOT13 at checkout. This promo code is good for one year (through October 2014). Handwriting Without Tears offers hundreds of workshops every year, and they give you TONS of products to take home if you attend one of them. Click here to find a Handwriting Without Tears workshop near you.

Okay, time to enter the giveaway. Click below!

Summary of Terms and Conditions: Entrants must be at least 18 years of age, possess a valid mailing address within the contiguous United States, and possess a valid email address. “Handwriting Without Tears Giveaway” begins at 12:00am PST on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 and ends at 12:00am PST on Wednesday, October 30, 2013. Entry is only official when it has been submitted via Rafflecopter. Three (3) winners will be selected. Winners will be selected randomly and contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. Winners’ email addresses will be provided to Handwriting Without Tears so that they can arrange for free shipping to winners’ mailing addresses. If you have any additional questions, feel free to send an email to mamaotblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

I hope you get the opportunity to try out the many wonderful hands-on materials that Handwriting Without Tears has to offer.

If you’re not sure where to start, I’d suggest looking into the Pre-K or Kindergarten readiness kits, plus some other great tools  to help your kiddos stay on track with their handwriting practice. Best of luck, both with the giveaway and with your handwriting endeavors!

*Although I was compensated for this post, all opinions are my own.

Reader Interactions

October 29, 2013 at 7:12 pm

My daughter’s OT uses the handwriting without tears wooden blocks with her at her preschool and I would love to work on it with her more at home.

October 29, 2013 at 3:42 pm

I’ve been using HWT with some students as a school based OT intern. This would be a great addition to the worksheets and my “therapy tool kit”

October 29, 2013 at 9:05 am

HWT will be around for a long time and is a classic in the making! LOVE IT!

October 29, 2013 at 8:33 am

I work at an autism treatment center and this would be a great addition to our facility!

October 29, 2013 at 8:20 am

I’d love this for my three year old who has difficulty with fine motor skills and motor planning issues. Looks very helpful!

October 29, 2013 at 7:40 am

Thank you for the review. As a mama of four boys under the age of six I Would love to use this to help them with there handwriting.

October 29, 2013 at 5:22 am

I have used this program as an OT in the past and had great results. Now that i have my little one i’d love to implement it in our home.

October 29, 2013 at 4:45 am

I am going to have to get this for my 5 yo. This is his 2nd year in pre-school / K and his grip is not getting any better. The OT in me worried last year, but I just thought he was a young 4 and it would come along. It has not. Now, he doesn’t want to write or color and I now it’s cause his inappropriate grip. Gotta work on it as an OT / Mama!

October 29, 2013 at 12:13 am

As a newly qualified OT, I love your blog for all the great tips you give! I’m hoping to start my career in pediatrics so the handwriting without tears equipment would be so useful for me 🙂 Lisa x

October 28, 2013 at 11:06 pm

Your blog is fantastic! This is the only one I make time to read anymore. I would LOVE to win the items that are part of the Handwriting without Tears program. We got a little taste of this with Mat Man at my three year old’s preschool last year. He enjoyed it! I didn’t realize there was a whole extended program that goes along with it that you could do at home. I would be thrilled and most appreciative to have an opportunity to use this with both of my children!

October 28, 2013 at 11:01 pm

HWT is a great way to teach kids to write. My OTR at school has the materials which she shares with me (I am an OT Assistant) but I wish I had the kit to use with my preschool clients. It is so much fun and makes a lasting impression on the children

October 28, 2013 at 9:32 pm

Awesome give away! I’m thinking of going to the LA course in Jan 🙂 Hope you’re doing well!

October 28, 2013 at 1:58 pm

This is such a great tool! I would love to have one in my own OT Tool Kit

October 28, 2013 at 9:55 am

I would use it with my daughter who has Down syndrome and needs lots of help learning to write!

October 28, 2013 at 9:18 am

Can’t wait to try it with my big boy as he is struggling with handwriting

October 28, 2013 at 5:29 am

Would love to use this with my preschooler! I have heard so many great things about Handwriting without Tears

October 28, 2013 at 5:05 am

I am homeschooling our 2 DD’s ages newly 4 and almost 3. I have heard about HWT from a friend who uses the Sonlight curriculum and she loaned me her CD with songs. It is great! I would love to win this giveaway as I think this curriculum would be a great addition to our homeschool!

October 28, 2013 at 4:47 am

My sons school teaches with HWT and he is loving it.

October 27, 2013 at 11:04 pm

I am in the midst of teaching my oldest son handwriting, and while he learned to grasp a pencil easily everything else has been tough. This has proved our toughest skill yet.

October 27, 2013 at 8:09 pm

I’m 6 weeks away from graduating as an OT and can’t wait to start using HWT with my kiddos! Great post!

October 27, 2013 at 6:35 pm

I am looking forward to trying this with my kindergartener!

October 27, 2013 at 10:11 am

We have done the Mat Man activity in our classroom several times by using a power point presentation, it would be great to add this HWT giveaway to my class. The students can use it in groups, pairs or individually. The HWT helps make writing centers/workshops less stressful for students who struggle with writing. The activities provided/recommended can extend our learning of writing in a whole new adventure.

October 27, 2013 at 8:35 am

I love HWT!

October 27, 2013 at 5:40 am

this is a great tool to use in my classroom, I am always looking for more sensory based ways to help young kids learn. Thank you.

October 27, 2013 at 5:37 am

Hi! I am a private pediatric OT and have had some exposure and success with these products. I have made my own at home wood shapes with cardboard cereal boxes and the chalkboard out of dry erase, but I would love to give my kiddos (at home and at the clinic) a more thorough experience. I love your blog btw. I myself am a MamaOT and I feel so much pride for our profession when I come here 🙂 B

October 26, 2013 at 11:09 pm

I would love this! My son is having a hard time learning to write & I would love the help!

October 26, 2013 at 9:49 pm

I am homeschooling my 5yr. old and would love to incorporate HWT into his studies!

October 26, 2013 at 7:56 pm

I would love this for my classroom. I teach students with autism. Several of my students work on handwriting goals!

October 26, 2013 at 7:22 pm

I am a first year teacher for a primary Multi-Needs class and I have 5 students with Autism. I have been told from many experienced teachers that this is a great program to implement with my kiddos. I would love to win this to use with my kiddos on a regular basis, even as a station in my center rotations.

October 26, 2013 at 7:18 pm

I work with students with autism and recently read a research article that studied using HTW with these students to good success.

October 26, 2013 at 4:32 pm

I am a newly graduated OTA student so the funds are low and I would love to have this to work with my kiddos is therapy and help them learn. You are awesome with your tips and reviews. They are greatly appreciated!

October 26, 2013 at 1:02 pm

I would love to win so I could give this material to a teacher that told me she has never heard of Handwriting Without Tears before. She has a class of kids at the preschool/Kindergarten level, with severe development delays, and some with Autism. This hands-on program would really help her and her students. I would give her the APP too, because several of her students use the i-Pad as their preferred tool.

October 26, 2013 at 12:10 pm

I love Handwriting Without Tears…use it at my clinic every day!

October 26, 2013 at 11:53 am

I love this for teaching handwriting!

October 26, 2013 at 11:48 am

I am an early primary teacher always looking for multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate ways to help kids learn to write. I spent the last two years working with children with autism in my classroom and am looking for ways to make my classroom more inclusive of their special needs. A program like this would help me better reach my students at their level, and make learning to write more exciting.

October 26, 2013 at 10:58 am

I am an OT student interested in this is program.

October 26, 2013 at 10:34 am

Looks amazing! Love the wet dry try technique.

October 26, 2013 at 10:31 am

I work with a special education teacher who could use this with the kids to help with their handwriting and letter recognition

October 26, 2013 at 8:47 am

I am a level 2 OT student working in peds setting. I have seen the benefits of handwriting without tears and hope to utilize it in my future as a peds OT. Having a kit of my own would be a great jump start!

October 26, 2013 at 7:54 am

I absolutely love this kit. I am starting a job in February working with children. I am a fairly new therapist so would benefits so so much from this tool. I would love to get the kit to South Africa, as I have not seen it used here.

October 26, 2013 at 6:28 am

Great program!

October 26, 2013 at 4:48 am

Love this program. I think it would be great to win and use with my kiddies.

October 25, 2013 at 10:56 pm

This would be great for my son and other students in his class.

October 25, 2013 at 8:05 pm

I am a special education teacher and I use HWT with my 4th and 5th grade students with intensive special needs. Our class would benefit from having a classroom kit and the app my IPAD

October 25, 2013 at 7:18 pm

October 25, 2013 at 7:10 pm

I would love to have these activities to use with all of the students in my room. It would provide activities for many different developmental stages.

October 25, 2013 at 6:56 pm

I had a set of the wooden pieces and a chalk board for the wet, dry, try, in a previous classroom I worked in, but I need a new set for a class of 5 year old Autistic classroom, This program works great with all kids, but especially with students who have special needs.

October 25, 2013 at 5:55 pm

I am an OT and love the HWT program. I am hoping to get my teachers to start using it for their handwriting instruction. 🙂

October 25, 2013 at 4:55 pm

I love using HWT with my students with special needs.

October 25, 2013 at 4:42 pm

I would love to win as I am a COTA who works with peds in a home health setting. I have to purchase all of the resources, therefore winning this would be awesome to add to my therapy supplies. I know for a fact it would get tons of use as most of my kiddos are at the age where they are learning to write. Happy teaching everyone!

October 25, 2013 at 3:02 pm

I am an OT who uses this program almost daily! I love it and would really be interested in having another set to help my inclusion lessons!!

October 25, 2013 at 2:41 pm

I would like to win this giveaway because I could use it with the students I work with!

October 25, 2013 at 2:40 pm

What an awesome program. I would love to have this for my classroom !!

October 25, 2013 at 7:11 am

Hands on activities are the BEST! I love MatMan. Looking forwar to using HWT with my iPad.

October 25, 2013 at 7:06 am

Love everything about this program!! I have been trying to do similar things with my kids, but it would be nice to have the real HWT materials!

October 25, 2013 at 6:26 am

My daughter really could use this. She struggles and gets frustrated quickly.

October 25, 2013 at 6:09 am

I would love this for my 4-year-old! We’ve started working on letters recently, and this would be such a help!

October 25, 2013 at 1:39 am

would love to try this with my therapy kids!

October 24, 2013 at 10:23 pm

My daughter is a COTA and uses this in her job. I would love to have a set for myself to use with my grandaughter.

October 24, 2013 at 9:56 pm

I am a pediatric OT and love HwT! We could use a set for our clinic and home visits!

October 24, 2013 at 8:48 pm

I would love this for my 3 year old

October 24, 2013 at 8:39 pm

If I win one of the packs, my hope is that, I’ll be able to demonstrate the benefits of the program and meet my students’ needs, thereby convincing my administration to invest in more Handwriting Without Tears products!

I’m a kindergarten teacher who moved to a new school at the end of Sept. I was dismayed to discover that a large percentage of my new students entered school with little or no exposure to letters or books and a lack of experience with writing/drawing implements. During conferences this past week, it became clear that many of the parents believe that learning the ABC song is equivalent to learning letter names and sounds. In this world of Common Core Standards, my little ones are at a significant disadvantage.

Handwriting Without Tears looks like the perfect program for helping my students develop the skills they are lacking through engaging and low stress activities. It’s a definite win-win situation!

October 24, 2013 at 8:19 pm

I would love to teach my son with this system!

October 24, 2013 at 8:08 pm

I so need this for my 4yr old and my 2yr will follow! I have heard so many good things about this program.

October 24, 2013 at 6:34 pm

What a great program! Thank you so much for this review. Working in schools, I have seen the frustration that learning to write can cause, as well as the frustrations of students trying to unlearn bad writing habits. This program certainly looks like it could solve a lot of problems!

October 24, 2013 at 5:33 pm

I am a soon-to-be- pediatric OT, and I love HWT. It is such an ingenius, fun way to teach handwriting!

October 24, 2013 at 5:24 pm

I absolutely love handwriting without tears. This would be perfect addition to my daughter’s homeschool curriculum. I am a certified teacher so I have been wanting to get this for her. My baby boy would be able to enjoy it to when he gets a little bigger.

October 24, 2013 at 5:23 pm

This would be great to do with my 3 yo. She is SO not interested in writing her letters yet, so maybe this would get her there!

This would be great to do with my 3 year old. She is SO not interested in writing her letters right now!

October 24, 2013 at 5:08 pm

I would love to win any of these for our Headstart classroom. The kids would so enjoy these activities!

October 24, 2013 at 3:59 pm

I work with so many kids who could definitely use this!

October 24, 2013 at 1:39 pm

Would love to try this with my 3 year old! She is so interested in starting writing and I want to make sure she is learning it well. 🙂

October 24, 2013 at 1:31 pm

I have used HWT in my resource room for over two years. I love it! MatMan is great. I also really like all the songs that are used with it.

October 24, 2013 at 12:30 pm

I am an SLP and work with preschoolers. I have surface knowledge of HWT, and I would love to learn more with some new materials!! I hope I win mamaOT!

October 24, 2013 at 11:16 am

My 4 year old son will benefit from this tool greatly!

October 24, 2013 at 10:06 am

I am. Pedi PT and I’ve seen my OT colleagues have great success with this program and I would live to have one for my kids and my friends kids to use.

October 24, 2013 at 9:08 am

I have a 3 year old who hates writing, this may help her!

October 24, 2013 at 8:48 am

I would love to implement this at my preschool and winning one of these would help.

October 24, 2013 at 4:52 am

I am certified! I love this program and have had great success! Especially with using Mat Man for body awareness and the wooden sticks for everything! I would like to win this because I am always giving away to the parents supplies for this program out of my pocket!

October 24, 2013 at 4:35 am

It would be great to use with my patients and my own children

October 24, 2013 at 4:33 am

It is a fabulous tool to use for my patients as well as my children.

October 24, 2013 at 3:29 am

Love this tool…would love the supplies!!

October 24, 2013 at 3:00 am

Would love to win this to better help (at home) my son who receives OT in school. Have heard great things about program

October 23, 2013 at 11:53 pm

I am beginning my career in pediatric OT next week and would LOVE a Handwriting Without Tears kit!

October 23, 2013 at 10:40 pm

I have used this program with my kindergarten students and they really like it, especially Mat Man.

October 23, 2013 at 9:57 pm

My son is going to be headed to pre-K shortly and would love this to be a part of his transition. The idea of learning how to write letter and numbers in a way that will not cause frustration is a teacher’s/mother’s dream! I’m sure it will make the process FUN…and that’s how kids learn the best! =)

October 23, 2013 at 9:09 pm

I work in a moderate to severe kindergarten-first grade class. We struggle to teach the children the correct way to form letters of their names each day. I find the wet/dry/try method intriging!!

October 23, 2013 at 8:54 pm

straightforward, easy to use and really works!

October 23, 2013 at 8:02 pm

Would love to win this!!!

October 23, 2013 at 7:31 pm

I work in a special education classroom and my kids LOVE Handwriting Without Tears but the problem is that our OT only has one set for multiple buildings. It would be nice to have a permanent set for my class.

October 23, 2013 at 7:24 pm

would love to win this and use in my practice! Hoping to attend HWT course soon!

October 23, 2013 at 7:23 pm

I’m a new therapist starting my job in the school system on the island of Guam. This would really help me and my future students as our school system lacks much resources in this side of the world!

October 23, 2013 at 7:11 pm

I love HWT and would love to win more of their awesome products

October 23, 2013 at 6:57 pm

I would love to have this set to use during my OT sessions!

October 23, 2013 at 6:50 pm

This seems like a great tool that every therapist and parents should have in their bags of trick when it comes to handwriting.

October 23, 2013 at 6:43 pm

I love HWT program. My students love the app and building shapes and letters with the wooden pieces. And who wouldn’t forget about Mat Man with the pieces.

October 23, 2013 at 6:29 pm

I would love to have this kit for future use as a occupational therapy assistant

October 23, 2013 at 6:14 pm

I watch the amazing K teachers at my school use this program and would love to have it for my 3 girls @ home!

October 23, 2013 at 6:09 pm

My son is 4 and I have been printing out worksheets from the website. Would love to have the accessories to go with it!

October 23, 2013 at 6:07 pm

I wish I would have started my 11 yr old with this when we first jumped into the world of homeschooling. Would love to have this for my K and PreKs now! 🙂

October 23, 2013 at 6:04 pm

I have a 2 and 4 year old and would love to try out the handwriting without tears materials!

October 23, 2013 at 5:54 pm

I use the HWT program in my class for preschool children with developmental delays and they love it! I can always use more materials as what I have is getting old and worn. There is no extra money for apps, so I am VERY interested in winning that!

October 23, 2013 at 5:53 pm

Could really use this with my kiddos

October 23, 2013 at 5:52 pm

I’m a pediatric OT but (more importantly) a mom to 2 toddlers. Best handwriting program… hands down 🙂

October 23, 2013 at 5:47 pm

I have a 3 yo and I’m a peds OT! Love HWT!

October 23, 2013 at 5:38 pm

I use HWT in my classroom. It’s the handwriting program we use and feel is the most effective when teaching children wiring letters.

thiis would be great, not only for my own children, but when I get back to my job as an OT.

October 23, 2013 at 5:35 pm

I have a 4 year old that struggles with fine motor skills. I would love to have this tool to ease the frustration in learning to write his letters.

October 23, 2013 at 5:33 pm

would love to put more of the HWT materials into my preschool classrooms

I have loved seeing children thrive using HWT in preschools I have worked and see my own 4 year old benefiting from it at school and OT. It would be amazing to have for him at home for carryover. Great give away!

October 23, 2013 at 5:31 pm

My daughter would love this. She is so eager to learn!

October 23, 2013 at 5:29 pm

My husband is a pediatric OT and we have a preschool daughter. We would all love to try the program!

I have seen this used in schools. The students that I work with that have used HWT vs the ones that have just copied the letters they saw often have an easier time writing and better handwriting. I’d love to go to a training. I’d also love to use this with my own son; starting with Mat Man.

October 23, 2013 at 5:23 pm

I love your review! I plan to share it with my preschool classrooms (I’m an OT). I would love to get them on board with using HWT and it’d be great to win the giveaway to get them started with a few things to get them interested!!

October 23, 2013 at 5:19 pm

I’d love to win this.

October 23, 2013 at 5:18 pm

I would love to win, I am an OT and would love some more strategies to use!

October 23, 2013 at 5:16 pm

I would love to try writing without tears with my 8 year old with down syndrome who is just now beginning to show interest in writing as well as my 2.5 year old who is showing interest as well!

October 23, 2013 at 4:35 pm

I have used HWT with kids with autism and developmental disabilities for years! It is the best complete program there is! I am helping to set up a new autism program this year and would love to have extra materials for our students to use.

October 23, 2013 at 3:31 pm

i would love to incorporate these materials into my tutoring. please, pretty please, pick me!

October 23, 2013 at 2:17 pm

Our OT is trying to convince everyone to use this way of introducing the alphabet. I started to use this approach this year and would love to have all the “extras” to truly teach it.

October 23, 2013 at 2:05 pm

I would LOVE to have HWT this year. I am homeschooling kindergarten and we appreciate good help as we move on.

October 23, 2013 at 1:38 pm

Great info! I’m a new pedi school OT looking forward to attending a hwt workshop in the future 🙂

October 23, 2013 at 1:17 pm

I am in school to become an OT and I’ve used the program with my 4 year old son and I can personally attest to the amazingness of this program. It really does work!! I want all kids to be able to use this program!

October 23, 2013 at 12:13 pm

We just started our first year homeschooling for preschool for my daughter (4). We are using parts of Handwriting Without Tears and just love it!

October 23, 2013 at 11:23 am

October 23, 2013 at 11:13 am

I love HWT! I used this program in my special Ed classroom and saw great success! The kids loved the wooden blocks and songs! What a great tool to have!

October 23, 2013 at 11:12 am

As an OT myself I would love to have these tools at home with my 3 and 5 year old!! LOVE the review and explanation you provided! thanks!

October 23, 2013 at 11:10 am

I love HWT! I used it to teach handwriting to children at a clinic in Beijing and would love to have it for use with my own 2 and 4 year olds at home! 🙂

This would be great for my boys! They always want to start their letters on the bottom.

October 23, 2013 at 11:04 am

I have used this for many years in my spec. ed. classroom. I am now teaching 3/4 year olds with Autism. It is AWESOME!!!!!

October 23, 2013 at 11:03 am

Thank you for telling us about this! I am excited to think about trying this out with my preschooler (when I was visiting school recently I saw that they allow him to start letters from the bottom and I know this habit would be tough to break. I also appreciate the tidbit about 10 reps required to correct an incorrect practice rep- as a beginning band teacher I tell my kids this all the time! Reason to be careful when practicing each and every note!

October 23, 2013 at 10:59 am

Having 6 under age 5 with special learning ways, HWT is a great program to help us learn concrete and “no think” letter formation. Love the program and would greatly appreciate more tools!

October 23, 2013 at 10:34 am

I LOVE Handwriting Without Tears! I used it in my classroom as a special education elementary school teacher and use the same concepts now as a pediatric OT – and would LOVE some of the actual materials 🙂

October 23, 2013 at 10:24 am

We use this program at the preschool I work at and I love it! 🙂

October 23, 2013 at 10:21 am

This looks like a fabulous way to teach my 4 year old!

October 23, 2013 at 9:15 am

This would be so helpful to begin teaching my 4 year old. She is already starting to write on her own and is very interested in print.

October 23, 2013 at 9:08 am

I would like to win this giveaway

October 23, 2013 at 9:05 am

Handwriting without tears is used at preschool for my daughter with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. She is a forced “lefty” so handwriting does not come naturally to her. I love what I am seeing so far. Thank you for your informative blog about this wonderful program.

October 23, 2013 at 8:30 am

I would love to win this. I have loved my past experience with HWT.

October 23, 2013 at 7:22 am

Great write up about the program! Handwriting Without Tears does an excellent job emphasizing the importance of building a solid foundation before the actual handwriting process even begins. I would love to have these tools on hand to use with my daughter! Thank you Mama OT!

October 23, 2013 at 7:13 am

This is the method my son used for learning to write letters.

October 23, 2013 at 7:10 am

Would love to win this!

October 23, 2013 at 6:22 am

I would love this for my daughter! She has dyspraxia and has struggled with writing.

October 23, 2013 at 4:17 am

We just got the Get Set For School book to try at home!

October 23, 2013 at 3:49 am

As a preschool special education teacher – I would love to have this for my preschoolers in my classroom!

October 23, 2013 at 3:37 am

i love using this program for 3-year-olds to introduce shapes, wood pieces, and songs. the activities are all appropriate for 4-year-olds who are so excited to print their names! the activities can be done individually for children who need extra activities and time to complete tasks.

October 23, 2013 at 3:18 am

Looks like a great way to teach handwriting!

October 23, 2013 at 3:17 am

Looks like a gret way to teach handwriting…

October 23, 2013 at 3:03 am

This is so cool! I got to try the app during my 2nd level 2 fieldwork in pediatrics. Not only did the OT’s love it, the kids did too with the iPad as well. Great giveaway and product!

October 23, 2013 at 2:58 am

Love HWT products. I agree the app can be a little frustrating to younger children when it makes them “try again”. I had a child have a tough time getting the concept of tapping and dragging the sponge or towel. I love all the manipulatives. Mat Man is especially helpful to learn “draw a person” skills.

October 26, 2013 at 2:40 pm

Did you know you can go into the Wet Dry Try app and change the settings to be less sensitive? Try that so your toddler won’t be so frustrated with it.

October 23, 2013 at 2:52 am

I love your review. I have always heard great things about HWT. My girls have used parts of it in school. I would like to get it so I can keep using it with them.

October 23, 2013 at 12:37 am

I have a 2 and a 3 year old, and I think this book would be great for me to help them with their writing. Especially because I have a hard time helping my “lefty”.

October 26, 2013 at 2:39 pm

I work with disabled kids and Handwriting without Tears is such a great program for them to learn how to write letters with because they use so many different things! Would love to win a kit to use with my students!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Request a Quote

Get ready for Summer learning with a new catalog, resources, and more. Start Today

Teaching Tips

How to teach the alphabet.

May 26, 2020

by: Cheryl Lundy Swift

The Alphabet: Learning, Teaching & Practice

Toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners are like sponges. As they interact with others in their environment, they “soak up” basic literacy skills.

Young children learn new literacy skills through play, exploration, observation, and by listening and speaking. Parents and teachers can leverage children’s background knowledge and experiences to foster a love for literacy and to build a strong foundation for later reading and writing skills.

One critical skill to build a solid literacy foundation is alphabet knowledge. Research tells us that children who are able to identify and name the letters of the alphabet, as well as the sounds they make, will have early reading success. Although alphabet knowledge is a vital early literacy skill, educators and parents alike often have questions about how to teach the ABCs.

Fortunately, Learning Without Tears has many solutions to make learning and teaching the alphabet easy and fun.

Teaching the Alphabet

The most common question we hear is, what order should I teach letters?

The Handwriting Without Tears developmental teaching order helps children master handwriting skills in the easiest, most efficient way. Instead of teaching 52 letter symbols with a mishmash of different sizes, positions, and confusing starting places, we divide and conquer. Developmentally, capitals are easier to write so we teach them first. The capital teaching order helps teach correct formation and orientation while eliminating reversals. Learning to write capitals first makes it easy to transition to lowercase letters.

We teach lowercase c , o , s , v , and w first because they are exactly the same as their capital partners, only smaller. By teaching capitals first, we have prepared children for nearly half of the lowercase letters that are similar in formation.

Alphabet Learning Activities

Strong school-to-home partnerships help children build self-esteem, curiosity, and motivation to learn new things. The alphabet is a great way to build a partnership with families and schools.

Older siblings, parents, grandparents, teaching assistants, aunts, uncles, and teachers can all help children learn letters. Children reap the benefits when families and schools share their unique perspectives about children in an open, regular, and meaningful way.

Children learn letters and their sounds best through hands-on, multisensory, developmentally appropriate activities. 

Here are a few of our favorite ways to teach the alphabet:

My First School Book

Children can dance and sing to the Alphabet Boogie —an upbeat, swing-like song—in their homes and in school. Parents and teachers can help children memorize the alphabet by singing and moving to the Alphabet Song or Inside, Outside . Both of these songs help children understand that L-M-N-O-P are five different letters. Encouraging children to point and identify capital and lowercase letters as they sing and move helps children recognize letters. Children enjoy identifying capital letters in My First School Book and lowercase letters in My First Lowercase Book . Learning Without Tears also has songs to help children learn to write letters correctly.

As adults point to words while reading, children learn to read from left to right and see that letters together make words. While children listen to printed words become stories, they learn new things. Learning Without Tears Mat Man book set features Mat Man, a beloved character who teaches children all about shapes, occupations, transportation, and opposite words. Electronic versions of Mat Man books are located on the Pre-K Interactive Teaching Tool and hardcover books are located here . Family members and teachers will also love using Line It Up to build literacy skills. They can read fiction and informational stories to reinforce comprehension skills and use Line It Up’s Coloring and Letter Cards to help children learn letter sounds and syllables, as well as to trace capital letters.  

handwriting without tears uppercase m

Teachers and families can help children learn how to trace the letters in their name by using customizable worksheets with the Learning Without Tears A+ Worksheet Maker. Children can learn to trace their name in all capital letters or in title case. Teachers and families can access a free version of A+ Worksheet Maker here . Learning Without Tears child-friendly language helps children to learn how to form capital and lowercase letters. When families and teachers use the same, consistent language, children are able to have skills reinforced at home and school. Download our capital and lowercase letter formation charts here .

Capital Letter Formation Chart

Children have fun learning to build letters right-side up and facing them correctly with Learning Without Tears  Capital Letter Cards , the  Mat , and Wood Pieces for Capital Letters . Children learn size, sequence, and position as they build letters out of wood using the letter cards as a guide. Letter cards also help children build vocabulary and learn letter sounds. Families and teachers can challenge children to build letters on the Mat for Wood Pieces, which requires children to build a capital from memory. It is important for family members and teachers to always model building the letter first, so children are set up for success. Watch videos on how to use the Wood Pieces for Capitals with the letter cards and blue mat . 

Teaching With Wood Pieces blog header

  • Build Fine Motor Skills Families and teachers can also help children build fine motor skills while they learn to build letters with Roll-A-Dough Letters . Children will pinch, squeeze, roll, and press dough to build letters. They will learn size, shape, and how to form letters in the correct sequence. Stamp and See Screen also helps children learn to recognize, sequence, and form letters using magnetic wood pieces and magnetic chalk. Children love to stamp the letters and write with magnetic chalk.    

Children also love to wet, dry, and try capital letters using the  Slate Chalkboard and lowercase letters with Magnetic Lowercase and Blackboard Set . First, a family member or teacher models a letter, then children trace over the letter with a wet sponge, dry towel, and then again with chalk. Children also enjoy learning their letters using the electronic version of Wet-Dry-Try on the Pre-K Interactive Teaching Tool or on the Wet-Dry-Try App . When children use the Wet-Dry-Try app, children will see and hear the letter written by the personal handwriting coach, and then will trace the letter with the virtual sponge, towel, and chalk. Children will receive immediate feedback on their letter formation in this game-like app. Read more about the advantages of Wet-Dry-Try .

Wet Dry Try

  • Puzzle Time Children enjoy putting together puzzles. Learning Without Tears A-B-C Touch and Flip’s animal puzzle is no exception. Children love to trace over the sandpaper letters on the other side of the animal puzzle and match capital and lowercase letters with the other set of cards. Family members and teachers must model how to trace letters correctly, making sure children start at the top and follow the correct sequence.

Practice the Alphabet with Help from Learning Without Tears!

Learning Without Tears  developmentally appropriate, hands-on materials help families and teachers make letter learning fun. Children will use their senses as they experience letters and learn to recognize, name, build, and trace letters and say letter sounds.  Enjoy watching videos of families and teachers using hands-on, multisensory activities and feel free to share how you use the tools on our social media pages: Facebook |  Instagram |  Pinterest |  Twitter |  LinkedIn . 

A—Z for Mat Man and Me

Seamlessly bring the ABCs to life while building foundational literacy skills with our new letter book series. Each of our illustrated letter books introduces a letter of the alphabet and emphasizes their associated sound through captivating, visual stories. The engaging stories in each book capture children's imaginations and expose them to social-emotional skills and diverse cultures. You can Learn More → . 

Related Tags

COMMENTS

  1. Handwriting Without Tears Letter Order

    The Handwriting without Tears letter order promotes success, focusing on letters that use the preliminary pre-writing strokes.

  2. HWT Tracing letter "M"

    Start at the top, big line down, jump back to the top, big line slides dow, and up... and down.

  3. Handwriting Without Tears®

    HWT Delivers Success Shop now! Get started with our literacy solutions Start off your handwriting literacy journey today! Browse our shop and find our classroom kits and materials-designed for Pre-K-5 students. Shop Now Need support for Handwriting Without Tears? We're here to help! Get Support

  4. Letter & Number Formation Charts

    Letter and Number Formation Charts These pages were created to support in-class and at-home handwriting practice. Included are child-friendly formation charts for practicing capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers — so you'll know the language and stroke sequence to use.

  5. A to Z Capital Letter Exercises, Handwriting Without Tears

    Learning handwriting kinesthetically through whole body exercises.View the Blog Post: Having Fun with Handwriting: Our Approach to Handwriting Without Tears ...

  6. Handwriting Without Tears Practice Sheets (Free PDF for Homeschool)

    Handwriting Without Tears Practice Sheets (Free PDF for Homeschool) My family loves using the Handwriting Without Tears program in our homeschool. But, we have found that we need more practice than the books provide.

  7. A-Z Mat Man

    A-Z for Mat Man and Me includes the unique handwriting models and formation language from the award-winning Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum. Using both programs together extends handwriting instruction and reinforces alphabet knowledge. Building upon the foundation of Handwriting Without Tears, students learn unique letter formations ...

  8. Handwriting Without Tears

    OBJECTIVE. This study explores the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears ® (HWT) kindergarten printing curriculum in general education through a consultative approach with occupational therapy.. METHOD. One cohort of students was the control (n = 19), whereas two other cohorts were experimental groups learning printing through the HWT curriculum (n = 20 each).

  9. Handwriting Without Tears® style Capital Letters Handwriting ...

    Products $19.71 $27.96 Save $8.25 View Bundle Handwriting Without Tears® style BUNDLE handwriting practice with BONUSES Get massive savings plus TWO FREE BONUSES by purchasing this Handwriting Without Tears® style bundle. This special bundle offers an ENTIRE YEAR of handwriting assignments.

  10. Everything You Need To Know About Handwriting Without Tears

    Handwriting Without Tears (HWT)is a handwriting program created by an occupational therapist. It is a 40 year program with proven success for thousands of students. From emergent writing in Pre-K to Cursive mastery in fifth grade, Handwriting Without Tears helps students develop fluent writing success through explicit handwriting instruction.

  11. Handwriting Without Tears® style CAPITAL LETTER Practice BOOK UPPERCASE

    Handwriting Without Tears® style CAPITAL LETTER Practice BOOK UPPERCASE Handwriting Without Tears® style CAPITAL LETTER Practice BOOK UPPERCASE 4.3 (3 ratings) View Preview ; Grade Levels PreK - 1st, Homeschool Subjects EFL - ESL - ELD, Occupational Therapy, Handwriting Resource Type Homeschool Curricula, Handouts, Printables Formats Included PDF

  12. handwriting without tears upper case letters

    12 $12.75 PDF Uppercase cursive practice worksheets to enrich your Handwriting Without Tears® cursive curriculum. These printables feature the same letter strokes as your HWT curriculum. These handwriting practice sheets are ideal for all types of students.

  13. A SIMPLE Handwriting Trick {FREE Printable}

    1- Writing letters with the correct formation generally is easier on the hand and wrist. Instead of pushing the pencil across the paper, we are dragging or pulling it. Pulling the pencil across the paper doesn't tire the hand and wrist the way that pushing it does. 2- Writing letters with conventional formation can also help the handwriting ...

  14. Handwriting Without Tears Review

    Handwriting Without Tears is a series that help kids with learning letter formation, including lowercase letters, uppercase letters, number formation, and even cursive at higher levels. The program is broken down by generalized grade level, starting with pre-k letter formation to cursive handwriting.

  15. Learning Without Tears®

    Start with Handwriting. Handwriting is a foundational skill that leads students to automatic word recognition. Through time-tested methods of letter formation, students embark on the pathway to reading and writing excellence while connecting letters to sound and fortifying the alphabetic principle. Explore Handwriting Without Tears…

  16. Handwriting Without Tears Review

    Handwriting Without Tears is a popular and effective handwriting program with a systematic, multisensory approach. Find out if its right for you in this review. ... In Handwriting Without Tears students learn uppercase before lowercase, block before cursive, and learn letters according to similarity of formation rather than alphabetical order ...

  17. Letter Formation Rhymes

    This goes for uppercase letters as well as lowercase letters. Teaching letters in a similar group promotes the motor plan needed, as well as improves pencil control skills. Simple verbal cues-Handwriting without Tears (now called Learning without Tears) has great rhymes and songs to go with their learning program.

  18. Handwriting Without Tears: Alphabet Uppercase and Lowercase Letter

    This item: Handwriting Without Tears: Alphabet Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Double Lines Workbook for School and Home Use Kindergarten Grade 1 2 3 . $6.99 $ 6. 99. Get it as soon as Tuesday, Sep 19. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. +

  19. Beginners Cursive Handwriting: Uppercase Letters

    This class is for beginning cursive writers. I have been trained in the award-winning Handwriting Without Tears method of handwriting and approach writing letters with a similar philosophy. Each week will focus on a separate set of letters and is independent from previous classes.

  20. Handwriting Without Tears for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners: A

    Handwriting Without Tears is a program that was designed by an occupational therapist to teach children how to write without frustrating them to tears. It uses hands-on, multisensory materials and was designed in such a way that it introduces shapes, numbers, and letters in an order that matches the progression of children's developmental ...

  21. Teaching & Learning the Alphabet for Kids

    Teach Alphabet by Letter. Children have fun learning to build letters right-side up and facing them correctly with Learning Without Tears Capital Letter Cards, the Mat, and Wood Pieces for Capital Letters. Children learn size, sequence, and position as they build letters out of wood using the letter cards as a guide.

  22. Learn to write Upper Case T (Handwriting Without Tears)Wet ...

    27 Share 8.8K views 12 years ago Beginner Reader English Language Multi-sensory handwriting instruction using the Handwriting Without Tears program. Page 32 in "Get Set for School" and page 36...

  23. PDF The Language of Handwriting without Tears

    The Language of Handwriting without Tears To make a capital A: Start at the top, big line slides down to the corner, jump back to the top, big line slides down to the other corner, little line across. To make a lowercase a: Start in the middle, magic c, up like a helicopter, slide down, bump.