Handwriting Without Tears

This year our school switched to the Handwriting Without Tears system for teaching handwriting in Kindergarten and 1st grade.  Previously, we used a curriculum from Zaner-Bloser that included handwriting materials.  While I was part of the committee that made the decision to switch, and thought I was pretty familiar with the HWT approach (I used it in Pre-K for a couple of years), I actually didn't realize how different it would be "on the ground" in our classrooms until I received the student printing books last week.

My Printing Book, Handwriting Without Tears

As I started looking through the workbooks, it was clear that they were not nearly as straight-forward and self-explanatory as our previous ones.  There is much less tracing and writing than other handwriting books.  There are fewer practice pages and more pictures and opportunities for drawing.

I spent some time on the HWT website, youtube channel, and with the teacher's manual, but am still a little anxious about how we will use the program throughout the year.  I decided to get going, nevertheless, since handwriting is such a foundational skill for first graders.

We had our first HWT lesson on Thursday -- and it went well!  I started by playing the "Where do you start your letters?" song -- a favorite of mine for quite a while.  I showed the bottom and middle lines in the book (HWT doesn't use a top line) and we practiced pulling down from the top with our pointer fingers in the air.

Then the kiddos received their Printing Books.  They got to write their names on the front cover while I went around to observe how they held their pencils and used the lines.  One of the first pages in the book shows the proper writing posture and pencil grips, so the kiddos got to compare themselves to the kids in books as well.  Then we moved on to the "pencil pick-up activities."  The kiddos practiced adding raindrops, grass, caterpillar legs, wheel spokes -- all activities which require short, careful lines (which should start at the top).  They also practiced shading in a small circle and making a curly line.  It was interesting to see which kids were capable of completing these tasks and which ones were really challenged by it.

I don't know exactly how or when I'm going to fit in the HWT lessons, but I'm going to try to use the program fully throughout the year, to push my students to have neater, more efficient writing.