Penpals for Handwriting Year 3 Teacher's Book by Cambridge International Education

PENPALS _@o› rú

Year 3 Teacher’s Book (7–8 years) Gill Budgell

Kate Ruttle

Series Consultants Sue Palmer Dr Rhona Stainthorp

Component chart Scope and sequence chart Introduction

Inside front cover 2 4

Term 1 1 Revising joins in a word: long vowel phonemes 2 Revising joins in a word: lÿ 3 Revising joins in a word: i<n<g 4 Revising joins in a word: high frequency words 5 Revising joins in a word: new vocabulary 6 Revising joins in a word: u<n, dÿ 7 Revising joins to and from s: d<iƒ[ 8 Revising joins to and from r: r}e, pr}e 9 Revising joins to and from f: _‹@ #_@® 10 Revising joins: |u

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Contents Term 2 11 Introducing joining b and p: diagonal join, no ascender, b©i, b©u, p©i, p©u 12 Practising joining b and p: diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter, b©a, b©o, p©a, p©o 13 Practising joining b and p: diagonal join to ascender, b©l, p©h 14 Relative sizes of letters: silent letters 15 Parallel ascenders: high frequency words 16 Parallel descenders: adding y to words 17 Relative size and consistency: l<y, lÿµ[µ[, _®@ u<l 18 Relative size and consistency: capitals 19 Speed and fluency practice: e©r, eµ[©t 20 Speed and fluency practice: opposites

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Term 3 21 Consistency in spacing: m<iƒ[, a<n<t<i, ex 22 Consistency in spacing: n<on ú , c·o 23 Consistency in spacing: apostrophes 24 Layout, speed and fluency practice: address 25 Layout, speed and fluency practice: dialogue 26 Layout, speed and fluency practice: poem 27 Layout, speed and fluency practice: letter 28 Handwriting style: calligrams 29 Assessment 30 Handwriting style: acrostics

Photocopy masters Writing mat (right-handers) Writing mat (left-handers) Photocopiable ruled sheet (10 mm) Joining letter sets

37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

47 62 63 64 Inside back cover

Scope and sequence Foundation 1 / 3–5 years

Year 1 / Primary 2

Year 2 / Primary 3

DEVELOPING GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

Term 1

Letter formation practice: long ladder family Letter formation practice: one-armed robot family Letter formation practice: curly caterpillar family Letter formation practice: zig-zag monster family Practising the vowels: i Practising the vowels: u Practising the vowels: a Practising the vowels: o Practising the vowels: e Letter formation practice: capital letters

How to join in a word: high-frequency words Introducing the break letters: j, g, x, y, z, b, f, p, q, r, s Practising diagonal join to ascender in words: î©l, î©t Practising diagonal join, no ascender, in words: a_e Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter in words: i<cœ, i<dÿ Practising horizontal join, no ascender, in words: oúw, oúu Practising horizontal join, no ascender, in words: oúy, oúi Practising horizontal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter in words: o+a, o+dÿ Practising horizontal join to ascender in words: oßlÿ, oßbe Practising horizontal join to ascender in words: o+o@ßk, o+olß

The vocabulary of movement Large movements Responding to music

DEVELOPING FINE MOTOR SKILLS Hand and finger play Making and modelling

Links to art Using one-handed tools and equipment

DEVELOPING PATTERNS AND BASIC LETTER MOVEMENTS Pattern making Responding to music Investigating straight line patterns Investigating loops

Investigating circles Investigating angled patterns Investigating eights and spirals

Foundation 2 / Primary 1 Term 2

Introducing long ladder letters: l, i, t, u, j, y Practising long ladder letters: l, i Practising long ladder letters: t, u Practising long ladder letters: j, y Practising all the long ladder letters Introducing one-armed robot letters: r, b, n, h, m, k, p Practising one-armed robot letters: b, n Practising one-armed robot letters: h, m Practising one-armed robot letters: k, p Practising all the one-armed robot letters Introducing capitals for one-armed robot letters: R, B, N, H, M, K, P Introducing capitals for long ladder letters: L, I, T, U, J, Y

Term 3

Introducing curly caterpillar letters: c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f Practising curly caterpillar letters: a, d Practising curly caterpillar letters: o, s Practising curly caterpillar letters: g, q Practising curly caterpillar letters: e, f Practising all the curly caterpillar letters Introducing zig-zag monster letters: z, v, w, x Practising zig-zag monster letters: v, w, x Introducing capitals for curly caterpillar letters: C, A, D, O, S, G, Q, E, F Introducing capitals for zig-zag monster letters: Z, V, W, X Exploring ch, th and sh

Term 2

Introducing diagonal join to ascender: joining a<t, a<l<l Practising diagonal join to ascender: joining t<h Practising diagonal join to ascender: joining c·h Practising diagonal join to ascender: joining c·l Introducing diagonal join, no ascender: joining i<n, i<m Practising diagonal join, no ascender: joining c·r, t<r, d<r Practising diagonal join, no ascender: joining l<p, m<p Introducing diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining i<d, i<g Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining n<d, l<d Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining n<g

Term 3

Practising diagonal join, no ascender: joining ö Practising diagonal join, no ascender: joining a<i, a<y Practising diagonal join, no ascender: joining i<mÿ, i<nÿ Introducing horizontal join, no ascender: joining oúp, oúy Practising horizontal join, no ascender: joining oúne, oúme Introducing horizontal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining o+a, o+g Practising horizontal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining w>a, w>o Introducing horizontal join to ascender: joining oßl, o®#t Practising horizontal join to ascender: joining w#h, oß@h Introducing horizontal and diagonal joins, to ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: joining o®#f, i<f Assessment

Term 2

Practising diagonal join to r: i<r, u<r, e©r Practising horizontal join to r: oúr, o+orú Introducing horizontal join from r to ascender: u<ñ@¡ l, i<ñ@¡ l, i<Ñ@t Introducing horizontal join from r: e©r}e Practising joining to and from r: a<i<r Introducing diagonal join to s: d<iƒ[ Introducing horizontal join to s: w>[ Introducing diagonal join from s to ascender: s©h Introducing diagonal join from s, no ascender: s©i, s©u, s@@¿, s©p, s©m Introducing horizontal join from r to an anticlockwise letter: r>[

Term 3

Practising diagonal join to an anticlockwise letter: e©a, e©a<r Introducing horizontal join to and from f to ascender: _‹@#õ,ª _‹@ #l Introducing horizontal join from f, no ascender: _®@ u, _®@ r Introducing |u (diagonal join, no ascender) Introducing r¬@r (horizontal join, no ascender) Introducing sµ[ (diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter) Introducing _‹@ #_@® (horizontal join to ascender) Capital letter practice: height of ascenders and capitals Assessment Assessment

Scope and sequence

Revising joins in a word: long vowel phonemes Revising joins in a word: lÿ Revising joins in a word: i<n<g Revising joins in a word: high-frequency words Revising joins in a word: new vocabulary Revising joins in a word: u<n, dÿ Revising joins to and from s: d<iƒ[ Revising joins to and from r: r}e, pr}e Revising joins to and from f: _‹@ #_@® Revising joins: |u

Revising joins in a word: nÿµ[µ[, s©h<i<p Revising joins in a word: i<n<g, Ÿ©d Revising joins in a word: s Revising joins in a word: i<_@® y Revising joins in a word: n<n, m<m, sµ[ Revising parallel ascenders: õ‹<õ,ª l<l, b©b Revising parallel ascenders and descenders: p©p, _‹@ #_@® Revising joins to an anticlockwise letter: c·c, d<d Revising break letters: alphabetical order Linking spelling and handwriting: related words

Term 2

Introducing joining b and p: diagonal join, no ascender, b©i, b©u, p©i, p©u Practising joining b and p: diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter, b©a, b©o, p©a, p©o Practising joining b and p: diagonal join to ascender, b©l, p©h Relative sizes of letters: silent letters Parallel ascenders: high-frequency words Parallel descenders: adding y to words Relative size and consistency: l<y, lÿµ[µ[, _®@ u<l Relative size and consistency: capitals Speed and fluency practice: e©r, eµ[©t Speed and fluency practice: opposites

Term 3

Consistency in spacing: m<iƒ[, a<n<t<i, ex Consistency in spacing: n<on ú , c·o Consistency in spacing: apostrophes Layout, speed and fluency practice: address Layout, speed and fluency practice: dialogue Layout, speed and fluency practice: poem Layout speed and fluency practice: letter Handwriting style: calligrams Assessment Handwriting style: acrostics

Introducing sloped writing Parallel ascenders: a<l, a<d, a<f Parallel descenders and break letters: i<gh<t, oúu<gh Size, proportion and spacing: i<ou ú ƒ[ Size, proportion and spacing: a<b©lÿ, _®@ u<l Size, proportion and spacing: _‹[† , v}eµ[ Speed and fluency: abbreviations for notes Speed and fluency: notemaking Speed and fluency: drafting Speed and fluency: lists

Term 3

Size, proportion and spacing: v, k Size, proportion and spacing: i<c, iƒ[©t Size, proportion and spacing: i<on ú Size, proportion and spacing: i<tƒ[, i<t’s Speed and fluency: i<b©lÿ, a<b©lÿ Speed and fluency: diminutives Print alphabet: captions, headings, labels Print capitals: posters Assessment Presentational skills: font styles

Year 5 Handwriting

Term 1

Revision: practising sloped writing Revision: practising the joins Developing style for speed: joining from t Developing style for speed: looping from g, j and y Developing style for speed: joining from f Developing style for speed: joining from s Developing style for speed: writing v, w, x and z at speed Developing style for speed: pen breaks in longer words Different styles for different purposes Assessment

Year 5 Project work

Term 1

Year 5 & 6 / Primary 6 & 7

Haiku project: making notes Haiku project: organising ideas Haiku project: producing a draft Haiku project: publishing the haiku Haiku project: evaluation Letter project: making notes Letter project: structuring an argument Letter project: producing a draft Letter project: publishing a letter Letter project: evaluation

Year 6 Handwriting

Year 4 / Primary 5

Self-assessment: evaluating handwriting Self-assessment: checking the joins Self-assessment: consistency of size Self-assessment: letters resting on baseline Self-assessment: ascenders and descenders Self-assessment: consistency of size of capitals and ascenders Writing at speed: inappropriate closing of letters Writing at speed: identifying unclosed letters Writing at speed: spacing within words Writing at speed: spacing between words

Year 6 Project work

Year 3 / Primary 4

Playscript project: collecting information Playscript project: recording ideas Playscript project: producing a draft Playscript project: publishing a playscript Playscript project: evaluation Information notice project: collecting and organising information Information notice project: organising information Information notice project: producing a draft Information notice project: publishing a notice Information notice project: evaluation

Penpals rationale Even in this technological, computer-literate age, good handwriting remains fundamental to our children’s educational achievement. Penpals for Handwriting will help you teach children to develop fast, fluent, legible handwriting. The rationale for introducing joining is fully explained on page 11. This carefully structured handwriting scheme can also make a difference to overall attainment in writing.

A practical approach Penpals offers a practical approach to support the delivery of handwriting teaching in the context of the modern curriculum: ●

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Traditional principles in the contemporary classroom

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We believe that: 1 A flexible, fluent and legible handwriting style empowers children to write with confidence and creativity. This is an entitlement that needs skilful teaching. 2 Handwriting is a developmental process with its own distinctive stages of sequential growth. We have identified five stages that form the basic organisational structure of Penpals: 1. Readiness for handwriting; gross and fine motor skills leading to letter formation (Foundation / 3–5 years) 2. Beginning to join (Key Stage 1 / 5–7 years) 3. Securing the joins (Key Stage 1 and lower Key Stage 2 / 5–9 years) 4. Practising speed and fluency (lower Key Stage 2 / 7–9 years) 5. Presentation skills (upper Key Stage 2 / 10–11 years) 3 Handwriting must be actively taught; this can be done in association with spelling. Learning to associate the kinaesthetic handwriting movement with the visual letter pattern and the aural phonemes will help children with learning to spell.

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Time Penpals’ focus on whole-class teaching (via Big Book and OHTs with key teaching points clearly identified) allows effective teaching in the time available. Planning Penpals helps with long-, medium- and shortterm planning for each key stage, correlated to the NLS. Practice Penpals offers pupil Practice Books with their own internal structure of excellent models for finger tracing and independent writing. Revision Penpals offers opportunities for record-keeping, review and assessment throughout the course. Motivation The Penpals materials are attractive and welldesigned with the support of handwriting experts to stimulate and motivate children.

A few words from the experts … Dr Rhona Stainthorp

We now know that if children are to achieve comfortable, legible, flexible handwriting styles, they need to be taught to form and join each letter efficiently. Penpals sets out to achieve this. Children need good models to copy, lots of practice and feedback to help them fine-tune their performance. If the practice element of letter formation includes the practice of spelling patterns, as in Penpals, the resultant pedagogy addresses two of the essential sub-skills of good written communication, namely handwriting and spelling. Efficient handwriting leads to higher quality writing.

Dr Rosemary Sassoon

The Sassoon family of typefaces has been used throughout this scheme. Many people might therefore describe them as the model but they are typefaces, not exactly a handwriting model. No hand could copy them exactly and be so consistent and invariable. Equally, no typeface, however many alternative letters and joins are built in to a font, can be quite as flexible as handwritten letters. Our letters represent the movement, proportions and clear characteristics of basic separate and joined letters. It is likely that every teacher will produce his or her own slightly different version on the whiteboard, and pupils will then do likewise. It matters little if the slant or proportions of a child’s writing differ slightly from any model. We are not teaching children to be forgers. We are equipping them with an efficient, legible handwriting that will serve them all their life – one that suits their hand and their personality. Flexibility is stressed throughout this scheme. Sue Palmer

Penpals materials provide everything necessary for structured teaching of handwriting in the junior years. Frequent links to other literacy objectives for the age group mean handwriting lessons also become an opportunity to revise other aspects of writing at word, sentence and text level.

Links to national guidelines Penpals for Handwriting: Year 3 supports many national guidelines including: the National Curriculum for England and Wales; National Literacy Strategy Framework (DfES); ● Spelling Bank (DfES): as far as possible, handwriting patterns have been introduced to support the relevant spelling patterns and word-level objectives for each term. Spelling or vocabulary links are cross-referenced on the teacher’s page for each unit; ● English Language 5–14 Guidelines; ● English Programmes of Study and Attainment Targets for Northern Ireland. ●

Northern Ireland

Level 3: Handwriting is accurately formed and consistent in size. Level 4: Handwriting is swift and legible.

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Through the supportive context of whole-class teaching leading to independent writing, Penpals develops: vocabulary for talking about letter formation and joining; strong links between spelling patterns and handwriting practice; ● efficient pencil hold and good posture; ● an emphasis on refining handwriting joins and on developing legibility, speed and fluency. ● ●

Attainment targets England and Wales

Level 2: In handwriting, letters are accurately formed and consistent in size. Level 3: Handwriting is joined and legible. Scotland

Level B: In writing tasks, pupils ‘form letters and space words legibly in linked script’. Level C: In writing tasks, pupils ‘employ a fluent, legible style of handwriting’.

Using handwriting across the curriculum By Year 3, most children are beginning to write fluently, and they should be encouraged to incorporate joining into their cross-curricular writing. High frequency words are included in the Practice Book pages wherever possible. (In Year 3, the NLS high frequency words covered are: after again back ball been black brown boy called down from girl grey half little live love night orange over purple said school should time three when.) If appropriate, set handwriting targets for the children and incorporate cross-curricular writing into handwriting assessments.

How to use Penpals Classroom organisation The ideal classroom organisation for teaching Penpals is to have the children sitting at desks or tables arranged in a horseshoe shape so that they can all see the Big Book. Each child needs a dry-wipe board (preferably with guidelines) and marker pen, or pencil and paper.

on a vertically mounted dry-wipe board or Big Book page is not recommended but it can be useful for quick interactive teaching sessions.

When to use Penpals Penpals can be used flexibly to teach handwriting as recommended in Developing Early Writing. Ideally the Big Book teaching session will be followed immediately by the independent work but, where this is not possible, the sessions may be split.

Timing the sessions The whole-class session for each unit, including the warm up activities, should take no more than 15 minutes. The independent working session should take about 15–20 minutes. This should allow you time to teach within the Literacy Hour structure if you wish to do so. In addition to the allocated time, extra daily ‘practice times’ of 5–10 minutes are ideal, if the practicalities of your timetable allow for it. Children can use these sessions to practise the high frequency words, to extend their pattern practice or to revisit the letter pattern shown in the Practice Book. As with most successful learning, ‘little and often’ is the most effective approach.

If this organisation is not possible within your classroom, bear in mind the following points as you plan your own classroom: All the children need to see the Big Book and be able to copy words or handwriting patterns from it. ● Handwriting is usually done on a horizontal or slightly sloped surface. Sustained practice of handwriting patterns ●

Penpals for Handwriting Y3 © Cambridge University Press 2003

Sequence for teaching the units Gross and fine motor skills

The progression of the lower Key Stage 2 (Primary 4 and 5) lessons generally follow a common pattern. Teaching units ●

In Years 3 and 4 (Primary 4 and 5) of Penpals, 10 units have been provided for each school term. The units have been organised into a specific teaching sequence to ensure that skills are developed, practised and consolidated, and that relevant spelling patterns can be used. However, if it fits better with your spelling programme, you may wish to alter the order in which children complete the units, particularly in Terms 1 and 3.

Teaching sequence for a unit of Penpals for Handwriting You will need:

Whole-class session

1 Warm up activities In lower Key Stage 2 materials, all lessons begin with warm up activities. These are brief activities that are intended literally to prepare the upper part of the body and the hands for handwriting. This will help to develop both gross and fine motor control.

3 Unit focus and spelling/vocabulary link (KS2) These are clearly identified at the start of each unit.

4 Introduce the page Talk about the page in preparation for teaching.

2 Big Book page Every unit begins with a whole-class teaching session based on the Big Book page. This introduces the handwriting focus for the unit.

the relevant Teacher’s Book page; the Big Book or OHT; ● water-based marker pens for annotating the pages. ● ●

Children will need: dry-wipe boards and marker pens* or pencils and paper; pencils and coloured pencils; ● the relevant Practice Book; ● handwriting exercise book. ● ●

(*Remember that one of the crucial elements of ensuring good handwriting is good posture. If children are writing with drywipe boards on their knees or on the floor, good posture is more difficult to achieve.)

i 5 Demonstrate the unit focus Notes on how to demonstrate the letter join and then how to involve the pupils interactively. Use the Show Me and Get Up and Go activities along with dry-wipe boards. 6

o 6 Take aways These are photocopy masters (PCMs) for extra practice or homework. At Y3/P4 there is a PCM for each unit. In addition to this PCM consolidating the unit focus, where possible there is reference to a PCM from a previous year to give additional joining practice for children who need reinforcement.

Independent work

This session can follow on directly from the whole-class session. Ideally work should be overseen by an adult to ensure correct formation and joining, especially for children about whom you have concerns. The teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s page for the unit provides helpful advice on using the Practice Book page together. At Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, children will need a handwriting exercise book to record their work in. They should have a sharpened pencil for their writing, but may also need coloured pencils for pattern practice. The Practice Book pages offer: 1 Independent writing Practice of the focus join or joins.

2 Copying joins in context Once the children have practised writing the joins, they should try to write them in a context (usually a simple phrase or sentence, joke or rhyme).

3 Pattern practice Children will need to practise the pattern at the bottom of the page. These usually reflect the pencil movement of the unit focus, but always enhance fine motor control. These patterns can be made using coloured pencils. The patterns are artwork, not letters, and should be treated as opportunities to develop movement and control. t

4 High frequency words Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check practice is provided for high frequency words that feature the unit focus join (where possible).

Differentiation Differentiation using Penpals can be achieved in a number of ways: Children working individually with a Teaching Assistant may benefit from additional practice on dry-wipe boards. Some children may need to revisit the Y2/P3 Penpals resources in order to practise the joins. ● Take-away activities provide excellent opportunities for differentiation as detailed above. Cross-references to similar Take aways in earlier books can help you to select less challenging activities for those who need extra practice at a lower level. ● Higher-achieving children can be challenged by higher expectations of control and evenness of letters.

The Practice Book page annotations in the Teacher’s Book also enable you to draw the children’s attention to key handwriting issues.

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Assessment and recordkeeping

Summative assessment Beginning of year

The PCM on page 9 can be used for an assessment to ensure that all children are ready for Penpals: Y3/P4. If children’s joining is still insecure, they will benefit from revising units from Penpals: Y2/P3. End of year

You can use text from Unit 29 in each book as the basis of a summative assessment. As you do the summative assessment, consider key handwriting issues: ●

On-going formative assessment

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The most effective assessment of handwriting is on-going assessment because this gives you the chance to spot any errors or inconsistencies that are likely to impede a fast, fluent hand in the future. Be especially aware of left-handers and the difference between a pencil hold that will seriously limit their success in the future and one that has been found to work efficiently.

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Are all letters formed correctly? Are letters consistently sized? Are known joins used? Are they used correctly? Are ascenders and descenders parallel? Are spaces within and between words regular? Is good handwriting carried over into cross-curricular activities? What are the next handwriting targets for this child?

At Key Stage 2, a starting-point assessment PCM is provided for use at the beginning of each school year (see page 9). This assesses the previous year’s work and gives an indication of what needs to be consolidated before beginning new work.

Record-keeping The best record of what children have achieved will be in their handwriting books. It is therefore important to keep a book specifically for this purpose. This will provide a useful record of achievement to share with parents and colleagues. ● The Contents page can be photocopied and used with highlighting pens and dates to keep a record of which units have been completed. You may find it helpful to use a ‘traffic light’ system (green highlighter pen for ‘achieved’, yellow for ‘not totally secure’ and pink for ‘not achieved’) to highlight units you need to revisit with individuals, groups or the whole class. ●

Children’s beginning of year assessment Name Date ........................................................................................................................... .................................................................................

Copy these joins and these words. Then copy the joke book titles.

o+o@ßk e©r}e i<Ñ@t d<iƒ[ a<wën a<i<r>[ a<r@¬r eµ[µ[ i<_@‹ #_@®

c·oo+ @ßk t<hÿ©r}e s©k<i<Ñ@t d<iƒ[©a<p©p¿©a<r l<a<wën s©t<a<i<r>[ |u<a<r@¬re} ©l s©t<re} µ[µ[©_@® u<l d<i<_‹@ #_@ù©r}e©n<t

Fa<l<l<i<n<g Doúwën t<hÿ Cl<i<_@‹ #_@® b©y Ei<lí©n Doúve} ©r Ve©ge©t<a<blÿ Ga<r>dÿ©n<i<n<g by Roü@ [©a Ca<r@¬r>o#®tƒ[ Hoúw I Cr>o@ü [µ[@¿©d t<hÿ Sa<h<a<r>a by Rh<od+ <a Ca<mÿ©l Penpals for Handwriting: Y3

Key issues Glossary of key terms

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Talking about handwriting

Throughout Penpals it has been assumed that correct terminology should be used as soon as possible. Terms used in Penpals include: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Lower case letter. Capital letter is used in preference to ‘upper case letter’. Short letter is the term used to describe a letter with no ascender or descender. Letter with an ascender, letter with a descender. Flick is used to describe exit strokes (note that t finishes with a curl to the right rather than merely an exit flick). Curves is used to describe descenders on letters (y, j, g, f ). Cross bar is used to describe the left-to-right line on t and f. It may also be used in relation to letters which feature a left to right horizontal line (e.g. e and z). Diagonal join to ascender (e.g. a<t), diagonal join (no ascender) (e.g. d<u), diagonal join to an anticlockwise letter (e.g. h<o). Horizontal join to ascender (e.g. oß@h), horizontal join (no ascender) (e.g. r}e), horizontal join to an anticlockwise letter (e.g. w>o). Other important terminology used throughout Penpals includes vertical, parallel, joined, sloped.

Activities

Get Up and Go This describes an activity where a child is asked to come up and circle a word or letter pattern in the Big Book.

Notes on formation of specific letters and joins ●

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k – the use of the curly form of k, as opposed to the straight k, is recommended by handwriting experts because its flowing form lends itself more naturally to joining. It is also more easily distinguished from the capital letter. o – there is no exit stroke from the lower case o when it is not joined. Unlike the flick at the bottom of letters like n and l, the exit stroke from the o is not an integral part of the letter, but simply a mechanism for joining. e – two different forms of e (e / œ) are used in order to show children how it alters when other letters are joined to it. f, r, q, s – letters that the children are taught to join in Y2/P3. b and p – letters that the children are taught to join in Y3/P4.

Handwriting is generally faster and more legible if it is not continuously joined. ●

g, j, y – letters that are not joined from, though there is

some exploration of joining them in Years 5&6/P6&7. ● x and z – we do not join to or from x or z as these are uncomfortable joins that often result in the malformation of both the joining letter and the x or z.

Warm ups These activities may be linked to the focus of the unit but are generally just enjoyable gross and fine movement activities to warm up the muscles. ● Show Me This is the term used to describe a practice activity. Children write on a dry-wipe board. ●

Capitals It is generally agreed that there is no right or wrong way to form capitals. However, there is a general principle of forming them from top to bottom and left to right wherever possible. Guidelines for the formation of capitals are offered on the inside back cover of the Y1/P2 Big Book. As skills and confidence develop, left-handers may well form capitals differently. This should not be an issue as capitals are never joined. Capital Y: the use of a central stalk (as opposed to a slanting stalk) is recommended as once children have completed the ‘v’ form at the top of the letter, they have a clear starting point for the downwards stroke. This formation also distinguishes the capital letter from the lower case letter and retains its shape when written at speed. ● Capital G: this form of G is recommended as the correct handwriting form of the letter. Variations which include a vertical line ( ) are font forms. ● Capital H: the formation of H using two down strokes followed by the horizontal stroke from left to right is recommended. The alternative (one down stroke followed by a horizontal and a further down stroke) can quickly resemble the letter M when written at speed. ● Capital K: the formation of K with two pencil strokes rather than three is recommended as it is more fluently formed when writing at speed. ●

Joining In order to promote fluent handwriting and to support the early stages of spelling, some handwriting joins are introduced in Y1/P2 as soon as all individual letter formation is secure. By the time they are using the Y3/P4 resources, children should be becoming secure and confident with the common joins and be beginning to use them for all ‘neat’ writing activities. The emphasis in these resources is on developing an even, fluent handwriting style, ensuring consistency in size and proportion of letters and the spacing between letters and words. Progression in the introduction of joins

Y1/P2 In these resources only two or three letters in a word are joined. The words in the Big Book and the Practice Book feature the focus join for the teaching unit. Y2/P3 As more joins are introduced, children are given opportunities to practise familiar joins that are not the focus of the unit. During the year, children are expected to begin to join all the letters in a short word, or to join letter patterns that can support spelling. Y3&4/P4&5 All the basic joins will now be familiar. In these resources, children are asked to practise ‘tricky joins’ and to begin to develop fluent, even handwriting. An emphasis on spacing between letters and words, consistency of letter size, and parallel ascenders and descenders helps children to present their work well. If children in Y3/P4 have not been introduced to joining before, it should be noted that the first ten units of Y2/P3 revise all the basic joins. Additionally, we suggest that, rather then immediately joining whole words, words are chunked, as demonstrated in Y2/P3.

The sequence for Y3/P4 Penpals for Handwriting is: Term 1 Revising joins in a word. Term 2 Revising joins in a word. Focus on parallel ascenders and descenders, relative size of letters, developing speed and fluency. New: joining p and b. Term 3 Focus on consistency in spacing, practising speed and fluency. Assessment. Y4/P5 Children are introduced to a sloped style of writing and are expected to write mostly in pen. Y5&6/P6&7 Two sets of OHTs are provided for each of these year groups, one with a handwriting focus, the other with a project focus.

Variations on the join types The NLS distinguishes two subsets of each of the main joins, depending on whether or not the join is to an ascender. Penpals uses an additional subset of each of the two main joins: joins to a letter that begins with an anticlockwise movement. Since joins to these letters always involve stopping the pencil and reversing the direction of movement, these are called diagonal join to an anticlockwise letter and horizontal join to an anticlockwise letter. Joins to anticlockwise letters are trickier to teach and need more practice than straightforward horizontal and diagonal joins. These joins tend to ‘decay’ when children begin to write more quickly. ●

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Defining the joins

(See the inside back cover of this Teacher’s Book for a full list of letter patterns requiring each of the joins as taught in Y3/P4.)

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The two basic join types Diagonal join (e.g. a<t) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 11): this is the most common join. It starts from the final flick on the baseline (or ‘curl’ in the case of the letter t). Letters that come before a diagonal join are: a, b, c, d, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, u (and q, in which the flick begins below the baseline). ● Horizontal join (e.g. oß@h) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 24): this join is formed from letters that finish at the top of the letter rather than at the baseline. Letters that come before a horizontal join are: f, o, r, v, w. ●

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Diagonal join to a letter with an ascender (e.g. u<b) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 11): this is a variation of the diagonal join. Diagonal join to an anticlockwise letter (e.g. h<o) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 18): joining with a diagonal join to the anticlockwise letters in the ‘curly caterpillar’ family involves stopping the hand movement and reversing it. This can be a tricky join and it decays easily in fast writing. Horizontal join to an anticlockwise letter (e.g. w>o) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 26): joining from a horizontal join to an anticlockwise letter involves a reversal. Horizontal join to a letter with an ascender (e.g. oß@h) (introduced in Y1/P2, Unit 28): this is a slightly sloped version of a horizontal join. Break letters (introduced in Y2/P3): these are letters from which no join has yet been taught. (See notes on page 10.)

Planning staff INSET When you introduce Penpals into your school, it is important to ensure that all the staff in the school follow the scheme. Suggestions are given on page 11 to support the introduction of the programme throughout the school as there may be some issues for children who have not met joining before. To do this, it may be useful to hold an INSET staff meeting. The following pages in this book are photocopiable to make OHTs for this purpose: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

page 13 – outline of INSET session; page 14 – information sheet for parents; page 15 – pencil hold and posture; page 16 – variations of the font; pages 62 and 63 – handwriting mats; page 64 – photocopiable ruled sheet for handwriting practice; inside back cover – joining letter sets (also appears on the inside front cover of the Big Book and Practice Book).

Handwriting issues ●

● ● ●

Suggested topics for inclusion in INSET meeting Organisational issues

Rationale for introducing Penpals Use the information on pages 4 and 11. ● Classroom organisation Copy page 5 of this introduction for all staff. Read through it together, agreeing on the most appropriate time for the sessions, etc. ● Differentiation and record-keeping Use the information on page 8. ● Home–school links Make an OHT of the information sheet on page 14. ●

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Posture A good posture and pencil hold are vital for good handwriting. Although many young children enjoy sitting on one foot, kneeling or wrapping their feet around the legs of the chair, they will find it easier to sustain good handwriting comfortably if they adopt a good posture. ● Left-handed children Left-handed children should not sit to the right of right-handed children as their papers will meet in the middle! Left-handed children should be taught to position their paper to the left of centre and then angle the paper for comfort as suggested below. There is no reason why left-handed children’s handwriting should be any worse than that of right-handed children. ● Sloped surfaces Children who experience some motor control difficulties often benefit from writing on a slight slope. The easiest and cheapest way to provide this in the classroom is to use substantial A4 or foolscap ring-binders of which there are usually plenty in school. (The ones that held the old National Curriculum documents are excellent for this purpose!) Commercial wooden or plastic writing slopes are also widely available. ● Angle of paper If children still need help with choosing a good angle for their paper while writing, make an OHT of the guidelines for right- or left-handed children as provided on pages 62 and 63. You can photocopy these onto A3 paper and laminate them to make table-top mats for the children. Use the spaces provided to allow children to find the optimum position. Show the children how to line up the corners of their books to create a comfortable angle for writing, or how to use Blu-tack to secure paper to the mats to produce guidelines when writing on blank paper. These guidelines provide a good guide, but encourage the children to explore personal variation of the angles. ●

Font Use the inside back cover of the Big Book or an OHT of page 16 of this Teacher’s Book to demonstrate the font. Information on page 10 of the introduction may be used to clarify any issues arising. Font size Photocopy page 16 of this Teacher’s Book to demonstrate how font size is shown throughout Penpals. Joins Use the inside front cover of the Big Book to demonstrate the joining letter sets and the break letters. Writing on lined paper Children should be encouraged to write on lined paper from the time they begin to focus on correct letter formation and orientation. As the children’s handwriting becomes more controlled, the width between the lines should decrease. It may well be that at any given time different children in your class will benefit from writing on paper with different line widths. The size of the font in the Practice Books is intended to reflect a development in handwriting. However, you should still tailor the handwriting materials to meet the needs of individual children in your class. A photocopiable sheet with lines of a suitable width is provided on page 64. Some children may prefer to write on lined paper which also includes guidelines for the height of ascenders and descenders. Pencil hold Make an OHT of page 15 to illustrate this point. The traditionally recommended pencil hold allows children to sustain handwriting for long periods without tiring their hands. However, there are many alternative pencil holds (particularly for left-handers) and the most important thing is comfort and a hold that will be efficient under speed. Some children may benefit from triangular pencils or ordinary pencils with plastic pencil grips.

Home–school links

● encourages self-assessment

● beginning of year assessment for each year group

Assessment and record keeping

● weekly teaching sessions (in or out of Literacy Hour) with little-and-often practice

Classroom organisation

● a flexible, fluent and legible handwriting style ● a 5-stage developmental process ● active teaching in association with phonics and spelling

Rationale

Organisational issues ●

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● parent information sheets for each year ● homework activities

Handwriting issues

font, font size, joins and break letters, writing on lined paper, pencil hold, posture, left-handed children, sloped surfaces, angle of paper Penpals for Handwriting: Y3

Penpals for Handwriting: Year 3 information sheet for parents The main aims during this year are for children to refine their handwriting and to make sure that the size and proportions of all letters, and the spaces between letters and words, are consistent and even. Formation of capitals and lower case letters should now be familiar and secure. Children have been introduced to the two basic join types: ● Joins from the baseline, known as diagonal joins, including: ● diagonal join to a short letter, e.g. a<m, u<n ● diagonal joins to an ascender, e.g. a<t, t<h, c·k ● diagonal joins to an anti-clockwise letter, e.g. a<g, n<d, o®#f ● Joins from the crossbar, known as horizontal joins, including: ● horizontal join to a short letter, e.g. wëi, _®@ r ● horizontal join to an ascender, e.g. o®#t, w#h, _‹@ #l ● horizontal join to an anticlockwise letter, e.g. o+o, w>a, _@a › Break letters (i.e. letters which are not joined from at this stage) include: g, j, y, x, z. New joining letters introduced during this year are: Joins from p and b to a short letter, e.g. p©i, b¿ to an ascender, e.g. p©h, b©b to an anticlockwise letter, e.g. p©o,

b©a

By this stage, children should be secure at joining and able to use joined-up writing for most of their work. Opportunities will also be provided for children to practise writing at increased speed so that they can produce longer pieces of writing with greater ease. There is continued emphasis on using the movements of handwriting to support spelling through the revision of common letter patterns. Penpals for Handwriting: Y3

Pencil hold and posture

Pencil hold ● Pencil held between thumb and forefinger. ● Middle finger provides extra support.

Posture ● Feet flat on the floor. ● Head up, not resting on desk or hand. ● Paper at the correct angle. Spare hand steadies the paper. ●

Penpals for Handwriting: Y3

Penpals Progression Each letter family is introduced with finger tracing letters incorporating the letter family artwork and a starting dot. Hollow letters with starting dots and arrows to show correct letter formation are also used for finger tracing. Solid letters with starting dots support letter formation.

p@e©n

Red is used for the focus join and joining letters to teach fluent formation.

Independent writing with exit flicks is encouraged in preparation for joining.

jokey

Further development of an individual style as well as presentation skills and techniques.

Children are encouraged to develop an individual style for speed and legibility.

Once all joins have been taught, all words are shown as joined for practice and consolidation.

a c

SASSOON® CAMBRIDGE JOINER

Variations in font throughout Penpals

PRACTISING SPEED AND FLUENCY

SECURING THE JOINS

BEGINNING TO JOIN

GROSS AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS AND LETTER FORMATION

FIVE DEVELOPMENTAL PHASES

Variations in font

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Penpals for Handwriting: Y2

Penpals typesizes*

aa Foundation 2/Primary 1 21mm/11.5mm

Year 3/Primary 4 4mm

Year 2/Primary 3 5.5mm

Year 1/Primary 2 17mm/8mm

a a a

Year 4 onwards/ Primary 5 onwards sloped, 4mm

Revising joins in a word: long vowel phonemes

Warm up 0 Children circle shoulders forwards and backwards. 0 Play ‘Show me’, with children showing you the different parts of their hands.

CD-ROM

Unit focus: revising joins in a word. Phonics and spelling link: long vowel phonemes.

Group work Introduce the page • Read the rhyme. Explain that you’re going to recap the work on joining letters in words that you did last year. Demonstrate the unit focus • Demonstrate tracing over the words, emphasising the smooth movement of your hand as you do so. • Remind children of some of the key issues, such as the fact that: • capitals don’t join • descenders go under the line • the t should be slightly shorter than the h in mouth. Show Me Children practise writing all or part of the rhyme. Get Up and Go Ask the children to come up and circle any letters representing long vowel phonemes.

Big Book page 2

Artwork Children try to identify a word with a long vowel phoneme represented by the artwork.

Independent work Watch while children copy the joins.

Encourage the children to read the r instruction and the words. Make sure they attempt to join the appropriate parts of the word with a fluid movement. Remind them of the break letters (b, g, j, p, y, x, z) which don’t join at this point.

Word bank Choose one of the words and identify its long vowel phoneme. Click on the word to make it grey. Model and discuss the joins and break letters.

Practice Book page 2

Encourage children to practise the pattern in the bottom panel.

Can the children look, say, cover, write and check these high-frequency words?

Take away

1 For additional practice of joining use PCM 1. 2 If children find any joins particularly hard, refer back to the PCM covering that 17

join type in Year 1 or 2.

Revising joins in a word:

lÿ

Warm up 0 Children make large circling movements with their arms outstretched. 0 Children make smaller tickling movements with their arms close to their bodies.

CD-ROM

Unit focus: revising joins in a word. Spelling link: words ending in le.

Artwork Children try to identify a word with the target letter pattern represented by the artwork. Join animation Reinforce the flowing movement in this familiar join. Can the children suggest words that end with lÿ?

Group work Introduce the page • Identify the letter patterns at the top of the page. Explain to children that you are going to add these endings to the word beginnings on the left-hand side of the page to make complete words. Demonstrate the unit focus Get Up and Go Ask children to come up and point to the correct ending for each word. • Demonstrate tracing over the word beginning, then write the correct ending in the gap, to reinforce the idea of chunking words introduced in Year 2. • Write the complete word in the gap on the right-hand side of the page, emphasising the smooth and fluid movement of your hand as you do so. Can the children spot the break letters? Show Me Children practise writing some of the word sums.

Big Book page 3

Independent work Watch while children copy the join.

Encourage the children to read the r instruction and the sentence. Make sure they attempt to join the appropriate parts of the words with a fluid movement.

Word bank Choose one of the words to revise the lÿ join. Click on the word to make the join grey for modelling and discussion.

Practice Book page 3

Encourage children to practise the pattern in the bottom panel. u

Can the children look, say, cover, write and check these words?

Take away

1 For additional practice of joining use PCM 2. 2 If children find any joins particularly hard, refer back to the PCM covering that 18

join type in Year 1 or 2.