Printable Handwriting Worksheets For Kids To Practice Manuscript & Cursive Writing

Easy Words, Sentences, and Poetry Handwriting Worksheets Cheer Up The School Day

These modern printable handwriting worksheets have space for your kids to print their names and for you to make notes.

They're digitally interactive, too, so they can be finished in your children's computer files if you need typing practice for your older children or you're running out of paper or ink. Ask me how I know? :-)

I think it's important to intellectual freedom that children can use cursive writing. It makes writing so much faster and handier. You will find my best manuscript printing practice and cursive handwriting worksheets below this sample image.

Darling Handwriting Story

It is so handy when your students need practice forming the letters well and obeying the top, middle and bottom lines to have the lines printed on the paper.

Oh! If kids would only obey even the bottom line. A page looks a world better if their handwriting simply obeys the ruled lines.

I know a child who, as a toddler, "wrote" in the bottom space below the bottom line on my whiteboard while I was helping other children learn to write. 

Effectively his "bottom line" was the frame of the white board. When he started learning to write, his baseline was excellent. To this day his handwriting is the best at staying on the base line. This alone helps his writing look nice and neat. What a wonderful habit!

Learn more tricks as you view this page and see live samples in sections 3 and 4 below:

1. Ruled handwriting sheets are important.
2. Start with pencil for kinesthetic advantage.
3. Beginner print handwriting worksheets.
4. Cursive handwriting practice.
5. Related handwriting pages.

or go to more pages on our site in the next section.

PrintNPractice Handwriting Worksheets List

Related PrintNPractice Handwriting Downloads

1. Ruled Handwriting Worksheets

Ruled worksheets are a Godsend for handwriting practice!

There are differences like dexterity and the desire to succeed that set children at different levels even at the same ages, yet ruled lines set the standard.

Then practice printing is what can help them improve. Simple practice is easy and can be fun once the children realize that it is easy.

The stronger their hands are the more smooth their writing will be. Here are some handwriting exercises:

• Choose one fault to improve as with the base line idea. Pretend it is a floor. Put a 3x5 card under the line for all but descenders like g, j, p, y, etc.
• Another idea is to use the raised lines handwriting paper sold at Walmart or create your own by embossing the back sides of the paper (use a ruler to draw a deep line with a ball point pen on paper that is set on a soft surface as with a pile of paper, a notebook, or a blotter).
• Another handwriting fault to improve is to teach children to choose to make round letters more round. You will find that a page is much more legible if the clock faced letters, or letters that use some part of a circle, are well made. HINT: The secret is to start at 2 on the clock. 

We have scores of printable handwriting worksheets.

• Print handwriting sheets.
• Cursive handwriting sheets.
• Printable lined paper, K-6 blank spelling sheets.
• Printable writing paper, designs, no lines.
• Number writing worksheets.
• Printable graph paper, for all sorts of projects.
• Writing worksheets for kids.
• Typing practice kids can type on our worksheets.
• Practice writing checks. Yes, we still write checks! :-)

All our PrintNPractice worksheets are digital interactive worksheets.

2. Use Pencils For Handwriting Practice

2.A. Using A Pencil Can Improve Handwriting Success

Pencils are the easiest tools for learning penmanship and cursive writing.

It is the friction on the paper that a pencil has that ink does not have.

Often paper for young children is textured and thick, not smooth and thin. This increases writing friction and helps cushion the writing from any imperfections in a writing desk or table.

If handwriting is difficult or untidy, resist a child's desire to use a pen for penmanship practice or extended writing exercises. Let the friction between the pencil and the paper aid your child's efforts.

• The pencil will not slip on paper as easily as pen.
• Many pencils are six sided so children have better control.
• Most mechanical pencils have textured grips that improve handwriting.

2.B. Pencil Grips Help Kids "Get the idea" How To Hold A Pencil

Stetro Pencil Grips

Did you ever get into a discussion with friends about the ever frequent topic of how to hold a pencil?

I know that people can write well with many different hand grips; yet it seems to me after teaching many children that, in the end and over time, if they have a better grip, they'll last longer writing essays and reports by hand. 

Especially if they're writing in cursive. Or want to write quickly.

I wouldn't start with too young a child; yet activities like threading beads and sewing with shoe strings can help children "get the idea" as well as strenghthen their hands.

After a certain age or ability, I would try to improve a child's grip early so as to train a habit. Each child is different and will progress through writing skills at different speeds.

Teaching kids to write with Stetro pencil grips is a phenomenal help to showing them how to hold their pencils! For some kids, all it takes is to "try it on" to "get the feel" of how to hold it well.

Using Stetro grips you cannot hold the pencil "wrong".

• Right handed? 
• Left handed?

Simply turn so the arrow points the other way up or down the pencil. 

Stetros have a great feel, too, that lasted for years. They did not get a gunky feeling over time. They have been a Godsend in our family.

I remember buying a pack of twenty Stetros for a long-time Kindergarten teacher. She was over the top happy!

Later I did the same for a second grade teacher and she reacted the same way.

It's so nice once you feel these in your own hand and can see how they work.

For a while in my life and when visiting with other parents, the subject arose so often that I kept a Stetro in my purse as an example.

You can see Stetros at Amazon.

Another wonderful treasure is the Dixon Ticonderoga pencil! The six sides are so helpful and make holding a pencil correctly a natural for many kids, especially those who are older.

Are you teaching older students to write?

I remember when I bought my first box of mechanical pencils. God bless not having to sharpen pencils! And God bless .5 mm fine point pencils.

2.C. Occupational Therapy For A Proper Pencil Grip

Tracey LeRoux is a long time Occupational Therapist with years of experience in private practice, local schools, and therapy rooms.

Her post graduate qualification has helped her help children in classroom settings and to train facilitators in kindergarten and early elementary learning.

She has written many books on early learning activities, yet the one that applies best here is her work called The Pencil Grip E-Book. It's filled with lots of ideas, especially to help parents help their own children. In it she discusses:

• The ideal pencil grasp or handhold.
• Stages of development.
• Pencil grasps that work and those that do not.
• Factors involved with solutions to try.
• When to give a child a pencil grip.

Her ebooks are super affordable, interesting, and loaded with pertinent photos. Visit her OT Mom Learning Activities website or choose your favorite OT Mom ebook here.

2.D. Interesting Unconventional Pencil Grip Or A New Way To Hold A Pencil

Rene Armbruster shows a unique way to use a pencil for both the young and the old either with learning disabilities or with health issues. I was impressed. She also has a great idea of using a magic marker.

Maybe it will help you help someone who cannot use the normal way of holding a pencil. See her unique way of holding a pencil at YouTube.

3. Manuscript Print Handwriting Worksheets

3.A. Free Printable Handwriting Worksheets: Basic Manuscript Print Alphabet Letters

Alphabet Worksheets

When your children are little in preschool and kindergarten, traditional tracing and copying is a great way to begin for some children.

Some? Well, sometimes it is better to simply teach them how to make straight lines and smooth circles.

I have seen students who were able to write prettily from their first instruction, so be encouraged to show them how to print correctly the first time and every time. Extra drill is not needed for these children.

Leave off emphasis on printing practice, if practice is not needed. Give time for independent practice writing, too.

Too much practice printing for elementary students can be torture to the careful student who makes her letters well. Yes, in my experience this is usually a girl, although I have seen some artistic boys with beautiful handwriting, too.

Keep it simple. The goal is legible handwriting. If a student already has nice handwriting, skip assigning lots of printing practice sheets.

We have different sizes of printable lined paper where you can make your own manuscript worksheets.

Also, be encouraged to use the smaller rule from higher levels if writing big is hard for your students. My own children did better through the years learning to write in the fourth grade size from the beginning. 

See more manuscript printing practice worksheets at these pages;

• Alphabet worksheets
• Printable alphabet flash cards
• Teaching the alphabet
• Alphabet coloring page
• Phonics worksheets and flash cards

3.B. Printable Handwriting Worksheets with Sentences

Simple Sentences Worksheets

Other kids are happy to have the easy practice of both printing and cursive writing practice. I like to make sure that my students are also learning the Spelling, Phonics, or Grammar at the same time as they are practicing handwriting.

This is where it is handy to use our Phonics and Grammar pages for simple practice of all the mechanics of handwriting. Almost all of our grammar pages have cursive writing worksheets.

Especially if you are outside a school situation, you have the freedom to discern which sort of learner you have. You have more leeway as tutors and parents to choose more or less for each child as the children need.

Little children who need practice or busywork do well with independent study using our printable handwriting worksheets for kindergarten. Older children like our cursive sentences to practice their handwriting.

4. Printable Cursive Handwriting Worksheets

See beginner cursive writing worksheets here.

See cursive writing practice below.

Cursive Writing Practice

You can use every one of our Grammar worksheets for printing practice worksheets as well as cursive handwriting practice worksheets.

Any of our simple sentence worksheets offer good opportunities to practice handwriting in cursive sentences practice worksheets.

Each of the Grammar selections branches to different levels on another landing page. This way your kids learn handwriting as well as proper grammar.

Oh, how I wish that I would have known how simply handwriting can be taught when our older children were young. 

Romalda Spalding's Phonics book book tells a very simple method of using six strokes for manuscript and another five to simply connect those same letters for cursive writing.

I remember teaching one seventh grade girl saying, "Short upswing, j". She exclaimed,

"I've never seen the j in that!"

Poof! Using this method, in less than two weeks most of our youngest children learned to use cursive writing. This was a giant savings in time spent "learning" penmanship. It wasn't a one year course. Simply connect the letters nicely.

Other children benefit by seeing cursive guides on their paper and some benefit by receiving an award. See what works for your students and lead them to being able to practice cursive independently.

One of the features I love about teaching cursive is that one of our children began to read better because he finally saw the separation between between words as individual units simply because the cursive words were connected. Sometimes it just takes a different perspective. I've heard other parents say the same for some of their children.

We have more cursive handwriting and penmanship pages

• Cursive writing letters, words, poetry,
  
• Cursive sentences, and
• Penmanship paper, or printable notebook paper.

Or you can buy all our English Grammar worksheets in one bundle. Most exercises have both a modern manuscript print and a cursive handwriting worksheet.

250+ Printable Handwriting Worksheets Child's Garden Of Verses Poems: Manuscript Print and Cursive Writing Practice

Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses has lovely poems for children. Our downloadable version has two or three worksheets for each poem.

Why? Well, some children can draw a picture, others can copy the manuscript or cursive versions, and others can copy the text from the print form. This allows four levels of listening, reading, and handwriting practice.

5. More Printable Handwriting Worksheets

• Printable Lined Paper - See scores of different kinds of printable writing paper some with columns and ruled lines including dotted center lines, and others that are decorative, fancy, or elegant.  Make your own handwriting worksheets with the blank lined writing paper. Several sizes of ruled lines.
• Unlined Printable Writing Paper - Seasonal and themed stationery.
• Spelling Worksheets Copy the words three times each.
• Simple Sentences See these cursive worksheets for cursive writing practice.
• Printable Graph Paper See many sizes and colors of graph paper to print. Awesome for calligraphy handwriting projects.
  

See a wonderful review of our worksheets published by This Old Schoolhouse. Thank you and your lovely children, Stacey Jones!

See related pages for more free elementary school and homeschooling ideas by grade: 

• Preschool Worksheets
• Kindergarten Worksheets
• 1st grade worksheets
• 2nd grade worksheets
• 3rd grade Worksheets
• 4th grade worksheets
• 5th grade worksheets
• 6th grade worksheets

Thank you for visiting our printable handwriting worksheets!

~Mary

Printable Spelling Worksheets Bundle

Writing Class

Teaching the Alphabet

Handwriting

Cursive Writing

Creative Writing Ideas

Printable Graph Paper

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