Cursive Tips

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Welcome to another edition of: 

Cursive ~ to teach or not to teach?!?  I LOVE cursive and so do the kids!  
There are always 2 sides to the debate: 
* there's no time to teach cursive
* it's a lost art/ not necessary anymore
* it's not relevant - keyboarding is more important
* it's a tradition
* you need it to be able to read old historical documents
* it's a rite of passage 
* they need it to be able to sign their signature

As you can see cursive can be a 'hot' topic for sure.  When I tell the parents at back to school night that I teach cursive they are always so happy.  I do think it's still an important skill for kids to learn and enjoy teaching it!  

Some tips I give my students to help make them more successful:

I always start by reading Muggie Maggie FIRST before I even talk much about cursive and certainly before I teach any of the strokes or letters.  Muggie Maggie is a fun chapter book written by Beverly Cleary that talks about a girl that is not motivated to learn cursive. 

cursive tips

Usually from my experience kids are excited to learn cursive, they feel grown up and want to try something new.  So it's nice to have them motivated before I even begin.  I follow the Handwriting Without Tears website for when to teach the letters ( order )
Here's the link if you are interested in taking a look at how they do it. { HWT }
I show a You Tube video before EACH letter I teach.  These are ADORABLE and so kid friendly.  They can't wait to watch them everyday and are only like a minute long.  Here's an example:

This you tube video series by Super Smart Kids Club/ Letter School - grabs their attention by having a train track with a train following the letter or flowers and a lawn mower following the letter etc. to show how the strokes form, the kids LOVE this!

After we watch the video we get in the proper cursive position to practice our letter.  I pre- make a book each year and have it bound by the district print shop.  It includes my very talented friend Melissa's cursive pack mixed with mine.  I love how her pages include a color in the letter smart and engaging! You can find them both here:


cursive tips, cursive license

The license is a fun touch I make a big one and hang it up in my classroom and then I make small ones and laminate them - the kids can put them in a wallet and they feel so grown up - I put their photo on it and it's like a real license or ID.

cursive license for your students, if they get sloppy they can lose their license
If you only want the license you can grab it ( here )

However you choose to teach cursive, make it fun and engaging and keep them accountable all year ( with the cursive license ) so their cursive stays neat and they can be proud of their work.  Happy teaching! xo,


  1. Yay I'm so glad you are teaching this. It's so important. The school the kids went to in Colorado taught nothing but cursive since kindergarten but I think that's over the top - need to learn the printed letters first. Hello - books! I always enjoyed it when she finally pulled it out for us to learn. Of course I couldn't wait and was teaching myself in 2nd grade.

  2. Thanks Andrea <3 You have beautiful cursive like mom did. xo