The Zebra Basket is the handwriting basket. A lot of schools have a handwriting curriculum in place, but so many do not, and either way this is a great way to start a beginning overview to basic handwriting skills. This isn’t an assignment that is graded or even really scrutinized in any way. It is more of an opportunity for kindergarteners to get a feel of what it is like to complete an assignment and to have something tangible to take home.

The handouts we have available at Teachable Method include both D’Nealian as well as the traditional ball and stick handwriting. Most school districts have a policy on which handwriting form they want you to use. At Teachable Method we prefer ball and stick, but we also understand that you can’t go against the wishes of your district.

There are two handouts in the basket for students to choose from. If they have time, they can complete both handouts, but this is for your more advanced students to give them something to do if they finish. The teachable method has handouts available for purchase, but if you want to make your own, you just need to make sure you are using the theme and have lined paper with dotted letters for them to trace. For example, our shapes handwriting handout has shapes on it with the names of the shape below in a traceable font.

When the students are finished with the handwriting part of their work, they should be given the opportunity to color their handouts and put them in a folder to take home at the end of the week. I try to save all the work until the end of the week to send home so that parents actually get a chance to see it instead of it ending up wadded up in the bottom of their backpack.

This entry was posted under Writing Centers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.