Whale Lesson, Draw-Write-Now 4

Draw Write Now, Book 4: Whale lesson

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The lessons are simple and clean. This is how the swan lessons appears in Draw-Write-Now, Book 1. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE 

TEACHING TIPS

Our lessons are flexible and simple. Keep it easy—pick up a lesson and draw! All that is needed is a pencil, eraser, paper and crayons (or a coloring medium of your choice.)

1.) Introduce the Subject

Garner interest in the blue whale and the animals and people who live in the polar regions with a story, discussion, poem, photos or a song. 

2.) Draw the Subject

Using a pencil, encourage the children to draw the whale lightly, because some lines will be erased (see Step 3.) Use the step-by-step instructions—the red lines—to draw the subject. Throughout the building of the whale, refer to the color drawing, pointing out the shapes and lines.

3.) Draw the Background

Still working in pencil, encourage the children to create their own background for the drawing. If they want to copy what they see in the sample color drawing, that's fine. With time and a little encouragement, their own creativity will take hold.

4.) Practice Writing

See Drawing and Writing Together. Scroll down the list and find where your child fits. Is your child just learning to write letters? Are they able to write, but don't like to practice? Do they need to work on forming paragraphs? Children of varying ages and skill levels can work together during drawing time, and at their own pace during writing time.

5.) Color the Picture

This is the fun time! The child colors their creation of the Blue Whale. You may notice that the drawings shown in our Gallery are outlined in black. Introduce outlining and see how it helps preserve the details the child has so carefully drawn in pencil. It also makes colors pop!

Practice writing sentences, learning to write letters, or crafting a paragraph.

Handwriting Styles

Which handwriting style should your child learn?

Teaching a child to write their name and first words is fun and easy, but before you get too far along, be aware that there are a variety of types of handwriting— they are called handwriting styles.

Four children wrote the word "Tiger." They were all taught the same handwriting style.

Ask Your Local School

Primary or elementary schools agree on one handwriting style to teach—at least they should. If your preschool child is eager to write or your child is already attending school, but you don't know which style is used, contact the local school office and ask.

Homeschooling

Homeschool parents—you get to decide! It's nice to find a style that appeals to each child, but I've found that it makes sense to stick to one style for the family.

The Left-Handed Child

With any handwriting style, there is a slight modification that can help a left-handed child write more smoothly. It's simple—pull the pencil toward the hand when making horizontal lines. For example, a right-handed writer crosses the letter “t” from left to right. For the left-handed, the letter is crossed from right to left. The following letters are affected:

Lowercase letters: t, f
Capital letters: A, E, F, H, I, J, T.

Manuscript Only?

Handwriting styles are designed with a manuscript (print) and a cursive (linked) form. Progressing to the cursive or linked form is the goal, as it is the quicker or more fluid form of handwriting. Today, many children get handwriting instruction and practice for only a few years at best and may not get instruction in cursive. I encourage teachers and parents to include regular handwriting practice into sixth grade. Keep practice time short—ten to fifteen minutes. For older children, practice time may be only once a week.

Begin with Cursive?

Yes, it is fine to start in cursive, and most children love it. When Marie was a child in the 1920’s, all her handwriting was in cursive. Manuscript was introduced later and used for labeling maps or posters.

A handwriting style is a carefully designed, efficient way of forming letters and numbers.

Each style has it’s own character or fits certain needs. There is no "correct" handwriting style—although publishers of handwriting programs or language arts programs might feel that theirs is the best! A handwriting chart or some other reference on how letters are formed (letter cards with the starting points and arrows, alphabet strips, iPad app) is a good reference tool to have available.

Simply be aware of letter formation and model it for your children or students. When given no instruction or example to follow, bright children can come up with some terribly awkward and cumbersome ways of making letters!

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Oh, So Unique!

Whichever handwriting style or type is chosen, the personality of each child's handwriting is evident. 

One child may space letters wide. Another might slant their letters less than the child sitting next to them. Some tend toward narrow lettering. Then, there are those who have a confident flow to their writing. 

Our uniqueness shows in our handwriting. It is our style.

Training and Practice

Handwriting programs have instructions and books and gadgets and apps. For many people, it is not necessary or practical. The main thing is to help the child memorize the letter formation (there are many fun ways to do this) and have clear standards and expectations for their practice time.

These first and second-grade children learned to write together. They each show an individual style, and all are beautiful. The papers are from the end of their school year.

Amanda's letters are wide.

Joshua's writing has very little slant.

Tyler's letters are narrow.

Elisa's writing flows.

Examples of Handwriting Styles

A handwriting style is a carefully designed, efficient way of forming letters and numbers. Each style has its own character or fits a certain need. The most common styles are shown here.

Most of these examples were created
with Startwrite Handwriting Software.

New American Cursive, handwriting style

New American Cursive

I like New American Cursive. This form of cursive is simple and clean. The child learns to write using cursive—they start with cursive. There is no manuscript form, although, the capital letters F, Q, T, and Z are made like manuscript capital letters. Another option would be to start a child with Zaner-Bloser Continuous Stroke Cursive.

Cursive — New American Cursive

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Handwriting Without Tears, Printing - Handwriting Style

Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive - Handwriting Style

Handwriting Without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears is a simplified style, without a slant, and has a rather blocky feel to it. Developed by an occupational therapist, the program includes many tactile products for writing readiness and an app for memorizing letter form. It is popular in the United States, but I find it too simple. It is not beautiful and the cursive doesn't flow.
Printing - Handwriting Without Tears
Cursive - Handwriting Without Tears

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Modern Manuscript (D'Nealian) - Handwriting Style

Modern Cursive (D'Nealian) - Handwriting Style

Modern Manuscript and Cursive (D'Nealian)

Modern Manuscript (D'Nealian) starts with slanted manuscript letters with the intent to transition easily to cursive writing. As in cursive writing, the lower case manuscript letters are made with one continuous stroke and most have "tails" (see the letter "a".) Modern Manuscript gained popularity in school districts in the United States in the late 1980's. Some find it challenging to teach (the program includes auditory instructions) and dislike the manuscript "b" and "k." I like it, but tend to teach it with modifications.

D’Nealian - manuscript and cursive chart
D’Nealian - manuscript only

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SIMPLE Zaner-Bloser Manuscript - Handwriting Style

SIMPLE Zaner-Bloser Cursive - Handwriting Style

Zaner-Bloser Continuous Stroke (Simple)

 This style is neither too challenging or too simple. Zaner-Bloser was the dominant handwriting style in the United States until Modern Manuscript (D’Nealian) gained popularity and this “continuous stroke” or “simplified” Zaner-Bloser was introduced. The continuous stroke applies to the manuscript letters—the pencil is not lifted to form a letter, as with the original Zaner-Bloser style. The cursive was simplified and most notable, the letter "Q" was changed to look like a letter "Q" instead of an odd number "2." Continuous Stroke makes sense—it is the closest thing to how Marie taught manuscript letter formation. When she taught cursive to first-graders, she used A Beka — that's what the private school chose.
manuscript - uppercase & lowercase

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Zaner-Bloser Manuscript, Handwriting Style,

Zaner-Bloser Cursive, Handwriting Style

Palmer Manuscript, Handwriting Style

Palmer Cursive, Handwriting Style

Zaner-Bloser (Original) & Palmer

The original Zaner-Bloser style and the Palmer style are not used as much now.

manuscript - uppercase
manuscript - lowercase
cursive - uppercase
cursive - lowercase
Spanish

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Peterson Handwriting

Peterson includes a transition between printing and cursive—it's called Slant Print. I don't have a sample to show here, but did include links to the site. Peterson's theme is "the difference is rhythm." The cursive letters end without a curve, much like the Italic styles. This program includes a depth of information, prompts and help. It seems like a lot of work, to me. 
Print
Slant Print
Cursive

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Italic Handwriting Styles

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Italic is so lovely and appealing! There are a variety: Portland Italic, Barchowsky, New South Wales, Victorian, Queensland.
Italic charts (click “Chart” in the left-hand column)
Barchowsky Fluent

Handwriting Style, Italic

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Handwriting Style, New South Wales

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Handwriting Style, Queensland

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Handwriting Style, Victorian

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Make handwriting practice fun. Startwrite Handwriting Software loads most of the popular handwriting styles on your computer, so you can create custom practice sheets.

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Handwriting: Training and Practice

Melissa, age 7, from Draw Write Now, Book 8, Horse Lesson, page 32

“IT’S NOT HARD TO SHOW A CHILD HOW TO FORM LETTERS AND WRITE SENTENCES. THE CHALLENGE IS MOTIVATING THEM TO PRACTICE REGULARLY AND CAREFULLY.”

— Marie Hablitzel

Handwriting practice is like working on lay-ups in basketball or learning a song on the piano—the same motions are practiced over and over until confidence and skill are gained. Handwriting practice develops one of the rote elements of writing—the act of forming letters and spacing letters into words and sentences. (Other elements are spelling and grammar.) When handwriting becomes automatic, the child can focus on composition. The child is free to write the story they want to tell or to focus on answering the questions in an assignment.

Checking Melissa's Work

Melissa's practice paper shows she has good guidance. To continue developing her skill, I recommend two simple changes: use a smaller guideline paper and relearn the letter "d".

Guideline Paper Size

Melissa is using paper with 5/8 inch guidelines. I think she is ready to drop down to smaller guidelines, probably 1/2 inch guidelines. Many of the letters in her first four sentences drop below the mid-line or float above the base-line. She is able to write smaller now and handwriting practice may seem a bit tedious for Melissa. A practice paper with smaller guidelines will match her current skills, and her practice-time would once again be…(dare I say?)...fun!

Relearn the Letter "d"

Have Melissa change the way she makes the letter "d." She should start it like she is starting her letter "a". The following letters all start on the mid-line, with the same motion as the letter "c":

c, o, a, d, g, q

Tiger Lesson, Draw-Write-Now 7

Draw Write Now, Book 7, Tiger Drawing Lesson for Children

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The lessons are simple and clean. This is how the Tiger Lesson appears in Draw-Write-Now, Book 7. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE 

TEACHING TIPS

Our lessons are flexible and simple. Keep it easy—pick up a lesson and draw! All that is needed is a pencil, eraser, paper and crayons (or a coloring medium of your choice.)

1.) Introduce the Subject

Garner interest in tigers and the animals living in tropical forests with a story, discussion, poem, photos or a song. 

2.) Draw the Subject

Using a pencil, encourage the children to draw the tiger lightly, because some lines will be erased (see Step 3.) Use the step-by-step instructions—the red lines—to draw the subject. Throughout the building of the subject, refer to the color drawing, pointing out the shapes and lines.

3.) Draw the Background

Still working in pencil, encourage the children to create their own background for the drawing. If they want to copy what they see in the sample color drawing, that's fine. With time and a little encouragement, their own creativity will take hold.

4.) Practice Writing

See Drawing and Writing Together. Scroll down the list and find where your child fits. Is your child just learning to write letters? Are they able to write, but don't like to practice? Do they need to work on forming paragraphs? Children of varying ages and skill levels can work together during drawing time, and at their own pace during writing time.

5.) Color the Picture

This is the fun time! The child colors their creation. You may notice that the drawings shown in our Gallery are outlined in black. Introduce outlining and see how it helps preserve the details the child has so carefully drawn in pencil. It also makes colors pop!

Practice writing sentences, learning to write letters, or crafting a paragraph.

Drawing Circles in the Sun

When my mother prepared her drawings to show the publisher for the first time, there was one in the stack that caught my eye—a cluster of grapes. The grapes were a grouping of circles, like racked billiard balls. “Mom, you made this drawing? I remember drawing this, but not with you.” With the drawing in hand, my thoughts went to a quiet moment on a sizzling hot summer day when I was seven years-old:

Sitting beside the wading pool, I used wet fingers to draw circles on the cement patio. The goal was to draw four circles, all the same size, lined up in a row. I could make two the same size, but the third was too high or the fourth was oval-shaped. The circles vanished in the summer heat. I tried again and again, until four perfect circles lined up. Challenged, I tried to add a second row of circles before the first row evaporated. It became a race. Draw the line of four circles, the line of three, then two and one. Hurrah! I did it! I beat the sun!

I looked at my mother's simple little drawing of grapes again. Her lessons make such a strong impression on children—ideas and concepts that reach far beyond classroom walls and intrigue the child long after the lesson is finished. 

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Grape Lesson, Draw Write Now, Book 2, page 26