Penpals for Handwriting is a complete handwriting scheme for 3-11 year-olds, covering attainment targets for the National Literacy Strategy. Teaching letter shapes and joins through stimulating and motivating activities, this scheme leads the way to fast, fluent and legible handwriting. Whole-class teaching via Big Books and OHTs provides an effective focus, from which pupils can gain the confidence for their own practice through finger tracing, pencil tracing and independent writing via Practice Books. From the beginning, the application of Fine and Gross Motor skills plays an integral part in the development of a fluent hand. The teaching methods outlined in Penpals are linked to spelling and can help to improve overall attainment in writing. Year 1 consolidates letter shapes and begins a systematic introduction to joining.

Table of Contents

Capital and lower case alphabet; 1; Letter formation practice: long ladder family; 2; Letter formation practice: one-armed robot family; 3; Letter formation practice: curly caterpillar family; 4; Letter formation practice: zig-zag family; 5; Revision: CVC with i; 6; Revision: CVC with u; 7; Revision: CVC with a; 8; Revision: CVC with o; 9; Revision: CVC with e; 10; Revision of capital letters; 11; Introducing diagonal join to ascender: at, all; 12; Practising diagonal join to ascender: th; 13; Practising diagonaljoin to ascender: ch; 14; Practising diagonal join to ascender: cl; 15; Introducing diagonal join, no ascender: in, im; 16; Practising diagonal join, no ascender: cr, tr, dr; 17; Practising diagonal join, no ascender: lp, mp; 18; Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: id, ig; 19; Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: nd, ld; 20; Practising diagonal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: ng; 21; Practising diagonal join, no ascender: ee; 22; Practising diagonal join, no ascender: ai, ay; 23; Practising diagonal join, no ascender: ime, ine; 24; Introducing horizontal join, no ascender: one, ome; 25; Practising horizontal join, no ascender: op, oy; 26; Practising horizontal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: oa, og; 27; practising horizontal join, no ascender, to an anticlockwise letter: wa, wo; 28; Introducing horizontal join to ascender: ol, ot; 29; Practising horizontal join to ascender: wh, oh; 30; Practising horizontal join to ascender to anticlockwise letter: of; Joining letter sets