Middletown Praire, Sangamon & Lincoln Trail

Our district utilizes the Handwriting Without Tears handwriting curriculum. Please visit www.hwtears.com for further information about the program. Within our district, staff have been trained regarding how to assist children to hold their writing utensils (e.g., crayons, markers, pencils), the proper order of teaching shapes and then capital and lowercase letters, and overall progression of developmental skills. Teaching children to start letters and numbers “at the top” with the use of “big/little lines” and “big/little curves” makes learning letter/number formation easier and helps the child to be more successful with school-related activities. For older children or students that have difficulty with the use of hand written work, the occupational therapy staff is also available to recommend use of technology to adapt this area.

Kindergarten students are screened and may be offered a 6 week handwriting group for practice holding a pencil, drawing a picture, copying shapes and letters and cutting around a simple shapes. Other activities include finger and hand strengthening, proper pencil/scissor grasp, and general shape/letter formation.

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