Handwriting
Kinetic Letters Handwriting
Kinetic Letters® is the handwriting programme that we use at Wellow School, having introduced it in September 2023.
It consists of four main threads:
• Making bodies stronger,
• Holding the pencil,
• Learning the letters, and
• Flow and fluency
It enables children to develop legible handwriting that is produced quickly and automatically. With the development of automaticity, handwriting becomes a valuable tool and not a hindrance to learning.
The Kinetic Letters® font covers all the letters in the alphabet and is based on a set of rules that have been made as simple as possible to enable fast learning. The order in which letters are taught recognises the cognitive development of children. The programme supports our early reading and writing curriculum at Woodcroft.
Strength: Writing is a fine finger operation; children must have core body and arm strength to be able to control their fingers precisely.
Pencil hold: The pencil/pen grip must be comfortable to allow writing for long periods (eg exams often last for hours). Pens and pencils with a triangular cross-section assist in developing the correct hold.
Letter formation: The movements to form the letters begin with whole body movements and progress through writing in sand trays to writing on whiteboards and finally writing on paper. In Kinetic Letters®, all the letters and numbers are formed by one of two monkeys, a brave one (Bounce) who goes to the top branch of the tree, and a scared one (Skip) who goes to the lower branch.
Flow and fluency: Letter movements are minimised to help a fast writing style to develop. There are no lead-in strokes (a waste of time and effort).
The scheme groups letters into families that all share similar movements. This helps the children to learn basic letter formation which is the main principle. Much of our handwriting sessions can be taught without the children even using pencil and paper! Click on the link to see the letters broken down into their families.
There are 6 key moves that help to form letters and numbers (see below). Pupils learn these movements in the air first, using their writing hand before moving onto drawing them in sand or writing them on a whiteboard/paper.
Each letter is a combination of these six movements and has a short, memorable story to accompany it.
Kinetic Letter Families
The Jumper Family Story
Bounce and Skip spend all day jumping down-bump from the branches of their tree!
Bounce jumps from the high branch and makes the letter trail for h and b.
Skip jumps from the low branch and makes the letter trail for r, n, m and p.
But…when Skip jumps down to make p, he gets a surprise! Instead of going bump, he falls on down into a pit that has a spider!
He jumps back up, pushing the cobwebs off to make the p letter trail!
The Abracadabra Family Story
Scared Monkey Skip finds a magician who waves his wand and shouts ‘Abracadabra’ and makes lots of different letters appear under the lower branch of the tree.
The magician teaches Scared Monkey the magic trick. He shows him that for each of the letters, he can pull around to write c, shout ‘Abracadabra’ and then magic it into o, a, d, g, q, or s.
The Scared Monkey makes all the letters start from his branch.
The Window Cleaner Family Story
The Monkeys find themselves in a city standing by a shop window! They watch two window cleaners making marks as they dry the windows. The pull the squeegees down the windows and flick the water off at the bottom!
The window cleaners let the Brave Monkey climb the ladder, pull the squeegee down the window, bump the ground and flick the water off! This makes a l and the t.
Scared Monkey is nervous about climbing the ladder so he stays on the ground and makes an i and u.
The Fisher Family Story
One day there is a huge storm in the jungle which makes the river flood the spider’s pit. Bounce the Brave Monkey and Skip the Scared Monkey sit in their tree and watch the fish swim around in the pit. Skip discovers that if he sits on his branch and dangles his tail in the water, he can pull his tail around to catch the fish!
The Slider Family Story
One exciting day the magician waves his wand and takes Brave Monkey and Scared Monkey to see the snow!
Skip the Scared Monkey finds a snowy mountain slope and says ‘I can slide down and slide up‘. When he does this he can make the letters v, w, x and z.
Bounce the Brave Monkey goes to help the baby penguins who have lost their beaks! The penguins stand in line whilst the monkey fixes them back on and this makes the k!
The Special Squirter Story
A big storm has flooded the pit under the monkeys’ tree. The mole rats are upset, as this is where they live.
First Skip rescues the fish that have been washed into the pit. Next he asks the elephant to help by sucking the water up in his trunk and squirting it back into the river.
Skip helps by holding the trunk and squirting it under his branch, leaving a letter trail of water behind in the air!