1. An Overview of Handwriting and Letter Formation

In the context of literacy skills and at its most basic level, writing refers to the ability to translate oral language into written language. It’s sometimes called encoding, and it can be thought of as the opposite or inverse of decoding. Writing begins with the basic skill of letter formation — handwriting — and proceeds to the act of conveying thoughts, ideas, and information through written language. It is a fundamental component of communication and an essential life skill. 

Fundamentals of Handwriting

As early as pre-k, children are beginning to learn and develop the foundational skills for letter formation. Here are some skills you’ll cover in formal instruction with kindergartners: 

• Proper Grip — Learning the proper grip of a pencil helps children get on the road to writing as fluidly and efficiently as possible. You’ll need to model proper grip for them. Also, early kindergarten is a good time to let them experiment with left/right hand preference, if they haven’t settled on one. 

• Fine Motor Control — Your kindergarteners should engage in activities that strengthen their hand muscles and improve control, such as using scissors, manipulating small objects, and engaging in finger exercises.
• Hand-eye Coordination — They’ll need to learn to control their hand movements while visually tracking their progress on paper. 
• Posture and Paper Position — Young children should be encouraged to sit upright, stabilize the paper with their non-writing hand, and position it at an appropriate angle for comfortable letter formation. 
• Pre-writing Strokes — Before you teach your students how to write specific letters, you can have them try out the individual strokes that are needed to form letters, such as vertical and horizontal lines, curves, circles, and half circles. These strokes help develop control and familiarity with different directions and shapes. 
• Letter Formation — When you teach letter formation, you’ll typically begin with uppercase letters and gradually move to lowercase letters. Our guide to recommended letter formation strokes can help. 

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