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This Reading Mama

Cursive Handwriting Name Art

By thisreadingmama 10 Comments

There’s a big debate going on in the education world about cursive handwriting. Should it be taught?  Will our kids even use it? Call me “old fashioned”, but I’m a big believer in teaching cursive handwriting. One of my biggest reasons for teaching it to my 2nd grade son is that I mainly use cursive when I write (well, a mixture of cursive and print would be more honest). In my opinion, it’s faster and easier to write in cursive. The second reason I have taught cursive to him is that it looks very different from print (even if you use d’nealian.) In order for him to read my grocery list or the letter from his grandmother, he needs to be familiar with how it works.

Cursive Handwriting Name Art - This Reading Mama

When teaching many literacy skills (the alphabet, reading, or handwriting), I always like to begin with the child’s name because his name carries with it a lot of meaning and intrinsic motivation to learn. So, we began cursive handwriting with his name…and a little art fun to boot! This is an activity I did as a child and LOVED it.

 

Cursive Handwriting Name Art

Materials:

  • large white construction paper (11×14)
  • sharpie of choice
  • 4-6 crayon colors (I like to use crayons instead of marker because they don’t “bleed” together)

write your name in cursive

To create name art, start by writing your name in cursive with a sharpie. Dark colors work the best.

 

coloring around your name

Use your first color of crayon to draw squiggles all around your name (inside and out). Do the same thing with your second color. (This is GREAT for fine motor!)

 

color around your name with crayons

Then follow in suit with the rest of your colors until you’ve squiggled through all of them. 🙂

 

cursive name art with crayons

Once you have gone through all your colors, continue through them again as a pattern until you’ve colored all the way to the edge of your paper and you have no white left. What you get in the end is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

 

draw circles around your name

Variation–> Use shapes, such as circles, all around the name. It’s just a pretty and just as effective for fine motor skills!

 

More Handwriting Ideas:

  • Fun with Cursive
  • Reasons to Teach Handwriting
  • Handwriting Matters–and Why We Need to Teach It
  • Free Cursive Handwriting Sheets

Follow This Reading Mama’s board Handwriting on Pinterest.

 

~Becky

 

 

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Filed Under: Handwriting Practice, Teaching Writing

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Comments

  1. Sarah says

    May 23, 2014 at 9:23 am

    I would love to see a picture of the final product!

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      May 23, 2014 at 11:28 am

      I’ll be glad to send you one via email. I use a fake name for him online so I didn’t want to disclose that. 🙂

      Reply
      • Sarah says

        May 24, 2014 at 12:57 am

        Oh I figured that was why there wasn’t one… even just yours would be great… just to give the kids an idea of the end result. I could do one ahead of time too though! Thanks 🙂

        Reply
  2. Corrie says

    May 23, 2014 at 1:17 pm

    Did you write the name in cursive or did he?

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      May 23, 2014 at 3:38 pm

      He wrote his own name on the paper. It took a couple of tries to get it “just right” in his mind, but he did all the work.

      Reply
  3. Vanessa Conti says

    May 24, 2014 at 12:26 am

    I have also found that spelling skills improve as children learn/practice cursive, perhaps because you have to think of the next letter or two as you are writing. 🙂

    Reply
  4. The lovely one says

    May 26, 2014 at 12:18 am

    I remember doing this in the first grade and I loved it!

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      May 26, 2014 at 7:43 am

      I think I did it around 2nd or 3rd and loved it as well. 🙂

      Reply
  5. ourthriftyhome03 says

    May 17, 2015 at 8:11 am

    This is a cute idea. I love combining learning and art.

    I teach cursive because I thinks it’s so important.

    I might even consider laminating the paper so they can save it and practice finger tracing their name.

    Awesome idea. Thank you!

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      May 18, 2015 at 6:55 am

      Oh, I love the idea of letting them use their finger to trace their name. 🙂

      Reply

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Hi! I’m Becky, a homeschooling mama with 4 blessings who keep me on my toes {and knees}. Before homeschooling, I was a classroom teacher (M.Ed.) and reading tutor. Read more about me here.

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