The Montessori Approach to Handwriting

Did you know? The word “cursive” comes from the Latin word for “run”. Cursive letters run together!

Many Montessorians believe that instruction in penmanship, the skill of cursive handwriting, benefits all students. Cursive is a great exercise for strengthening fine motor skills; the gentle curved lines are an extension of the natural movement of the child’s hand. Each letter in the cursive alphabet begins at the same place on the line which eliminates the confusion over where to place the pencil as the child begins to form the letter.

In the Lower Primary programme, we teach cursive handwriting using a variety of Montessori materials. One of the main materials in use in each classroom is the cursive family boards. These small white boards and chalk boards allow the students to learn the letters in four basic groups:

• Hump family has 4 letters – n, m, v, and y.

• Bump Family includes 2 letters x and z.

• Loop Family that includes letters b, h, f, k, l, and e.

• The C Family wherein the letters taught are c, a, d, o, g, and q

• Up and Down Stroke Family which has the letters j, p, r, w, u, s, t, and i.

This method allows the students to work on each stroke in isolation. Take the “up and down” stroke family for example. This family likes to jump straight up. Each stroke family has a fun, short story to aid the child in remembering the formation of the letters. For example, j- “Jerry jumped straight up and came straight back down. When he came back down, he fell into a hole and found his way back. He went back and left a dot to show how high he jumped.”