Fun Handwriting Worksheets for Older Kids

Handwriting matters.

The problem is that it’s difficult to find fun handwriting worksheets for older kids.

It seems like each year, students are spending more and more time using technology.

Technology is great and I’m all here for it, but fine motor skills matter too.

Dr. William Klemm from Psychology Today explains, “The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument.”

Yet handwriting is one of the first activities that gets pushed aside, especially for older kids, due to the never ending list of standards to teach and reteach.

I’m not perfect either. To be honest, I don’t know that we ever practiced handwriting my first couple years in the classroom.

Then one year I finally made it a goal. I was not going to let those fine motor skills slip through the cracks any longer.

I committed to improving student handwriting and found that these 3 tricks made my life a lot easier.

1. Build handwriting practice into your routine

I kept promising myself that we would practice our handwriting, and it would happen for a few days. Then some change in schedule would come up, and we’d skip it for a day… then two, and soon handwriting was forgotten again.

Finally I decided to build it into our routine for good. Every morning after our daily morning math review board (you can read more about that here), we would grab our silly handwriting worksheets for older kids and practice for about 5 minutes.

When I built it into our classroom routine, the students knew to grab their handwriting worksheets without me having to say a word. Plus it turned out to be a nice calm way to start our morning and lead us into our ELA and writing block.

Easy places to add handwriting into your schedule are after recess, for morning work, or right after lunch. I suggest avoiding pack-up time or the very end of the day because it then becomes an activity that gets squished out of your day again.

Action step: Pick a time of day when you could easily add 5 minutes of handwriting in and commit to that! Have your students help hold you accountable!

2. Find FUN handwriting worksheets for older kids

Honestly, one of the biggest reasons I skipped handwriting practice was because of all the students moaning and complaining that the typical alphabet worksheets were boring.

Those worksheets were fine as we learned letters, but we couldn’t do them every day.

I had a difficult time finding activities that my students actually enjoyed for more than a single day, until I started using worksheets that made my kids giggle and smile while they worked.

Above example of one of the gross facts pages from the gross fact month in the year long handwriting bundle. The bundle is great because the topic switches each month, or you can mix them all up so kids never know what they will get.

I start with the silly alphabet sentences then move through positive affirmations, awesome animal facts, gross facts, marvelous math facts, space facts, strange sports facts, wacky holidays, and use weird weather facts during our weather unit!

3. Pick low-prep handwriting worksheets for older kids

As teachers, we have enough on our plates as it is. When it came to planning for handwriting, it felt like just one more thing to plan for.

I decided to create activities for my students that would be silly and engaging, but that would last for the entire year.

You heard that right. Handwriting worksheets for the ENTIRE YEAR planned out in ONE day.

Handwriting for the year is perfect because I can make packets by week or month and then never have to worry about it again. Students keep them in the handwriting worksheets in their folders and can work on them if they finish activities early too!

Plus my class actually begs to take home extras because they enjoyed them so much.

Handwriting for the Year also made my life way easier because it includes the covers for the monthly or quarterly packets, handwriting hero awards for when the students become experts, and it includes handwriting assessments. Those are perfect for parent teacher conferences to show growth or using to present to OT if you feel a student is struggling.

Action step: Choose handwriting activities for older kids that take the stress out of planning. Find something students will enjoy and that you don’t have to think about each week. If you want to check out the worksheets that I use, you can find them in Print, Cursive, D’Nealian print, D’Nealian Cursive, or a bundle of all four types of handwriting! (Tip: Use the code HANDWRITING10 for 10% off!)

Here’s what other teachers are saying…

BONUS: Download a FREE sample of Handwriting for the Year!

Download regular print and cursive samples – OR – download D’Nealian print and cursive samples. (HINT: You might find a discount code in these documents!)

Conclusion:

Even with our busy schedules, it’s so incredibly important that we carve out a protected 5-10 minutes each day for handwriting practice.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. With a resource like the year long bundle, you’ll be able to plan out your handwriting instruction for the year in 1 day. Not to mention, your older kids will actually enjoy it more than the boring letter repetition activities.

Do you teach handwriting? Does your school still teach both print and cursive?

P.S. Two ways to grab a copy of handwriting for older kids

Shop The Sprinkle Topped Shop and use the code: HANDWRITING10 for a discounted price!

Shop my TeachersPayTeachers store!