Letter-join offers a wealth of handwriting resources including interactive features for IWBs, PCs and tablets as well as worksheets that use your pre-selected letterforms. Letter-join's cursive fonts are also included in school subscriptions as well as a series of Lesson Planners for all year groups.
Letter-join includes animations of all the letters of the alphabet with a spoken commentary on how to write each letter. Patterns, letters and words can all be watched and traced on-screen. Magic Patterns allows children to trace pre-cursive patterns and fun shapes on a variety of ‘magic’ backgrounds and with Magic Words they can trace over their own words on different backgrounds on IWBs or tablets. Word Animator lets you input your own words, replay the video and trace over the words for IWB practice.
Handwriting Lesson Planners: Modules 1 to 7
The Lesson Planners can be downloaded by subscribing schools by logging into a Classroom account and choosing the 'Info' button.
There are 7 modules which cover EYFS through to year 6.
See sample pages > >
Module 1 covers pre-cursive patterns and continuous cursive, lower case letters with or without lead-in lines.
At the end of this module children should be able to form and join all lowercase letters.
Children will practise their fine and gross motor skills, learn how to sit correctly for handwriting using the tripod grip and will be introduced to the different letter families.
Module 4 contains 60 lessons to improve legibility, consistency and quality of handwriting. It is targeted at Year 3 children in lower KS2 where pupils should be using joined handwriting throughout their independent writing.
It is designed to improve quality of handwriting through resources which link handwriting to other topics.
Module 5 focuses on using handwriting practice to support other subjects in the curriculum and, at the same time, builds on fluency and consistency.
Learners will continue to build on producing legible handwriting through the regular practice offered in this module’s lessons.
Module 6 continues to build on combining fluent handwriting with other subjects across the curriculum.
By the end of this module, children should be producing cursive writing automatically, enabling them to focus on the content of their work rather than the process of writing.
The aim of Module 7 is to ensure that handwriting is neatly presented and clear in readiness for KS2 SATs and is the expected standard of handwriting for Year 6.
Learners will consolidate the stamina and skills required to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They will develop more of a personal handwriting style as they write with automaticity and will learn to write at different speeds with different attention to neatness, depending on the task.
Included with every School Subscription is access to Letter-join for pupils at home. This is particularly good for new joiners where parents might be unfamiliar with cursive handwriting. A simple log-in allows pupils and their parents to access the child's classroom account of Letter-join on their PCs and tablets.
Staff can use the Letter-join fonts to create documents in MS Word. The fonts can also be used for the Worksheet Generator, On-line Word Processor and Letter-join's Fun activities.
Note that the cursive worksheets in the Resources section use the fully joined font either with or without a lead-in line.
Letter-join Basic is the font to use with Smart Notebook (v. 15+) and Powerpoint.
Please note that Google Docs cannot use Letter-join fonts as it is a cloud-based system which cannot be added to. However, documents can be created using Letter-join's On-line Word Processor.
Letter-join offers a choice of alternative letterforms for the letters f, k, w, x and z. Your choices will be used across all of the resources. These include animations of cursive letters and words with associated worksheets, Phonics, Word Animator, Fun activities, Worksheet Generator and the Letter-join fonts.
The choice of letterforms will be used across all classroom and pupil accounts.
Note that the worksheets in the Resources section use the fully cursive font either with or without a lead-in line.
The Word Animator is a great new resource allowing teachers to create cursive word animations using Letter-join’s fonts. Custom words can be traced, saved to a classroom word bank, replayed and practised by pupils on IWBs. Word bank words can automatically be made into spelling lists and on-line word searches. You can now practise the correct way to write any word!
Letter-join phonic resources encompass Phases 1 to 5
Simply choose one of the phases and select a phoneme for children to hear and practise the sound. Watch the animation of the phoneme and then trace the letters on screen using your chosen Letter-join cursive font and pre-selected letterforms. There is also a picture that uses that phoneme which is sounded out.
Phonics with a cursive font
Letter-join’s Phonics resource is designed to support your school’s phonics programme, preparing children for learning to read by strengthening their phonic knowledge and skills. Letter-join Phonics will allow you to teach Phases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 using the Letter-join font. This will build a joined-up approach to teaching cursive handwriting in Early Years and KS1.
Play the phonics matching pairs game
Letter-join phonics includes a fun matching pairs game where children can test their memory against the clock! There are 4 levels in Letter-join’s PhonicsMatch covering the phonemes and graphemes in phases 2-5.
Children will love tracing pre-cursive patterns and fun shapes on a variety of ‘magic’ backgrounds. These are great for practising fine motor skills as a foundation for cursive handwriting.
Children can use Magic Words to type and trace over words on IWBs or tablets using a finger or stylus for fun practice. Neat letter formation is recognised with a star scoring system.
Pupils can test their memory powers against the clock with PhonicsMatch, a fun matching pairs game to support the teaching of phonics with cursive handwriting. Select from four levels covering phonics phases 2-5.
Have fun whilst improving spelling with our useful bank of Word Searches designed for iPads and tablets. These can easily be printed for handwriting practice.
Neat handwriting is rewarded with a picture gallery of children’s handwritten words for them to share with Write it Right! Children can trace words that match pictures with fun sounds and animations encouraging them to play and practise letter shapes.
A fun, home learning activity to teach children the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. Ideal for children to use at home on iPads and PCs for independent learning.
Listen to the sounds of lowercase letters and names of capitals by clicking on each letter. When the sounds have been learned, play a matching pairs game to reinforce the learning task.
As with all Letter-join activities, a school’s preferred letterforms for f, k, w, x and z will be used, and the font (lead-in or no lead-in) will be as chosen by class teachers.
LetterLotto is ideal for children to use at home on iPads and tablets for independent learning. Children can practise letter recognition and orientation of cursive letters and hear the sound of the letters whilst having fun matching them with the letters on their Lotto card. The letters are then displayed on a moving screen with a cheer of encouragement!
A series of fun dictation exercises for Key Stages 1 and 2 covering common exception, high frequency and statutory words. The exercises start with simple CVC words and progress through to longer passages of text to help build stamina and automaticity in handwriting.
