How it works
- Type your text, one word or sentence per line.
- Choose print or cursive, and the line size for your class.
- Pick the rows: trace then write, trace only, or copy from a model.
- Download the A4 PDF. Longer lists carry on over as many pages as they need.
Handwriting in CAPS
CAPS has children building fine motor control in Grade R, writing unjoined letters in Grade 1 and moving towards cursive after that. Tracing a model and then writing it on their own, a little every day, builds that fluency.
Ideas for your own text
This week’s spelling words
Practising spelling words in joined handwriting links letter patterns with spelling. For the full set of activities, use the spelling worksheet maker.
A sentence a day
One sentence traced on Monday, traced and written mid-week and copied on Friday makes a short daily handwriting routine.
CAPS links
- Grade 1Copies short sentences correctly from the board or from sentence strips, with correct spacing.
- Grade 2Copies a paragraph of 3 to 4 lines from print, and writes short invitations, messages and lists in print script.
- Grade 3Copies from the board, textbooks and work cards in joined writing, gaining speed, and starts to try a pen.
CAPS leaves the choice of handwriting script to the school or province, so pick the style that matches your wall chart. It plans about 15 minutes of handwriting a day, so a short sheet used daily fits better than a long one once a week.
CAPS also notes that young children find copying from the board hard, because their eyes take time to refocus, and suggests writing strips on the desk instead. A sheet with the model right above the writing line does the same job.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s CAPS for English Home Language, Foundation Phase Grades R–3 (2011).
