DIY Handwriting Worksheets to Make Penmanship Fun

While waiting for school to resume, a lot of parents have been asking where to get penmanship practice sheets to help their kids practice their penmanship. My answer: Make your own DIY handwriting worksheets to make penmanship fun for kids!

PROBLEMS WITH PENMANSHIP

Penmanship is a subject that is usually avoided by kids because it is hard, especially learning cursive. My son would make up excuses and make deals to take breaks in between penmanship pages exercises in their workbooks.

Could the problem be:

• The handwriting exercises were too hard for their age level?
• The practice words were uninteresting?
• The number of pages to be completed were too much?
• They simply didn’t know how to write the words, where to start, how to proceed, and needed more guidance?

It could be all of these reasons!

But does that mean kids should skip doing their penmanship exercises?

Nope! You have to make it more interesting and fun for kids to even want to practice handwriting.

How? Make your own DIY handwriting worksheets!

WHY DIY HANDWRITING WORKSHEETS

When you make your own DIY handwriting worksheets, you have full control over what your child will be practicing on.

• You can avoid useless words that don’t make sense to your kids
• You can make it as easy as possible for kids to learn handwriting
• You can choose words that make it interesting and fun for added motivation
• You can choose the level of difficulty based on your child’s readiness
• You can reuse the same words in different penmanship levels

WHERE TO FIND PENMANSHIP WORKSHEET GENERATORS

There are many penmanship page generators online. But the one resource we have been using for years is the Worksheet Maker by Handwriting Worksheets.

They have a comprehensive list of worksheets you can create, from Print, Cursive or D’Nealian Styles.

So you can create these penmanship pages for your Kindergarten kid (Print) to your primary school kid (Cursive).

You can make full-page custom penmanship worksheets in seconds!

HOW TO CREATE DIY HANDWRITING WORKSHEETS

Using the Worksheet Maker to create your worksheets, just follow these easy steps:

Step 1:

Select a writing style you want your child to practice: Print, Cursive or D’Nealian Style

Step 2:

Choose from among the types of worksheets:

1. Single Word
2. Name and Sentence
3. Multi-Word
4. Paragraph

Step 3:

Type in the words you want included in the worksheet

Step 4:

Choose the letter size, paper layout, and color of text and lines, full page or not, and the trace pattern.

Step 5:

Click Print and you get a copy of your very own DIY handwriting worksheet!

The Print DIY Handwriting Worksheet

Print style of handwriting is where your child will start in Preschool. Making your own penmanship worksheets will help them practice at home until they get the hang of their pencil grip and write words.

Here is a tutorial demonstration to create your Print style handwriting worksheet! You can make these for your Preschoolers and 1st Graders.

Click on the videos below!

Introduction to Print Style Handwriting Worksheets

Watch my son and I welcome you to the tutorial videos on creating your own practice worksheets! I had to include him to bring out the natural ME. He’s a natural in front of the camera!

Single Word Print Worksheet

The first Print style worksheet you can create is the Single Word. This word will be repeated in all the lines of the worksheet so choose a word that will interest your child. It can be as simple as their first name!

Video Tutorial

Multi-Word Print Worksheet

After the Single Word print style handwriting practice, the next sheet you can create is the Multi-Word. This time, you can choose more words for your child to practice. Each word will auto-populate each line of the worksheet.

Video Tutorial

Name or Sentence Print Worksheet

This type of print practice sheet lets you input your child’s full name or a sentence. This time, the whole sentence or name will be repeated only once per line.

Video Tutorial

Paragraph Print Worksheet

This is the last type of print style worksheet, the Paragraph. You can type in several sentences and it will show up in the sheet until you the end. The lines will not be repeated.

Video Tutorial

The Cursive DIY Handwriting Worksheet

Now let’s create the Cursive style handwriting worksheet! The cursive penmanship is usually taught at the end of Grade 1 and used in Grade 2. This style is usually a struggle for kids to learn so giving them practice worksheets will help them greatly.

Start with the Introduction video below!

Introduction to Cursive Style Handwriting Worksheets

Once again, my son and I have an intro video for you to talk about creating Cursive worksheets. He scripted the scene himself haha! Watch it below!

Single Word Cursive Worksheet

Let’s start practicing Cursive with the Single Word worksheet. The word you type in will auto-populate all the lines in the number of times you tell it to repeat. For easy practice, start with your child’s first name.

Video Tutorial

Multi-Word Cursive Worksheet

Now that your child practiced a single word per sheet, let’s try adding more words. Each word will be repeated per line for more practice. You can type in the Alphabet, Numbers, Days of the Week or even your child’s favorite things.

Video Tutorial

Name or Sentence Cursive Worksheet

Now it’s time to practice your child’s complete name or a sentence in cursive. This would be very interesting for them because they do have to learn how to write their name. Or make a worksheet with a sentence such as, “I love my Mom and Dad,” or “I love school.” It will help ingrain the meaning of the sentence while learning cursive haha!

Video Tutorial

Paragraph Cursive Worksheet

The final worksheet in cursive is the Paragraph style. You can input a lot of sentences here such as your child’s favorite food, sport, hobbies, etc. Or put in words of affirmation for them to feel the love while practicing handwriting.

Video Tutorial

HOW TO SAVE THE PENMANSHIP WORKSHEETS

Now that you know how to create and print your own DIY handwriting worksheets both in print and cursive style, learn how to save them so you can store them for future use. Watch the video on saving them below!

TIPS IN CREATING DIY PENMANSHIP SHEETS

We have learned a few tricks in using DIY handwriting worksheets:

Reusable Worksheets

Make your practice sheets reusable by inserting the paper printout inside clear plastic sheets or card cases. This will preserve the sheet and let your child use it over and over again.

Writing Materials

Typically, you will let your child use a pencil to practice on these penmanship worksheets. But that means you will have to either keep erasing or printing new sheets.

If you will insert the printouts inside clear plastic sheets, let your child use whiteboard markers. Try the skinnier markers that are closely matched to the pencil size they will use.

This is to help them practice their penmanship while still having a feel and grip for the pencil in their hand.

Erase the whiteboard marker with dry erasers. Or use tissue wet with alcohol which is quicker and easier to use as eraser.

Save Paper

If you want to create different types of DIY handwriting worksheets, try to save on paper. You can print back-to-back on your paper!

Print the first worksheet with all the texts on 1 side. Then print the next level practice with only the text then dot guidelines on the flip side.

This not only saves you paper, it will also help you be more organized since the same word or words being practiced will be in 1 sheet. Just flip it around when they are ready to go the next level.

Save Ink

Creating DIY handwriting worksheets require you to print all of them, either in color or black and white.

To save on ink, you can choose to go to the “System Dialogue Box” for your own printer instead of the default printing dialogue box at handwritingworksheets.com.

You can choose “Media and Quality” set to “Draft” instead of “Normal.” This will help you extend the life of your ink.

Margins

Sometimes the handwriting worksheet maker cuts the 1st letter because of the margin. This often happens especially with Cursive Style such as the letter “J.”

To solve this, go back to Step 2 where you type in your words or content. Add a space before the start of the letter or word. This will cause the word to move 1 space to the right and make room for the margin cut-off.

Level of Difficulty

You can choose to set the level of difficulty to the easiest when your child starts their penmanship practice. Then move on to the next more difficult level when they get the hang of writing the practice words.

You can adjust the level of difficulty of each handwriting worksheet with the following:

a. Letter Size (Step 3):

Set the Letter Size to Size 4 (3/4 inch) for bigger letters and lines. Adjust to Size 3 (5/8 inch) or Size 2 (1/2 inch) when they are more advanced in writing or Grade Level.

b. Format Second Word (Step 7):

You can let your child practice the same word/s but at different levels when they are ready.

At the start, set it it to “Show Words” so all the practice words are in dotted lines.

When they are ready to move on to the next level, create another sheet with the same practice word/s and set it to “Alternate Word and Start Dots” or just “Start Dots” for more advanced practice.

HOW TO MAKE PENMANSHIP FUN

To make their handwriting practice more fun, you can do the following:

• Choose easy words or letters for them to try writing first
• Teach them how to write their names which is awesome for kids
• Let them practice writing their favorite things to motivate them
• Let them choose the words themselves so they will be excited to do them
• Give “reward breaks” in between doing each line of penmanship, as easy as giving hugs or kissy breaks or quick bites of their favorite snack

Sample Penmanship Worksheets

Alphabet

Name

Numbers

Colors

Days of the Week

Months of the Year

Family Members’ Names

Favorite Things

Sight Words

You can also make penmanship worksheets of Sight Words for different grade levels. Sight words are common terms that reappear on almost any page of text. Let your child practice writing them in DIY worksheets.

Get the complete lists of Dolch Sight Words from Kindergarten to Third Grade here: Sight Words.

Word Families

Aside from Sight Words, you can create DIY penmanship worksheets using Word Families.

What are word families? According to Sightword Games,

A word family consists of a group of words that share an ending part of a word (rime), e.g. rug, bug & hug. In addition to recognizing rhymes, knowledge of short vowel sounds is crucial when learning to read and spell. Interestingly, short vowel sounds can be the hardest for beginner readers to match to letters.

sightwordgames.com

List of Word Families:

• Kindergarten Word Families
• First Grade Word Families
• Second Grade Word Families

Now you won’t run out of words to use in your handwriting practice worksheets!

Thank you!

Our final video is our thanks to you for watching the DIY handwriting worksheets tutorials. We hope you learned how to create your own and get your child to practice their penmanship at home.

Leave your COMMENTS below if you liked them!

Helpful Resource

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Creating your own DIY handwriting worksheets gives you control over what your child needs to practice writing.
2. You can save on paper and ink by printing back-to-back and inserting them inside clear plastic sheets. Using whiteboard markers ensures they practice the same worksheet more than once.
3. You can make their penmanship practice fun by asking them what words they want to write. They become motivated to practice because they are interested in the words.
4. Let your child practice with these DIY handwriting worksheets as often as possible during the week. Practice makes perfect!