The Journey to Cursive: The Letter ‘d’

Suggested Order 2 Forming Letter Families 5 Increasing Fluency, Style & Speed
The letter ‘d’ should be taught as part of a
series of lessons, which links to the family Year 1 - Sit correctly at a table, holding a pencil comfortably and correctly. Begin to form lower case letters in the Year 5 and 6 – Pupils should continue to practise handwriting and be
it belongs to – the ‘curly caterpillar’ family. correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place. Understand which letters belong to which handwriting ‘families’ encouraged to increase the speed of it, so that problems with forming
Ideally, it would be taught as the third letter in (i.e. letters that are formed in similar ways) and to practise these. letters do not get in the way of their writing down what they want to say.
the series of nine (c, a, d, e, s, g, f, q, o).
Introduce the letter name and the sound (phoneme) of seating position and posture for good handwriting using Show the children how the letter ‘d’ is formed on the Lesson
the letter ‘d’. Show the animation of how to form the the visual prompt on the Lesson Presentation or use Presentation.
Gross Motor Warm-Up lower case letter ‘d’. Ask children if they know which the Let’s Look Ready to Write Poster.
Tell the children that they are going to experiment writing
letter family the letter ‘d’ belongs to? Explain that this
Remind the children how to position their paper common exception words that contain the letter ‘d’. Use
Animal Antics: Children perform letter belongs to the curly caterpillar family (c, a, d, e, s,
a variety of gross motor exercises g, f, q, o). Children practise air writing the letter shape ‘d’ correctly. Model how to complete the first part of the the Lesson Presentation to display the following common
pretending to be animals: with their preferred hand. They could also practise air Letter ‘d’ Activity Sheet. exception words: door, today, kind, cold, hold and children.
Elephant Plod – plod/stomp heavily writing on the table, on body parts or on a friend’s back, Remind the children of the correct seating position, pen/pencil
Children practise writing the letter ‘d’ using the Letter grip and how to position their paper correctly using the Lesson
with both feet. Kangaroo Jump - two where appropriate. Make large and small letter shapes. ‘d’ Activity Sheet. Presentation.
footed jumps. Frog Hop – frog hops Remind children of the correct pen/pencil grip using the
Warm-Up Activity

from a crouched position. Extend the Lesson Presentation prompts or the How to Grip a The children could also complete the Letter ‘d’ Extra Explain to the children that they are going to write the word
activity by asking children to make up Writing Tool Poster. Remind them of the appropriate Practice Activity Sheet. first with their eyes open in their neatest, joined style. Then,
their own animal movements. they will write the same word again with their eyes closed in an
unjoined style and then with their eyes closed in a joined style
3 Positioning & Pre-Cursive on the Eyes Open, Eyes Closed Activity Sheet. They should
Fine Motor Warm-Up then compare the words they have written. Does writing in
Year 2 - Form lower case letters of the correct size relative to one another. Start using some of the diagonal and horizontal
strokes needed to join letters. a joined style make their writing neater when their eyes are
Air Writing: Encourage children to
isolate their ‘pointer’ finger on their closed? Can they think of any situations where this technique
writing hand. Model how to ‘air’ or ‘sky’
Show the children how the letter ‘d’ is formed on the Remind the children of the correct seating position, may help them? The children could also complete the Fluency,
write a child’s name using capital letters Lesson Presentation. Ask the children what we call the pen/pencil grip and how to position their paper Style and Speed Practice: The Letter ‘d’ Activity Sheet.
where appropriate. Show how to write fat rounded section? It is called the body of the letter. correctly using the Lesson Presentation. Discuss how
from left to right. Encourage children Explain that the body of the letter ‘d’ always needs to they will be writing letter patterns that contain a ‘d’
to write their full name and those of fit between the baseline and midline, but the stick of and other ascenders (‘dh’, ‘dk’, ‘db’ and ‘dt’). Remind Assessment Activities
their friends, family and pets, as well as the ascender letter needs to touch the top line. Can children to add the extra flicks needed that will begin to
topic words or high frequency words! you think of any letters that are similar, with a body and join their letters. Children practise writing their double
Step 1 - Can children recognise objects that start with the letter
then a tall stick? Write the letter ‘d’ in the air next to a ascender letter patterns on the Positioning the Letter
‘d’? Can children use their finger to form a ‘d’ shape?
letter that is the same height. ‘d’ Activity Sheet.
1 Let’s Get Ready to Write!
Step 2 - Can the children form the letter shape ‘d’ appropriately,
starting and finishing in the correct place? Ask the children to put
Early Learning Goals - Show good control and 4 Joining Letters
co-ordination in large and small movements. a  next to the favourite letter ‘d’ shape that they have written?

I Spy: Introduce the concept of the game Year 3 and 4 – Use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters. Increase the legibility, consistency Step 3 - Can the children form the body of the letter ‘d’ between
and quality of their handwriting.
I Spy. Start by looking for items of a particular the baseline and midline with a stick that reaches the top line?
shape or colour (e.g. squares might include a Explain to the children that they will be learning about pen/pencil grip and how to position their paper Can they form appropriately-sized ascenders in comparison to
100 square or a book). Try to find as many joining from the letter ‘d’ using a diagonal join. Look at correctly using the Lesson Presentation. The children their ‘d’? Can they add the flicks needed as a precursor to joining?
items as possible with that quality. Move on the Lesson Presentation which firstly demonstrates then complete the first section of their Joining the Step 4 - Can the children join the letter ‘d’ to other letters using
to playing I Spy but now looking for items that the simple diagonal join (‘dd’ and ‘de’). They then Letter ‘d’ Activity Sheet. diagonal joins? Can they join accurately and consistently
begin with the letter ‘d’ around the classroom. progress onto joining to an anticlockwise letter to to anticlockwise letters? Are their letter patterns
The children then go on to complete the Joining the
Get the children to form the letter ‘d’ using their form the letter pattern ‘do’ and ‘da’. The children will Letter ‘d’ Activity Sheet. and words legible and consistent in size?
finger in the air or in a sand tray. You may wish need to stop their pen or pencil and reverse their hand
to progress onto using the I Spy Activity Sheet movement to form the anticlockwise letter. The children can then use the Letter ‘d’ More Joining Step 5 - Do the children recognise that writing
where children have to spot objects beginning Practice Activity Sheet to practise more joins from in a joined style can often make handwriting
Remind the children of the correct seating position, the letter ‘d’. more consistent, legible and fluent?
with the letter ‘d’ (e.g. dog, dinosaur, dress).

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