Tutor Sheet: K–2 Writing & Handwriting (US)

Diagnostics → Quick fixes you can run in 2–5 minutes. Tags = the error you’re targeting.

Foundations (posture, grip, stamina)

[GripPosture]

• Check: Elbow floats, fist grip, face close to page?
• Do: Chair—feet flat; paper tilt ~20–30°; tripod grip (pencil rests on first knuckle, pinch near point); non-writing hand holds paper.

[HandStrength]

• Check: Fatigue after 2–3 lines; shaky lines.
• Do: 60-sec warmups: pinches with clothespin, play-dough rolls, rainbow-trace big shapes before writing.

Letter formation & reversals

[StartPoint]

• Check: Starts letters at bottom (a, d, g, q).
• Do: “Top-start rule”: trace arrows; use sky–grass–ground paper (tall = sky, short = grass, tails = ground).

[MagicC]

• Check: Sloppy a, d, g, o, q.
• Do: Teach “magic c” family: c → a/d/g/o/q (all begin with c).

[b/d-p/q]

• Check: b↔d or p↔q flips.
• Do: b = “bat before ball” (vertical first, then circle); d = “doorknob then door” (circle first). p goes down then circle; q = circle then tail.

[LineUse]

• Check: Letters float above/below lines; inconsistent size.
• Do: Sky–Grass–Ground cues; highlight the grass line; verbalize: “tall to sky, short to grass, tails to ground.”

Spacing & word boundaries

[FingerSpaces]

• Check: “thecatranfast”.
• Do: Finger space tool (popsicle stick or finger); chant “say-space-write”; dot where next word begins.

[BetweenLetters]

• Check: Letters within a word are too far apart.
• Do: “Kiss-letters” rule: letters should just touch the imaginary path; use boxes for each word to keep letters together.

Spelling: phoneme–grapheme mapping

[SoundOut]

• Check: Writes only first/last sounds (“ct” for cat).
• Do: Elkonin boxes: tap sounds /c/-/a/-/t/ → one box per sound; write as you tap.

[Digraphs]

• Check: Stalls on sh, ch, th.
• Do: Teach digraphs = one sound; use picture cards; 2-minute daily sort & write.

[VowelTeams]

• Check: rain/boat/seed errors.
• Do: Mini-chart of common vowel teams; quick “spot and read” before dictation.

[WordWall]

• Check: Misspells high-frequency words (the, was).
• Do: Heart words routine: say–tap–spell–write–check; keep a personal wall or ring.

Sentence sense & structure

[SentenceFrame]

• Check: Fragments: “Went park.”
• Do: Who/Did What/Where/When frame; say it first, then write; require one idea per sentence.

[RunOnFix]

• Check: “I went to the park it was fun.”
• Do: Breathe test—read aloud and dot at natural stop; use FANBOYS card (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) or split to two sentences.

[OrderLogic]

• Check: Jumbled sequence.
• Do: First–Then–Finally or SWBTS (Somebody–Wanted–But–Then–So) quick plan before writing.

Capitals & punctuation

[CapitalPeriod]

• Check: missing capital/period.
• Do: CBP check after each sentence: Capital start, Between words spaces, Punctuation end.

[I-Rule]

• Check: “i am six.”
• Do: “I as a word is always capital”; sticky-note reminder on desk.

[QuestionMark]

• Check: Writes “?” only at the end of any sentence.
• Do: Teach question words (who/what/where/when/why/how); if it asks for info → “?”.

Copying vs encoding (real writing)

[CopyTrap]

• Check: Neat copy, weak independent writing.
• Do: Dictation line daily: teacher says a short sentence → student taps words → writes → CBP check; increase length gradually.

Fluency routines (1–3 minutes)

• Warmups: rainbow-trace 3 target letters; sky-grass-ground drills.
• Dictation: 1–2 decodable sentences using current phonics pattern.
• Fix-it: Find & fix one capitalization and one punctuation error in a model line.
• Quick write: 3-sentence journal with First–Then–Finally.

Materials that help instantly

Golf pencil or triangular grip • sky–grass–ground paper • popsicle “space” stick • Elkonin boxes • digraph/vowel-team cards • personal word wall ring.