A variety of activities to practise each join. Activities provide an English curriculum context for handwriting, to give the activities meaning and make them fun and motivating for Year 3 students.
Self-assessment feature to encourage students to take responsibility for their own progress.
For the teacher, links to grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary, and literary elements.
Handwriting Rules! Year 3
QLD Edition
ISBN: 978 0 6550 9292 6
Designer and typesetter: Trish Hayes
Illustrator: Stephen Michael King
Series editor: Marie James
Indigenous consultant: Al Fricker
This edition published in 2024 by Matilda Education Australia, an imprint of Meanwhile Education Pty Ltd Melbourne, Australia
T: 1300 277 235
E: customersupport@matildaed.com.au www.matildaeducation.com.au
First edition published in 2015 by Macmillan Science and Education Australia Pty Ltd
Copyright © Katy Collis and Alexandra Kennedy 2015, 2021, 2024
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. Printed in China by Central Sep-23
This year, you are going on an amazing handwriting journey to a world of joins and fluency. Be sure to have your passport ready.
Handwriting Passport
Trace then copy.
Think about where you will start each letter.
Trace then write the clockwise letters.
Make up your own patterns using these letter shapes.
Trace then copy.
Remember to keep the slope the same.
Trace then write the straight-line letters.
Trace then write the direction change letters.
Make up your own patterns using these letter shapes.
Trace then copy.
Remember to sit the letters on the blue line correctly.
Trace then write the anticlockwise letters.
Review: Shape and slope
Make the letters stretch and shrink.
Remember! Form each letter correctly. Keep the slope the same.
Handwriting: forming letters correctly; keeping slope consistent. Literary elements: reference to characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).
Review: Labelling diagrams
Use these words to label the robot. Use printing to label diagrams. listeners runners pump driver jammers camera processor speaker zoot
Write a caption.
Handwriting: Beginner’s Alphabet; using printing to label diagrams. Spelling and vocabulary: technical words. Literary elements: science fiction genre.
Review: Upper-case (capital) letters
Capital letters are always head and body letters. Capital letters slope consistently with lower-case letters in a word.
Trace then write.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
Trace then write the matching capital letters.
Write some names of people you know. Remember to use capital letters to start.
Draw a star around your best capital letter. Draw a square around any capital letter you could improve.
Review: Upper-case (capital) letters
Use this spelling alphabet when you want to be clearly understood.
Trace the NATO alphabet.
Alpha Bravo
Charlie Delta
Echo Foxtrot
Golf Hotel
India Juliet
Kilo Lima
Mike November
Oscar Papa
Quebec Romeo
Sierra Tango
Uniform Victor
Whiskey X-ray
Yankee Zulu
Spell your name in the NATO alphabet.
My capitals are parallel to my lower case letters: sometimes often always .
Trace the capital letter and then make up your own alphabet.
B
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Spell a friend’s name in your new alphabet.
then write.
Write numerals to answer each question.
What year were you born?
What is your phone number?
What time do you get up in the morning?
What time do you go to bed on a school night?
What time does school start?
‘ ‘
then
“What do you call a collection of letters?” asked the teacher.
“That’s the alphabet!” shouted the class. That elephant can spell!
Handwriting: Beginner’s Alphabet and punctuation revision. Grammar: collective noun (class); saying verbs (asked, shouted); being verbs (‘is’ in That’s). Punctuation: full stop; comma; question mark; exclamation mark; colon; semi-colon; hyphen; dash; apostrophe; quotation marks. Spelling and vocabulary: apostrophe for contraction (That’s).
Watch your letter size, letter shape and slope. Make sure your letters face the right way.
Rewrite the text correctly.
“WHat dO You CALL a grOUP of chilDren ” asked San jay.
c
“That’s a lass!” yellEd RoSie.
“You’ re corrEcT“, saidthetEAcHer.
My letter shapes: need to improve are good are fantastic .
My letter sizes: are inconsistent are good are fantastic . My letter slope: is inconsistent is good is consistently good .
Handwriting: slope; letter shape; letter size. Grammar: question; exclamation; saying verbs (asked, yelled); collective noun (class); proper nouns (Rosie, Sanjay); being verbs (‘is’ in That’s, ‘are’ in You’re). Punctuation: full stop; upper-case (capital) letter to start a sentence; exclamation mark; question mark; quotation marks. Spelling and vocabulary: apostrophe for contraction (That’s, You’re).
Remember that an exit is a smooth change in direction out of a letter.
Write the then quickly change to make letter . . . direction . . . an exit.
Trace then write. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k
l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l
t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t
c c c c c c c c c c c c c c
Remember! The crossbar on t goes above the line. t t
e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d a a a
Trace then write.
Trace then write.
Review: Rounded entries – r, m, n, x Handwriting: letters with rounded entries r, m, n, x.
These letters have round entries: r, m, n and x.
Curve up . . . then write the letter.
Review: Pointed entries – i, j, p, u, v, w, y
These letters have pointed entries: i, j, p, u, v, w and y.
Make a short then write the letter. straight line . . .
Trace then write.
