Personalized Handwriting Practice for Popular Boys and Girls Names
Even in today’s digital world, handwriting is an essential step in children’s educational journeys.
For many students, the first — and most exciting — word they learn to write is their own name!
Now you can provide students with personalized handwriting practice using printable handwriting sheets with their individual names.
Savvas Learning Company has created free, ready-to-use handwriting name worksheets for the 30 most popular boys and girls names (60 names total) that you can download and print today!
However, we know that 60 names can’t even begin to represent the amazing diversity in today’s classrooms. That’s why we’re also offering free online access to D’Nealian® Handwriting, which makes it easy for educators to create custom handwriting name practice worksheets for every student in the classroom, from Antonio (#163 in popularity) to Zavier (#972 in popularity).
Why is it Important to Teach Handwriting?
Handwriting is more than learning proper letter formation! Here are just a few reasons why it’s important to explicitly teach handwriting in the early grades:
Handwriting Strengthens Letter Recognition
When students learn letter formation, they reinforce their letter recognition skills — which, in turn, helps them decode (read) with greater automaticity. Students who learn to write by hand also learn to read more quickly!
Handwriting is Multimodal Learning
Handwriting is inherently tactile, as well as visual and kinesthetic; it's another way you can bring multimodal learning into your language arts classroom to keep students engaged.
Handwriting is a Cross-Curricular Skill
Handwriting skills will be used throughout a child's academic career: taking notes, taking tests, completing both classwork and homework, etc. — not just in language arts, but across the entire curriculum. The stronger a student's handwriting skills, the less their brain will have to focus on forming letters and the more their brain can focus on processing information and ideas.
Learn more about the connections between handwriting and overall academic achievement in this blog from the Savvas Insights Team.
Add a Personal Touch to Handwriting Practice
One effective way to capture students’ attention and interest is by connecting learning with their individual interests, such as their favorite sports teams, musicians, video games, foods, and more.
This is sometimes referred to as “context personalization,” and research suggests that it can enhance motivation and improve achievement. When learning is connected with students’ valued personal interests, it can help foster feelings of value for the instructional content as well.
For example, students might not be interested in practicing letter formation with randomly selected names. But the same activity using their own names, and the names of their friends and family members, may be far more motivating!
However, this level of personal touch can be difficult to achieve without spending hours crafting your own worksheets from scratch.
Handwriting Name Practice Sheets for Kindergarteners
To help you get started adding a personal touch to handwriting practice, Savvas Learning Company has created 60 handwriting name practice worksheets. The worksheets are based on the most popular baby names from 2018 according to the US Social Security Administration, and are designed to reflect the most common names for children who will be starting kindergarten in Fall 2023.
For the full collection of all 60 worksheets, simply complete the short form at the top of this page and we’ll email you a printable PDF.
In addition, when you complete this short form, we’ll provide you with 30 days of free online access to D’Nealian Handwriting. Because 60 names is only a tiny fraction of the thousands of names present in today’s classrooms, this free trial includes access to the Practice Generator, where you can make your own custom handwriting name practice worksheets — as well as other handwriting worksheets! Choose from manuscript or cursive; solid, trace, or stroked letters; regular or wide lines; and more for maximum customization for your classroom’s exact needs.
Why Choose D’Nealian Handwriting?
D’Nealian Handwriting is the original continuous stroke, manuscript-cursive handwriting program!
Newly reimagined for today’s elementary classrooms, D’Nealian Handwriting now provides a complete audio, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic approach to teaching manuscript and cursive handwriting.
Part of the unique D’Nealian advantage is the continuous stroke method, which supports fine motor skills development, cuts down on common reversals (such as b and d), and eases the transition from manuscript to cursive.
The program’s integrated print and digital experience includes:
- Robust, hands-on practice and interactive digital activities for students
- A streamlined instructional routine for teachers that works in any classroom
- Stroke modeling animation videos modeling proper size, slant, and spacing
- Instructional support for Spanish provided right at point of use
- Practice Generator for creating custom worksheets using pre-built templates
Now you can try the digital edition of D’Nealian Handwriting free for 30 days!
Be sure to complete the form at the top of this page to get your free download of the 60 handwriting name practice worksheets.