How-To Videos
Select a video to view demonstrations of products developed by Handwriting Without Tears® and available for purchase from our online store.
Sentence School
Learning to Write with Sentence School – Pre-Writing Lesson
In this first of four lessons, Tania introduces the children to basic sentence skills in a fun way through active participation. The children develop vocabulary, and learn by hearing and trying out new words.
Purchase Sentence School from our online store.
Related Products:
- Double Line Notebook Paper
- Pencils for Little Hands
- Letters and Numbers for Me
- Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters
- Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces
Learning to Write with Sentence School – Weekly Lesson #1
In this second of four lessons, Tania demonstrates word association and meaning by demonstrating each sentence as the children learn it. Direct association with something familiar has been shown to help children create a mental map for word learning.
Purchase Sentence School from our online store.
Related Products:
- Double Line Notebook Paper
- Pencils for Little Hands
- Letters and Numbers for Me
- Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters
- Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces
Learning to Write with Sentence School – Weekly Lesson #2
In this third of four lessons, Tania helps the children practice saying grammatically correct sentences. Saying complete sentences out loud gives children speaking practice, and develops their speaking and writing skills.
Purchase Sentence School from our online store.
Related Products:
- Double Line Notebook Paper
- Pencils for Little Hands
- Letters and Numbers for Me
- Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters
- Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces
Learning to Write with Sentence School – Weekly Lesson #3
In this last of four videos, Tania models sentence writing on the blackboard for the class. Seeing how you write helps make it easier for children to learn to write.
Purchase Sentence School from our online store.
Related Products:
- Double Line Notebook Paper
- Pencils for Little Hands
- Letters and Numbers for Me
- Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters
- Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces
Sentence School Testimonial
Janis, a Kindergarten teacher at a Blue Ribbon school, talks about her experience with Sentence School, and its use of quick active lessons to build sentence skills, including: grammar, vocabulary, concepts and writing.
Mat Man
Building and Drawing Mat Man
Children bring the beloved Mat Man character to life with the Mat and Wood Pieces. This interactive activity helps young learners develop body awareness, drawing skills, socialization, and number awareness. Mat Man makes readiness skills fun and easy for all.
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Music and Movement
Frog Jump Letters Song: Fun intro to big lines
Here, the class learns that F E D P B R N and M are all Frog Jump Capitals. They stand up and finger trace the Frog Jump Capitals in the air in time with the song. This multisensory activity is a great way to incorporate music and movement to make letters memorable.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD from our online store.
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My Teacher Draws Song: Imitate teacher, draw shapes
Children love to have grown ups draw for them. My Teacher Draws song and activity teach imitation skills and shapes. Here, watching Patty draw prepares the class to draw a circle, a square, and a triangle.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Get Set for School Sing Along CD from our online store.
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Sliding Down to the End of the Alphabet Song: Start with V, slide all the way to Z
Sliding Down to the End of the Alphabet is an upbeat rock and roll song that teaches the more difficult diagonals and the end of the alphabet. Children start with V and slide all the way down to Z. This rollicking tune ensures that children always remember the end of the alphabet. Since the teacher is facing the students, she must demonstrate the letters backwards so that the students model them correctly.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD from our online store.
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Tap, Tap, Tap Song: Teaching Body Awareness
Children love music. It promotes movement and learning. The Tap Tap Tap song and activity are a fun way for young children to warm up and learn positional concepts as well as body parts as they follow the rhythm and imitate the teachers motions.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Get Set for School Sing Along CD from our online store.
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The Ant, The Bug and The Bee Song: Finger Plays
The Ant, the Bug & the Bee song uses music and movement to teach children about the number 6. Children love to fly around like bees as they sing along with the lyrics.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Get Set for School Sing Along CD from our online store.
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Flip Crayon Activities
Crayon Song: Teaching Crayon Grip
Diane uses The Pencil Grip Song to teach tripod grip. This engaging approach holds the students attention while reinforcing the lesson.
Hear more sample tracks and purchase the Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD from our online store.
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Tripod Grip with Flip Crayons
Diane teaches finger names and functions. This playful approach helps young children develop grasp.
Purchase FLIP Crayons™ from our online store.
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Using Flip Crayons
Children flip for Flip Crayons, the double-sided crayons for little hands that promote proper grip. Flipping the crayons to change colors is a fun and developmentally appropriate way for young learners to develop fine motor skills.
Purchase Flip Crayons from our online store.
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Hands-on Materials
Building Capital Letters on Mat
This interactive letter building activity with the Mat and Wood Pieces keeps children focused as they respond to spoken instruction. Consistent terminology and taking turns reinforce learning and provide hands-on feedback.
Purchase the Mat and Wood Pieces from our online store.
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Building Capitals with Capital Letter Cards
Children learn consistent terminology as they build letters on capital letter cards. This activity is a great precursor to building on the Mat. Children see the letter formations as the teacher guides them in group or in individual instruction.
Purchase the Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces from our online store.
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Building Letters with Roll-A-Dough
Here, Ryan has fun building letters with roll-a-dough while improving his finger strength and motor skills. This multisensory activity is also a great prewriting exercise.
Purchase Roll-A-Dough Letters™ from our online store.
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Forming Letters with Stamp and See
With Stamp and See, children learn to make capital letters step by step. They form letters by tracing with magnetic chalk or stamping with wood piece shapes. Here, Patty models by stamping the letter step by step and erasing it. The child imitates. Patty is using the cards from the Roll A Dough Letters on the Stamp and See Screen to add an additional activity.
Purchase Stamp and See Screen™ from our online store.
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Teaching Names with Roll-A-Dough
Use of consistent language helps young children learn to follow instructions. The roll-a-dough multisensory activity helps them improve finger strength, fine motor skills, and letter recognition skills as they children build letters step by step.
Purchase Roll-A-Dough Letters™ from our online store.
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Magic C Bunny Helps Teach Handwriting
Magic C Cursive Lesson
The Handwriting Without Tears student workbooks make it easy to learn cursive. Here, a Magic "C" exercise is used to teach step-by-step letter formation.
Purchase the Cursive Handwriting third grade workbook from our online store.
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Magic C Letter Activities
Students learn to form "a", "d", and "g" playing the Magic C game on the Blackboard with Double lines. This is a fun way to practice letter formation skills.
Purchase the Blackboard with Double Lines from our online store.
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Teaching Tips for Educators
FAQ: Why do you teach capital letters first?
Why do you teach capitals before you teach lowercase letters?
Related Products:
- Pre-K Teacher's Guide
- Kindergarten Teacher's Guide
- 1st Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 3rd Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
- 4th Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
FAQ: Why do you use paper with double lines?
Why do you use paper with double lines? My childs school uses three lines.
Purchase the Double Line Notebook Paper from our online store.
Related Products:
- Pre-K Teacher's Guide
- Kindergarten Teacher's Guide
- 1st Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 3rd Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
- 4th Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
FAQ: Why is the HWT teaching order different?
Why is the Handwriting Without Tears® teaching order different?
Related Products:
- Pre-K Teacher's Guide
- Kindergarten Teacher's Guide
- 1st Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- 3rd Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
- 4th Grade Cursive Teacher's Guide
Letter Size and Placement Activity
Children have fun learning size and placement of tall, small, and descending letters with the letter sizes and places activity.
Purchase the My Printing Book first grade workbook from our online store.
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Writing Using the Helping Hand
Watch Eli learn about using his helping hand to improve his posture and paper skills while writing. This playful approach makes it learning fun and memorable.
Purchase the Regular Double Line Notebook Paper from our online store.
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Wet Dry Try Activities
Cursive Name on the Blackboard
Children have fun writing their names in cursive doing Wet-Dry-Try on the Blackboard with Double Lines. This multisensory hands-on activity is an easy way to teach motor skills, mature grasp, letter formations and connections.
Purchase the Blackboard with Double Lines from our online store.
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Letter K on the Slate Chalkboard
Using the Slate chalkboard, Jan shows Charlie how to form a K with wet-dry-try. The accompanying letter story helps Charlie remember each step.
Purchase the Slate Chalkboard from our online store.
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Letter O on the Slate Chalkboard
Its a perfect O on the slate. The wet-dry-try exercise makes teaching and learning letter formation fun and memorable.
Purchase the Slate Chalkboard from our online store.
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Writing Name Using Wet-Dry-Try
Jan shows Ella how to write her name doing wet-dry-try. This motivational activity helps children have fun as they develop fine motor skills with small tools including little chalk bits.
Purchase the Blackboard with Double Lines from our online store.
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Workbook Writing
Lowercase "a" in the 1st Grade Workbook
The Handwriting Without Tears student workbooks feature step-by-step directions to help children learn letter formation. The Learn and Check section at the end of the teaching page helps them check their own work.
Purchase the My Printing Book first grade workbook from our online store.
Related Products:
- 1st Grade Printing Teacher's Guide
- Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD
- Slate Chalkboard
- Blackboard with Double Lines
- Gray Block Paper
- Big Sheet Draw and Write Paper
- Wide Double Line Notebook Paper
- Draw and Write Notebook
- Print Alphabet Desk Strips
- Print Wall Cards
- Little Chalk Bits
- Little Sponge Cubes
- Double Line Sentence Strips
- Double Line Chart Tablet
- Magic C Bunny Puppet
Lowercase Letters in the Kindergarten Workbook
Children learn lowercase letters easily using the Handwriting Without Tears student workbooks. Multisensory activities and illustrated step-by-step instructions make it easy for children.
Purchase the Letters and Numbers for Me kindergarten workbook from our online store.
Related Products:
- Kindergarten Teacher's Guide
- MAT MAN SHAPES
- MAT MAN HATS
- Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD
- Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters
- Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces
- Mat for Wood Pieces
- Slate Chalkboard
- Blackboard with Double Lines
- Gray Block Paper
- Big Sheet Draw and Write Paper
- Wide Double Line Notebook Paper
- Draw and Write Notebook
- FLIP Crayons™
- Pencils for Little Hands
- Print Alphabet Desk Strips
- Name Plates
- Print Wall Cards
- Double Line Sentence Strips
- Double Line Chart Tablet
- Little Chalk Bits
- Little Sponge Cubes
- Magic C Bunny Puppet