Lower Or Upper Case Letters

[Guest]

can someone please confirm to me that if we are teaching letter recognition to 3-5 yr olds.

should we be only using lower case letters??

its just that any resource website that i find has alphabet cards etc in capital letters which i think confuses the child surely we are trying to link the letters to eventually writing??

[Guest]

I was told that you always had to use lower case except where it was the beginning of a sentence or for a name, but not the name of items, such as bricks or toys etc. I am sure some one else will let you know what they do. I think the proper rules of English apply if one of our Ofsted inspectors, was correct. I always use comic san for a font as it is the only one with a proper A as you would write in handwriting. sometimes its difficult to find resources that use the proper things, like ice cream for the letter I does not help when your using phonics and want an i sound. ELC usually has the right things if not the Consortium or the big copies have the right sort. Good luck

Steph

[Guest]

I was told that you always had to use lower case except where it was the beginning of a sentence or for a name, but not the name of items, such as bricks or toys etc. I am sure some one else will let you know what they do. I think the proper rules of English apply if one of our Ofsted inspectors, was correct. I always use comic san for a font as it is the only one with a proper A as you would write in handwriting. sometimes its difficult to find resources that use the proper things, like ice cream for the letter I does not help when your using phonics and want an i sound. ELC usually has the right things if not the Consortium or the big copies have the right sort. Good luck

Steph

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I was told the same! Century Gothic font on a pc will also give you a 'proper' a

 

Clare

[Guest]

thanks clare will try the other font. it just takes so long to go throught them all!!!! I do get fed up with the same font, variety is the spice of life so they say. I'm spending the afternoon going through some old postings and have thoroughly enjoyed myself, as I had had one of those mornings where you wonder why you do the job. After ahving a child cry on and off all morning, mum decided to tell me at lunch time that the day before he had fallen in the pond and was going down for the third time, and maybe that had something to do with why he was crying for his mum this morning !!!!! not alot you can say to that.

[Marion]

Children need to be able to recognise both upper and lower case letters but should be taught to use lower case for writing except as said at the beginning of names and sentences.

ELC sell the Jolly Phonic letter cards which are lower case and alphabet snap cards which are also lower case.

If you use Jolly Phonics style of writing you need Sassoon font which includes the flick but this isnt generally installed on PCs unless you buy an educational package such as the RM window box.

[Guest]

and of course if you are in an area like ours where they teach cursive straight away then you have other problems in finding a font. So hard for the children with so many different types of print - gosh I thinnk I would be confused if I were learning it now.

Nikki

[Guest]

and of course if you are in an area like ours where they teach cursive straight away then you have other problems in finding a font.  So hard for the children with so many different types of print - gosh I thinnk I would be confused if I were learning it now.

Nikki

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I don't use cursive and only seen it briefly, would this font be correct????

 

Lucida handwriting.

 

If it is I might use it for some signs around the setting- some of my children will go to schools using cursive and some won't

 

Peggy

lucida_handwriting.doc

[Jackie A.]

In my last school we taught cursive in Foundation Stage. I found a font called Boring Boring which was perfect. It could either be used with the letters separately (with lead-ins and flicks) or it could be used with the letters joined.

 

It was also great for numbers. It's very hard to find a correct 4 and 9, but boring boring was ideal for this.

 

Have just done a search and found a site where it can be down-loaded for free

 

http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/giles/

 

Jackie

[Marion]

Thanks jackie

We use Sassoon in Foundation Stage leading to fully cursive in Key Stage 1 and have been looking for a font that matches our school handwriting policy Boring is almost there looking at it think only the 'f' is slightly different

[Guest]

I don't use cursive and only seen it briefly, would this font be correct????

 

Lucida handwriting.

 

If it is I might use it for some signs around the setting- some of my children will go to schools using cursive and some won't

 

Peggy

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Quite like that one too, Peggy. I find that easier to read than the boring boring one!

[Guest]

I found the cursive writing too confusing and my top groups thought it was a k was an R. I have a lot of different fonts I tend to use, mainly the Pooh font, which is a lovely font. Another one is called Before Attack and that has the correct 4 and 9 - took me a long time to find that one!!

[Guest]

In my last school we taught cursive in Foundation Stage.  I found a font called Boring Boring which was perfect.  It could either be used with the letters separately (with lead-ins and flicks) or it could be used with the letters joined. 

 

It was also great for numbers.  It's very hard to find a correct 4 and 9, but boring boring was ideal for this.

 

Have just done a search and found a site where it can be down-loaded for free

 

http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/giles/

 

Jackie

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That's a good one but how do you use it - I think I am being thick but I do not know how to use it - I will try and copy into a word doucment and see what happens.

Nikki

[Marion]

I wouldnt use the Lucinda handwriting as personally find it too fancy ( serif bits) and leans or is it my eyes?

 

Just to add that research shows the easiest font for people with dyslexia /SEN is Comic Sans. It might be boring but its easy to read

Edited March 20, 2006 by Marion

[Guest]

To add a font you need to download the font from a website, then open your fonts folder in control panel and drap and drop, or copy and paste.

[Guest]

I wouldnt use the Lucinda handwriting as personally find it too fancy ( serif bits) and leans or is it my eyes?

 

Just to add that research shows the easiest font for people with dyslexia /SEN is Comic Sans. It might be boring but its easy to read

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Thanks for that Marion,

I use comic sans all the time. When I took over my preschool 5 yrs ago the previous owner used cursive writing on all her displays etc, and encouraged it for children showing an interest in writing their names ( I'm preschool) I found though that children concentrated too much on the curves and less on the letter shape. I do like to have different styles within the environment though, including handwriting as well as computer print.

 

Peggy

[bleucocker]

I use sassoon Primary, which is great.

 

If you go to www.underfives.co.uk/download.html there are a few fonts suitable for use in school which you can download. National Primary is good.

 

I also use a font called primer apples which is great for name tracing etc. This is a dotted font that the children can trace over. It can be downloaded for free from /www.searchfreefonts.com/fonts/p33.htm

 

Andrea

[Guest]

Erm, feel bad now as we don't use any particular set font.

 

We teach the children upper and lower case (upper for the first letter of their name, etc.) but when making signs around the nursery we use all sorts of fonts.

 

The children have no difficulty reading them (those that can!), and it doesn't appear to be affecting their writing.

 

The world is full of different fonts so why not nursery?

x

[Susan]

Cripps- A Hand for Spelling advoctes that joining from the start but that only writing for writing needs to be joined so writing for reading can be in a variety of fonts although I would always encourage you to use one that is as close as possible to the letter forms that the children will be writing themselves. Even when joining, children need to learn individual letter shapes first. Personally, I like "sassons" best and failing that "Comic sans" and would always avoid the fonts with "a" like this!!

 

Thanks for boring boring, that could also be quite useful, Jackie!

[Guest]

I'm with you on this one, Fluff

[Guest]

I tend to use Comic Sans and Century Gothic in our preschool. We feed so many schools - usually between 7 & 9 - that it's difficult to find the ideal one. They all seem to have a slightly different approach.

[Marion]

I use lots of different for depending on what they are for but for writing purposes I use Sassoon (as this is how we expect children to form their letters) making name cards, word banks etc.