Squiggle Squad Kindergarten
Recommended for Ages 5-6 and Remedial Learners
Handwriting should be easy, efficient, and legible.
Squiggle Squad Kindergarten adds a powerful component to a child’s literacy journey, namely, the kinesthetic connection to language. Squiggle Squad breaks down the letter-learning process into managable steps, ensuring that a student first learning to write feels confident and successful. Simplifying the letter formation process helps students build healthy handwriting habits foundational to writing fluency. The first focus is on the motor skills– large and small–needed to write efficiently and easily.
Students meet the five Squiggle Squad members and each animal’s favorite stroke. Kiddos practice strokes in isolation to develop the pencil control and directionality needed to write with ease. Once they are comfortable drawing the strokes, they put the strokes together to form letters. This incremental approach is less daunting. The ability to write by hand is a tool they will use for learning and a skill they will use to communicate for the rest of their lives.
The Science of Fun
As teachers and parents of young children know, kids learn well when they are having fun. Playfulness and curiosity is hardwired into us from birth. The Squiggle Squad resources and teaching methodologies take advantage of this time of delighted discovery. The low-pressure, incremental approach works with a child’s natural motor skill development and cognitive understandings to ensure productive growth and comprehension. Using the Squiggle Squad animals and terminology helps teachers clearly present activities that build motor skills naturally. The process is so comfortable and light-hearted they actually enjoy learning to write!
Little Steps to Huge Success
Writing by hand requires attention and coordination that can be overwhelming to little learners. That is why the Squiggle Squad breaks down the greater task of learning to form letters and numbers into smaller steps that allow students to find success along the way.
Practice playsheets hone fine motor skills by requiring the learner to go through a progression of movements and patterns that mimic the five basic handwriting strokes. Regular stroke practice enforces muscle memory, increasing the student’s confidence resulting in an easier, less frustrating transition to letter formation. The sheets are meant to be easy enough to ensure success yet challenging enough to hold kids’ interest.
Letter Formation for Fluency
After preparing to handwrite through large and small motor skill activities, most kids are ready to take on letter writing. Writing-readiness typically happens between the ages of 4 and 6 years. (Regardless of age, handwriting is most successful if the coordination milestones reached through the Squiggles and Wiggles activities are accomplished prior to teaching letter and number formation.) The formation booklets provide additional coordination activities and give new learners some wiggle room for developing pencil control before expecting precision. The Squiggle Squad characters are with kids each step of the way!
Forming Numbers
Learning to form numbers can be interspersed with letter formation. The Number Formation booklet introduces numbers in order from 0 to 9 with number activities to aid in understanding symbol significance. Learning to form numbers is most successful when integrated as a math-learning tool.
