A young girl draws in a notebook with a yellow pencil.

Learning Cursive in 2nd Grade

While I was visiting classrooms a couple of weeks ago, I got to see our second graders learning cursive handwriting with Mrs. Horton and Ms. Sowell. They were working on capital letters and sentences from their literature and history studies.

Handwriting practice is an essential part of our students’ elementary education in K-2, and after 2nd grade they are able to write beautifully, carefully, and quickly using cursive.

Did you know that cursive handwriting is more efficient than manuscript? It won’t be that way at the beginning, of course, but a student who gets comfortable writing in cursive can take notes and write essays much more quickly than someone confined to print.

Plus, learning cursive improves spelling since it requires us to think about how letters are connected to each other.

Next week we’ll be announcing the winners of our National Handwriting Day contest. All students were invited to compete, and the best entries from each grade are posted on the Wall of Excellence in Building 3. Stop by to take a look! This year the theme was Shakespeare, and even some teachers entered the competition. We’re looking forward to showing you their efforts!