Submitted by Pamela Rezach, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Idea posted October 29, 2003
Here are cursive and manuscript vowel motives. "Cur" is an abbreviation for cursive. "Man" is an abbreviation for manuscript. It took two pages to get all six vowels for both the cursive and manuscript uppercase letters. The first "cur" is for A, E, and I. The second "cur" is for O, U, and Y. (Same for the "man.")
The students should sing the motive/s as they write the letter/s in the air. As the students write the letters in the air, try using the natural rhythm that you would normally use when writing each letter. For instance, when writing the manuscript letters, make each stroke as if it were a quarter note - or at least let each stroke be the same rhythmic length. When writing and singing the cursive letters, use a combination of short and long rhythms. For instance: The cursive U would use the following rhythm pattern: Long, short, long, short, long. (Notice that the low D's use the shorter rhythms, and the high D, along with the sol, uses the longer rhythms.)
NOTE: Plank Road Publishing does not have the font used to make these, therefore, the font may look a bit off. Included in the PDFs is a note regarding the font used and where to obtain it if you don't have it.