Write the Word in Syllables: Copy It with a Dash at Every Break

Copying is the mechanism on this 1st grade write-the-word-in-syllables page. Six rows run down the sheet, each with a small zoo animals picture at the left, the word printed in bold beside it, and a three-line handwriting rule filling the right half. The words on this sheet are chimpanzee, elephant, meerkat, panda, cheetah and hyena. The child reads the printed word, says it in parts, and writes it on the rule with a small dash at every syllable break — chim-pan-zee, meer-kat (not mee-rkat). Words run to twelve letters and two or three syllables, with at least two of the longer three-syllable words on every sheet.

Where the base syllable division page has the child mark the breaks on a printed word, this face has them produce the word themselves, break by break. Handwriting and syllable division are combined on purpose: writing a word in chunks is how a first grader is taught to spell a long one, and the dash makes each chunk a decision. Because the model is printed, spelling is not the test; a child who copies the letters right but dashes in the wrong place has shown the teacher exactly which skill needs work.

Print one per child; the rule gives room for a large hand. Use it after the scoop page, when the breaks are heard reliably and the goal is to carry them into writing. The missing-syllable page is the next step, where one part of the word is gone and must be supplied.