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Handwriting: A to Zoo by Master Books offers a biblical homeschool curriculum for grades 1-2, perfect for developing correct letter formation and fine motor skills. Authored by Carrie Bailey, known for top-ranked curricula like Catch on to Cursive, this engaging course blends the beauty of creation with fundamental writing skills. With a 5-day per week schedule and fun activities including reading, writing, and hands-on exercises, students will love learning handwriting while exploring unique animals in God’s creation.
Handwriting: A to Zoo is a biblical homeschool curriculum providing your younger students a delightful journey of learning to print their letters. Perfect for grades 1-2 or as extra practice for older students, this engaging course helps children master lowercase and capital letters through a fun and educational adventure. Combining the beauty of creation with the fundamentals of print writing, this book captivates, educates, and inspires young learners.
Author of Master Books' top-ranked homeschool curriculum including Stepping Stones, Simply K, and Catch on to Cursive, Carrie Bailey offers your family a whole-child, developmental approach to learning to write. Your students will develop the knowledge, muscle control, and stamina to write while loving the process of learning handwriting.
Course Features:
Ideal for grades 1-2; extra practice for grades 3 and up
5-day per week schedule, 20-30 minutes per exercise
Convenient daily schedule with well-designed lessons
Fun reading with hands-on activities, faith tie-ins, and writing exercises
Includes reviews for assessments or optional grading
Course Objectives:
Correct letter formation and fine motor skill development
Build writing stamina with supportive features
Improve reading, writing, and visual-spatial skills with midline activities
Develop muscle memory for correct letter formation
Learn about unique animals in God’s creation
Course Overview:
Exercise 1: Reading, warm-up activities, and writing practice
Exercise 2: Letter identification, warm-up, and additional writing practice
Exercise 3: Introduction of new letters or numbers
Exercise 4: Continued letter identification and writing practice
Exercise 5: Review and independent practice
As the course progresses, students will enjoy review lessons, tracing, writing exercises, and activities to build writing fluency, including Scripture copy in the final lessons. Prepare to enjoy teaching your student to print their letters on this captivating handwriting journey!
Customer Reviews
5
Having fun
Review byElizabeth
My first grader is thoroughly enjoying Handwriting: A to Zoo! She loves the animal facts and is staying engaged with each lesson. This has been the perfect addition to her school year and I can't wait to use it again with my youngest!
5
So Cute
Review byLexie
This has to be one of the cutest handwriting books I've come across in my 12 years as a homeschooling mom. The illustrations and topics are just perfect for little ones just learning to write. The color illustrations of the animals are wonderful at keeping the attention of the student. But this book goes beyond just learning to write, your child will learn about different animals, ways God made them unique, how they move, eat, and live. Also there are non textbook activities to help your child master using their hands well, such as play-doh crafts, tearing and gluing activities, paper plate games, and more.
5
Great Handwriting Curriculum!!!
Review bySarahT
My son, who struggles with handwriting loves this book!! The beginning of the book helps the student build stamina for the writing process along with learning about different animals along the way. This book holds a child's attention and helps them to master handwriting skills. I would highly recommend!!
5
Such a fun book
Review byKathleen C
Your kids are going to love this book. It is so much fun to do they won’t feel like it is schoolwork. The images alone in this book are amazing. They are so beautiful and vibrant, I found myself looking through every page just to see all the amazing animals.
They will learn to print lower and upper case letters A to Z while learning about amazing and unique animals in God’s creation and design. There are 31 lessons on animals and five Super Skills Lessons which has them tracing and copying Bible Verses. This book is packed with helpful tools to teach your child handwriting. Included are: Pre and Post Assesments, Supply Lists, Daily Schedule, Rubrics to assign grades, Review Pages, Answer Key, Activity Tear Out Pages and a Certificate of Completion.
I especially love the scripture verse in every lesson. It helps to teach your child all about God’s creation.
It is a fantastic book for teaching a child how to print.
5
Engaging and Developmentally Appropriate!
Review bySantina
Well done! A to Zoo has it all! It speaks to educating the whole child using developmentally appropriate practices. Your child will develop hand strength, writing stamina, and learn letter formation skills using hands on activities, fun animal facts, and detailed letter formation instruction. A to Zoo is colorful, engaging, easy to implement, and does a great job of providing foundational handwriting practice.
5
Fun and educational for many ages!
Review byJoyfulMommy
This book is full of interesting facts about animals, all from a biblical worldview as is typical of Master Books resources. This course offers a developmentally appropriate approach to building hand strength and small motor skills. That means there are lots of fun activities like making Play-Doh animals, gripping a broom handle like a sloth, pretending to climb a tree like a red panda while squeezing your hands, etc. It builds from tracing shapes to tracing and writing letters, to writing words and copying Scripture verses. With the range of information and activities, this is a book that my elementary students can all enjoy together, and even my preschool child is participating and learning! I’m learning, too; from facts about animals to the fact that broken crayons help to build hand strength! I am so glad that Master Books keeps adding to their curriculum line, and think this will quickly join the list of favorite courses for many families!
5
Amazing All Around
Review byCaitlin
I don't know where to start with what I love about this writing curriculum, because it is all so great. From an early childhood background, I love the focus on building up strength in hand muscles early through play with many different objects such as playdough, artwork, broken crayons, and paper. The included scripture and focus on God is always one of my favorite parts of Masterbooks. The book is rich with activities and knowledge about different animals. My little who is always reluctant to do copy work is actually focusing and trying her hardest on handwriting. I'm truly blown away. She said it is her favorite subject so far this year and as a bonus her handwriting has improved immensely. We are learning so many different animal facts and memorizing scripture in the process. Best handwriting book I have seen, because it is truly so much more than just copy work.
5
So fun!
Review byLacee C
My animal LOVING Kindergartner is going to LOVE this book this year!! He's more than ready for it as he's been writing consistently for a while now. It can definitely benefit 1st and 2nd graders who need more handwriting practice; and my 3rd grader might need to use some of it for practice as well! I love that not only will students learn about animals but true to Master Books, they have included scripture writing and copying which is so important - especially in these early years! I appreciate having a comprehensive supply list right in the front so I know what supplies we need that we might not have on hand (most of which we do!). Students are not just working on forming letters correctly but they are also working on writing stamina, learning about animals, some number work is snuck in, scriptures, reading and more!
5
Excellent course!!
Review byBecky V.
I was so excited to grab Handwriting: A to Zoo for my kindergartener this year as soon as the digital option became available, and it does not disappoint! It was a large document to print, but I appreciated all the white space to save on ink! This is the first book my daughter always grabs to start each day with.
We have loved learning about the different animals and pulling out the globe to see where they are located. The lessons are short and to the point, and the warm-up activities keep my daughter engaged. These can be anything from squeezing and forming playdough to help strengthen hands to tracing exercises or mazes. The step-by-step directions for letter formation are helpful as are the different colored lines to write on. By around lesson 8, word formation is introduced through tracing and copywork. Depending on the child, this course could also be used as reading and spelling practice. Each lesson also includes a counting exercise too. My favorite part are all the Scripture references throughout that are tied in to every lesson.
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone looking for a fun resource to introduce or review handwriting skills.
5
Yet Another Amazing Writing Course
Review byJ C
We love Catch Onto Cursive, and A to Zoo is it's just as brilliant little brother. I love that this print course focuses even more heavily on building writing skills for the little hands and arms that need it. It's a sadly neglected area in most handwriting courses. The animal theme is perfect too. You could honestly count this as a light science. And of course tying in Scripture where appropriate is the main selling point of Master Books for us, so we are happy to see it done so well in this course yet again. My daughter got so excited seeing all of the animals and is especially loving the play dough projects- something her sister is happy to "help" with. The amount of writing is good for the age range. Tired hands don't write good letters after all. Her overall confidence and formation has already improved within the short time we've been using it. I honestly wish I had a handwriting course this awesome when I was a kid.