Third Grade
Pre-Cursive Skills
3.1 Preparation Skills
Students will demonstrate strokes needed for cursive handwriting: strokes that change direction, retrace lines, or form loops. Each student will:
A. Connect an under to an over stroke, moving left to right
B. Retrace a vertical stroke
C. Retrace a curved stroke
D. Produce neat loops (ascending and descending)
Cursive Skills
3.2 Letter Skills
Students will demonstrate cursive writing skills efficiently from memory. Each student will:
A. Form lowercase letters correctly
B. Form capital letters correctly
C. Place letters on a baseline (within 1/16″ above or below)
D. Write letters in a grade-appropriate size
E. Follow the writing guidelines of various styles of paper (double and single lines)
3.3 Connection Skills
Students will join letters to form words, using standard, efficient connections. Each student will:
A. Demonstrate correct baseline connections, maintaining letter integrity
1. Connect baseline ending to a baseline start (e.g., t to e)
2. Connect baseline ending to a midline start (e.g., c to a)
B. Demonstrate correct high connections, maintaining letter integrity
1. Connect a high ending to a midline start (e.g., o to u)
2. Connect a high ending to a baseline start (e.g., w to h, b to r)
C. Use appropriate spacing between connected letters (close together, NOT overlapping, with only
connections touching)
D. Cross and dot appropriate letters after completing connected letters
E. Demonstrate correct connections from capital letters
1. Write signature in cursive using correct connections
2. Use correct connections for proper nouns
3.4 Sentence Skills
Students will write words to express thoughts, forming sentences. Each student will:
A. Write from left to right, returning to left margin of subsequent lines as needed
B. Use sentence writing conventions:
1. Begin with a capital letter
2. Leave a clearly defined space between words
3. Use ending punctuation (period, question mark, or exclamation point)
C. Use comma and quotation marks correctly to indicate speech
D. Use commas to separate items in series and to set off clauses and phrases
3.5 Writing Conventions
Students will combine sentences to express ideas or opinions, using formatting conventions that are extensions of
handwriting skills. Each student will:
A. Write paragraphs using proper conventions
1. Write 5- to 6-sentence paragraphs
2. Indent the beginning of each paragraph
B. Write titles of written works, capitalizing the first, last, and important words
C. Follow standard format for friendly letters
1. Write date, beginning at left margin or center of line
2. Write greeting, beginning at left margin
3. Write body using paragraph skills
4. Write closing, matching starting point of date
5. Place signature, matching starting point of date and closing