Unlimited School License

Why should you buy this? Because our Unlimited License is the most open-ended and user-friendly available in today’s educational software market. That is why, like no other competitor, each of the Unlimited School License allows installation of our programs on:

1. ALL computers at your school (unlimited number of computers)
2. Teachers home computers (unlimited number of teachers)
3. ONE-TIME FEE ONLY (where no renewal charges or added cost per extra computer applies).
4. FREE life technical support
5. 5 CDs and 5 manuals per license
6. Free CD replacement

Available Bundled Products Include:

• The 10-Minute Teacher’s Planner
• Fonts 4 Teachers
• Nameplate Maker 4 Teachers
• Award Maker 4 Teachers
• Clip Art 4 Teachers
• The Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker
• Handwriting Worksheet 4 Teachers
• Box / Block Fonts

An much more….

Box Fonts

The following 7 visual motor activities can improve letter spacing:

1. Highlight both margins (left one green and right one red) or use Wikki Stix for the child to bump the margins with his or her pencil. Use handwriting sofwtare to create mutliple handwriting worksheets for practice.

2. Place dots between words with a pencil, then erase the dots.

3. Let child review own work to determine if there are spaces between the words.

4. Write the sentence “ca nyo up layb all? with a program like Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe.  Ask the student to read this exactly as it is written. When child can’t read it, tell him/her that this is how his/her work looks to you…very hard to read as the spacing is all messed up. Then circle the letters to show him/her that the words are “Can you play ball?” Then ask student to write this sentence with proper spacing. Can write any sentence at student’s reading level.

5. Some students respond better to concrete instructions such as, “Move your pencil over before you start the next word.”

6. Sometimes I suggest to a child to write x amount of words per line across. The first few times they have half the line left for that last word. After some practice, the spacing improves. This is usually after some work on the concept of spacing with objects like blocks or erasers or beans.

7. While there are often visual tracking, attentional, and crossing the midline issues at the root of poor spatial layout of writing products, there are also instances of little or no modeling of desired page layouts. Make sure the teacher is modeling starting at the margin, spacing between words, writing to the right side margin, starting each sentence after the preceding sentence’s punctuation, etc.

I highly recommend Box Fonts to practice all these activities and to improve letter spacing.

Compiled by Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L

            1. Graph paper. Instruct the students to leave one box open as a space between words.

            2. Draw colored line or highlight space between words in a sentence that student has to copy to give him/her a visual cue. You can use a handwriting program software to create worksheets.

            3. Use the following items to leave spaces between words: index finger of non-dominant hand, popsicle stick (can call it “Mr. Spacey”), eraser, triangle pencil grip, sticky strip of post-it note, shiny penny (can velcro this to desk so it’s always handy), M&Ms/skittles, etc., tiddlywinks, bingo chips, marker stamps.

            4. Another use of tongue depressors for K-1: Make up a story that some friendly spacemen had come to class and were going to help us write. The kids decorated the wood — Cheerios for eyes or mouths, glitter or feathers. Then they were paired with their Earth partner — the pencil. Some kids had big pencils and some had pencil grip pencils because this was what their own spacemen liked. They used them between words and the spacemen were happy around the middle of year the spacemen went back to their own home planet and most of the children were able to leave adequate space between the words without the spacemen.

            5. Highlight right margin if child crams words on right side of paper rather than dropping down to next line.

Compiled by Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L

Downhill Publishing LLC  have partnered with Amazon.com, one of the world’s leading online destinations, to reward and appreciate our schools. We strive to provide crucial tools that enable you to instruct your students more effectively. If you are enthusiastic about our programs, you may be interested to know that we offer the most open-ended “Unlimited License” for schools that is available on the market. Our “Unlimited School License” will enable all school staff to install our software:

1. On ALL computers at your school
2. On ALL teachers’ computers at home
   • No limit on the numbers of computers where the software may be at the school.
   • No limit on the number of teachers installing the software at home.
   • Free technical support.
   • Please see the school pricing information here.

If your school considers the “Unlimited License” to be a beneficial investment, we will grant you an Amazon Gift Card to buy educational materials for your school.

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The following visual motor activities can help greatly improve visual tracking and are recommended for handwriting related issues:

            1. Ball activities (tether balloon/ball, ball rolling hand to hand).

            2. Large chalkboard drawings: make roads for small vehicles to drive on (incorporate writing with favorite stops, such as “M” for McDonald’s, “W” for Walmart, or the whole word)) then progressing to fine tasks (connect the dots, mazes, etc).

            3. Use tracing paper to trace and color Pokemon characters.

            4. Provide multisensory input (different colored chalks, squiggle pen, finger writing in rice or Kool-Aid flavored/colored sand.

            5. Letter and number guides, in different fonts, posted at the student’s desk, should decrease the amount of saccades needed.

            6. Flashlight chases, starting on the floor supine and having the child chase my flashlight beam with his. Lying down aids in keeping the head still and is easier.

            7. Target first a stationary and then a moving target while prone swinging in a net swing.

            8. Use a lot of scanning activities, starting with large scans and grading down to smaller scans (i.e., scanning on a chalkboard to scanning letters on a page).

Compiled by Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L

• Place names of children around the classroom‐on cubbies, for “job” assignments, on lockers, etc.

• Encourage children to write their own names on projects. If they cannot, have an adult write in handwriting worksheets while the child dictates letters. The adult may also encourage the child to trace over his name once it is written by the adult.

• Encourage children to “sign in” when arriving in the classroom. Again, tracing or dictation can easily modify this activity.

• Encourage children to connect letters they know from their names with letters in words they do not know to facilitate literacy and sound‐to‐letter matching.

• Encourage children to help their peers with recognizing letters from their own names. For example, Adam identifies “A” for Ben. Use fonts for teachers, for example for this activity.

• Encourage children to use letters from their names and peers’ names Parent Activities to Support Skill Development.

• Demonstrate writing your child’s name with handwriting software.

• Have your child trace over your version. It may be fun to use multiple colors of crayons/markers for a “rainbow” effect.

• Have your child trace his name on fine‐grit sandpaper using chalk or markers.

• Look at books involving different letter identification.

• Have your child play with letter blocks and encourage him/her to trace the shape of the letter following the route he would take to write the letter‐ i.e., top‐to‐bottom and counter‐clockwise.

• Encourage your child to practice tracing or writing his name on a vertical surface such as an easel or chalkboard.

• Have your child form the letters of his name using rolled‐out Play Doh.

• Point out letters that are in your child’s name when you are driving and see letters on a

billboard‐ make a game out of it to see if your child can recognize the letters.

• Using cards with letters on them, provide cards to your child with them scrambled and have him try to place them in the correct order to spell his name.

1. Letters made from glue, glue/sand, or puff/fabric paint. Add food coloring to a bottle of paint/glue (not the washable kind). Stir and keep bottle upside down overnight to mix well. Write the letter on an index card with a pencil and have child squeeze bottle to form the letter, making sure the letter is formed properly. When the glue/paint dries, it forms a raised letter for tactile input. Have child trace the raised letter 3x with index finger of dominant hand.

2. Can also use glue to write letters on wax paper or glass, let dry and peel off letter. Can add sand and/or color.

3. Write in sand, putty, pudding, on carpet squares, etc.

4. Wikki Stix over letters written on index cards. Can also form letters out of wikki sticks, putty, with body, etc.

5. Write letters on index card with black marker. Make a green dot with marker as starting point and red dot as stopping point for letter. Then put a thin layer of glue over the letter and dry overnight.

6. When using classroom triple-lined paper, highlight bottom and dotted middle lines. Top line is where capitals and tall lowercase letters begin. This makes the paper more closely resemble the HWT two-lined paper.

7. Have the child first trace a really large letter on the board, then make the letter independently in handwriting worksheets, and then write the letter with their eyes closed. It can increase the interest/sensory feedback if you are able to do this some over a bumpy surface such as an air vent cover.

Compiled by Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L

As with adults, many activities in a child’s typical day require the ability to recognize his or her name independently. For example, the child can function more independently in the classroom if he or she can find his/her own cubby independently upon school arrival.

In addition, name recognition is related to early reading and writing skills. For example, accomplishment of name‐writing is a beginning step in developing awareness of the alphabetic principle (i.e., matching sounds with letters). Children learn that there is a difference between scribbling and letters grouped together, that words and letters have meaning. It is difficult to tease apart the process of recognizing one’s name and writing one’s name, because these two distinct skills build on each other.

Developmentally, children will be able to recognize their name before they can write it. Despite a lack of perfect handwriting, children may still benefit from practicing writing their name with the end goal being name recognition rather than signature skill.

Many schools are using hanwriting fonts for the beginning stages of writing with admirable success.

Early Childhood Center- Indiana Institute on Disability and Community

www.iidc.indiana.edu/ecc

2. Use Fonts 4 Teachers method of small chalkboard with boundaries and beginning under smiley face (placed in top left-hand corner of board frame).

3. Develop consistent use of left to right direction using a variety of media.

4. Bilateral integration activities.

5. Use the “Cognitive Override” (strategies to help the child see and feel the difference between the letters commonly reversed, such as “b” and “d”. Instead of a ball-and-stick method of writing these letters, the child uses a continuous stroke to first make the vertical stroke of the letter “b”, followed by the closed loop to complete the letter, reciting the “b” is for a bat and a ball — you need the bat first, and then the ball. The “d” is made by first the letter “c” with a continuous stroke to complete the vertical stroke, reciting the “c is followed by d”). The students associate differing kinesthetic feedback for the two letters and build up a cognitive strategy to differentiate between them. Use the cognitive override strategies esp. if child is beyond second grade.

6. For the letters “a, d, g, and q” and the number “9,” I cue the child to use “cup down” as the method of forming these letters. For the number “3″ the cue that seems to work is: “around the tree, around the tree”.

7. Have the child first trace a really large letter on the board, then make the letter independently, and then write the letter with his or her eyes closed. It can increase the interest/sensory feedback if you are able to do this some over a bumpy surface such as an air vent cover.

Compiled by Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L

Tracing fonts is a very effective way to learn to write. I have used many different kinds of tracing letters and have also Light Up desks-there are a lot on the market today and kids love them. The Teacher Pack from Fonts 4 Teachers, Inc has outline letters I have used in classrooms with students. I have shown them to teacher’s who have installed them on their computers. One way a very creative teacher used them was to give each child his/her own 3 ring binder, and run off the weeks work. You can use separators for M-T–W-TH and Friday. One teacher had the aide run off daily sheets with the child’s name on it to trace (you can also have them do their address and phone number. Worked very well since daily repetition is key. There are also tracing letter wooden templates on the market you can purchase. However, before purchasing anything, here are some ideas collected from OT’s across the US who have made their own.

1. I have done this using a file folder. I traced letters with fonts on one side, laminated the folder, then cut the letters out with scissors. The student was then able to slip a piece of paper in the folder as often as he needed to trace his name. Less likely to get lost and gives spatial orientation automatically.

2. I used an exact knife to make a name template out of strong cardboard and it lasted for at least half of the school year with constant use and could have been used for a longer period. The child eventually learned to write his name using this template. The teachers were wonderful about using it each and every day. I started with just the first letter cut out and the rest of the name simply written (for recognition purposes). Once he got that first letter (happened to be a capital K which I have found to be particularly difficult for some kids), I cut out the rest of the name in template form and that went very quickly, although he did use the template for the remainder of the year (about 5 months), before actually “going solo”.

3. I have made templates for children out of Mylar using an exacto knife and an old piece of glass (like cutting a stencil for painting). You can find the Mylar at any craft supply store with the stenciling supplies. You place the Mylar on the glass, hold the exacto knife in a stable position with the tip at an angle to cut firmly through the Mylar (you can feel the glass), and slide the Mylar under the knife. This technique gives you great control and allows you to cut even the smallest details. The Mylar last indefinitely. Even if the child rip it or if you make a mistake cutting, the templates can be mended by covering the area with scotch tape and recutting just the tape.

4. I have often used the die cut machines available in all of my schools. I bought index cards and laminated them, then put them through the die cut machine to make whatever letters I need or providing an entire alphabet for the students to practice at home with parents. It works well with washable markers as well, having the children trace on top of the letters with these markers. Different schools have different sizes; I was able to get letters as large as 2 inches, down to 1 inch. If your schools don’t have these die cut machines, they are often available in craft stores.

5. I use the schools die cut machine with the student’s name/ letters. But I put sand paper in it to cut. Then these can be used to feel the letters better. Some are put under paper and crayons rubbed over to create the letters on the paper. And no the sandpaper does not hurt the machine. In fact it sharpens it.

6. I’ve made templates before. They do tend to last well on laminated poster board but often get lost. I get so discouraged because it takes a long tedious process to make it with an exacto. I have not found a better way for older kids but at one school they had small enough (1 inch?) dye-cut letter cutters to make templates for Kindergartners. That was so easy. Recently considered trying to cut one out of dycem with adhesive contact paper on the (up) side to prevent slipping. Still just an untried idea so far

7. You can also use Crayola Changeable markers for tracing. The teacher/mother/parent can draw a letter or shape or line, and the child has to trace over it to change the color. (There is one clear crayon, which will change the other color when the child traces over it.) .

NEW this year from Crayola and available in Wal-Mart and Shop Rite is a pair of yellow highlighters with erasable ends. I imagine they were designed for students who underline their books and would like to remove the yellow. BUT we can use them to write and draw and have our children TRACE and ERASE over the lines.

8. Plexiglas Window. I have purchased Plexiglas at the local hardware store cut to size. Holding this up right (helps if you can make a stand) I write on one side and have the child trace over my lines. For letters you will have to write backwards. It can be a fun game of catch me if you can (tag).

Compiled by Linda Cammaroto, OTR/L