Cronk y Berry uses the Morrells’ Handwriting scheme to develop the children's handwriting. These resources cover the key stages of the writing process from letter formation to cursive writing and centre on the idea that it’s important for children to create letters stroke by stroke on paper. There are six workbooks in all, three devoted to letter formation and three to joining letters, all based on ability rather than age and unique in their approach to teaching handwriting. All of the workbooks, including the teachers’ book, use Morrells’ newly developed bounce technique.
Letter Formation Workbook 1 teaches the letters in the correct handwriting families and ensures that old handwriting habits are corrected, progressing through six levels step by step. Workbooks 2 and 3 offer further letter formation and handwriting practice to help writers print confidently and at speed. They also teach the correct letter spacing and embed the placing of letters on the line before moving on to joined-up handwriting. Workbook 3 practises, amongst other things, high-frequency words, parts of speech, contractions and conjunctions.
The first Joining Letters workbook uses the bounce technique to show the correct horizontal and diagonal joins used to master joined-up handwriting. Books 2 and 3 embed the joining technique and help writers to gain fluency and speed, focusing on muscle strength and storing handwriting style in the writer’s muscle memory. Workbook 3 gets writers to practise their handwriting using synonyms, homophones, direct speech, reported speech, punctuation, story openings, story endings and paragraphs.
Other than the front covers, the books are consciously free from graphics, so as to avoid distracting from the task at hand.