Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
By
Michelle Rist
In my classroom we explain the handwriting “house” as a house
where a Zookeeper lives. When his animal/letter friends come for
a visit he only lets special animals into different parts of his house.
Here is a visual of how I explain the zookeeper’s house:
Attic: There are mice that live in the zookeeper’s attic. The letters are all scared of the
mice so they ALL stay out of the attic.
NOTE: I don’t draw the extra
attic lines every time– it is only
drawn on the day the house is
explained.
Ceiling
2nd Floor: Some animals are allowed to come
upstairs. They are called giraffe letters. They
are super tall and their heads touch the ceiling!
(b, d, f, h, k, l, t)
Steps
1st Floor: Some animals have to stay on the 1st
floor because they can’t climb the red steps
(their legs are too short!) We call these the
turtle letters.
(a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z)
Floor
letters hang out on the first floor with the turtles but they aren’t scared of the snake so they
like to “drop” their tail down to say “hi” to the
snake. We call these letter our brave
letters.
(g, j, p, q, y)
monkey
CAPITAL LETTERS: All capital letters are known as gorilla letters because they are
“Large and In Charge!”
They take up the whole house top to bottom but they
don’t like the mice or the snake so they stay away from those areas!
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Basement: A snake lives in the basement. Some
Here are some of the different ways I use these animals
as handwriting visuals:
*I print several of each animal onto cardstock, laminate them and put a magnet on the back.
They are always on my board so that when we talk about how to draw a letter we can grab the
matching animal and put it in our house. The visual helps us remember where in the house our
animal belongs & also where it’s not allowed to go. (Note: I use colored electrical tape on my
board to create my handwriting house. That way I don’t have to draw my house every time I
teach handwriting...it’s just always there!)
*We have 4 posters (giraffe, turtle, monkey & gorilla) on our wall. I die cut the letter we are
learning and we sort it onto the correct poster. Now we can always look at the posters to remind
ourselves which animal our letter is.
*When we chant names or spelling words we will pretend to be the animals that match the letter
and “animalcise” (sounds a lot more fun than exercise) to the word.
Turtle: crouch a little and put your hands on your knees
Giraffe: stand straight and tall with arms straight over your head
Monkey: drop into a crouch and let your hands touch the floor
Gorilla: make a muscle man pose
I have found this visual to be a VERY powerful tool especially when teaching children about
their own names! It also helps solidify the rule that ALL names start with a capital letter as
kids soon realize that everyone’s name starts with a gorilla letter!
My Name in Animals is also an activity page included in this pack and is a great extension of
the pocket chart activity.
*****Please excuse the use of the different animal clipart in the pictures in this pack. I have used this
method for years and have gone through many revisions of my animals and methods. Some of these pictures
will show the current animals (in this pack) and some will be older pictures from when I used DJ Inkers animals. The concepts and ideas remain the same no matter what clipart I’ve used! Thanks!
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
*When we build words in our pocket chart we will put the matching animal beneath each letter.
EX:
Overview of the pages in this packet:
1. Two posters of the house for you to laminate and hang as a reference (you can use both or
whichever you feel your students will understand the best). Also a reference sheet for
your writing center, students writing folders, journals, etc or just to hang on the wall for
further references.
2. Story of the Zookeeper’s House. The story explains each animals and why they have to stay
in certain parts of the “house.” After reading the story we do the Handwriting Zoo Sort
page together (included in this pack).
3. Pictures of each animal for you to print out and use during handwriting instruction. (You will
not be able to resize these clip arts so I would suggest you create your handwriting house to
the size of the these animals. Sorry...copyright rules!)
4. Poster headers. Cut out the header and glue to the top of a large piece of construction paper. Die cut each letter of the alphabet (capital and lowercase). As you teach each lesson
sort the letter onto the correct poster.
5. Sorting pages for use in centers and some alphabet sets to cut, laminate & use with sorting.
It’s a good idea to expose children to many different types of fonts so as an extension activity I’ve added a few pages of “fancy fonts.”
For more ideas and free activity to accompany this pack please visit my
blog at:
http://inspiredbykindergarten.blogspot.com/search/label/handwriting
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
6. Worksheet sorting pages for independent practice/assessment. You can use the center alphabet pages that are in this packets or you can have your students stamp letters. They
could also use the same cards you laminated for centers except when they pull out a letter
they write the letter on their page instead of placing it in the box. A few other fun ideas
would be to use letter craft punches or letter stickers.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
The next 3 pages in the pack
are reference posters.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
g j p q y
b d f h k l t
a c e i m n
o r s u v w
x z
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W X Y Z
Commonly asked question from
my Kinders:
My answer:
Nope! The “i” is a turtle holding
a balloon and the “j” is a monkey
holding a balloon. Aren’t they
lucky animals? It must be their
birthday!
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
What about the lowercase “i”
and “j”? Shouldn’t they both be
giraffes? They go to the 2nd
floor of the house!
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
I pause on each page and talk
about the aspects of the house
that we see. Before and after
reading I always tie these animals back into the main purpose of the story: writing letters!
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
The next 8 pages contain The
Handwriting Zoo story which I
use to introduce the animals to
the kids.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
“Come and visit!” He says.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is the Zookeeper friendly and kind
who loves to bring his animal friends
home all the time!
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is the Zookeeper’s house colorful and
small where all the animals come to play
and have a ball!
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is Capital gorilla who’s “LARGE and IN
CHARGE.” Ceiling to floor is his space in the
house but the attic and basement are too
crowded and small.
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is Giraffe who’s tall but that’s all. His head
goes way up and his feet touch the ground but
he’s scared of the mice and the snake- - he
stays away from them all!
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is Turtle who’s short, slow and fun. He stays
on the first floor because he can’t climb the steps!
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is Monkey who’s silly and nice. See his tail
dip down low and his hand grab the stairs? He
gets into trouble when playing too high so he
stays down low with turtle and snake.
“Come and visit!” Says the Zookeeper.
“But stay in your place!”
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
This is the Zookeeper’s house colorful and
small where all the animals come to play
and have a ball!
The next few pages are the animals to cut out, laminate and used as whole group
visuals. These animals are scaled to fit in this reference poster:
I tape this reference poster to a cookie sheet (or you could tape it to a wipe
board— anything magnetic.)
I put magnets on the back of my animals so they stick to the reference page.
Front of
cookie
sheet
As I introduce a new letter in handwriting I can write the letter on the laminated
poster with a wipe board marker and then use my magnetic animals as a visual to
show which animal the letter matches up to:
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Back of
cookie
sheet
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
I suggest printing 2 of this page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
A couple
different
Zookeepers you
could use as
extra visuals.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
The next 2 pages are the
headers you can cut out and
glue onto posters. As you introduce each letter during
your handwriting time you can
stick the letter onto the appropriate poster.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
The next 9 pages are activities you can use for
centers. Make copies of the sorting pages and
laminate. There are also several pages of different fonts to cut out and laminate to be
sorted.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
I wanted to include some letters for you but I
do not use the letters in this pack. Instead, I
use letters cut out of boxes of cereal, crackers,
etc. These letters are more colorful and sturdy
and come in a huge variety of fonts.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Sorting cards for
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Sorting cards for
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Sorting cards for
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Sorting cards for
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
Z
Sorting cards for
W
X
Y
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Sorting cards for
center page.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
a
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
The rest of the packet
includes independent practice
pages.
M
l
b
o
y
n
R
k
p
r
S
j
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Name _______________________________
Name _______________________________
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Cut and glue the letters into the correct box.
Cut and paste sheets for Crazy Zoo. I’ve included 2 Different sorts so activity can be done more than once.
b
H
m
N
s
T
z
a
B
h
m
n
s
T
z
y
c
i
d
e
j
o
u
p
v
k
Q
c
i
o
u
F
l
r
w
x
d
E
j
k
Q
f
L
p
v
w
R
x
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
A
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Students cut animals out from other sheet & paste appropriate matching animal pictures here:
Have either the teacher or the student write their name, a friend’s name or other word they are working on here:
Name ________________________
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com
Cut these animals out to use with “What’s My Name in Animals?”. Each student only needs 1/2 a sheet.
Created by Michelle Rist @ InspiredByKindergarten.blogspot.com