The Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series utilizes six different writing sizes, based on the student’s developmental level. For instance, Kindergarteners learn to form letters at 14mm. (In other words, the body height of the lowercase letter without ascender or descender is 14mm). On the other extreme, 6th graders (and up) can use a 4mm body height.
Extra Getty-Dubay® ruled lines pages are in the back of each Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series workbook and Instruction Manual for you to scan or photocopy for classroom use, and are also available at handwritingsuccess.com.
However, generic lined paper is usually plentiful, and you will most likely want to have your students use the appropriate lined paper size for their handwriting practice, writing assignments and note taking. These sizes are typically called Wide Ruled, College Ruled and Narrow Ruled.
It is best if the line height matches the appropriate body height of the letter for the student’s developmental level. That usually means the lowercase ‘a’ fills the distance between the baseline and the waistline, whereas the capital letter reaches only halfway to the next line above, as you can see in the images below. Descenders reach down half way to the next line below. Older students should be able to keep the body height of their written letters consistent, and therefore can use lined paper where the there is no visible waistline (see Images 2 and 3 below).
Here are our recommendations for best practices:
Kindergarten — Use only the baseline, and separate it from other lines by about 28mm (twice the lowercase body height).
1st grade — Use Narrow Ruled paper and make the lowercase body height 2 lines tall (see Image 1).
2nd and 3rd grade — Use Wide Ruled paper and make the lowercase body height 1 line tall (see Image 2).
2nd (advanced) thought 4th grade — Use Narrow Ruled paper and make the lowercase body height 1 line tall (see Image 1).
3rd (advanced) grade and up — Use either Narrow Ruled paper and make the capital height 1 line tall (see Image 1) or use Wide Ruled paper and make the lowercase body height ½ line tall (see Image 3). Neither the lowercase letters or capitals will touch the line above.
5th grade and up — Use College Ruled paper and leave a gap line between writing lines (see Image 2). The baseline is the focus. Neither the lowercase letters or capitals will touch the line above.
Happy writing!
Image 1. Narrow ruled paper.
Image 2. College ruled paper.
Image 3. Wide ruled paper.
