Fonts and handwriting

Follifoot Farm and Jelly and Bean books use the Sassoon family of fonts. The Sassoon fonts were designed following research done with children to find out which fonts they found the easiest to read. They have been developed with children, for children to simplify the link between reading and handwriting.

'As I was researching the government document "Developing Early Writing", published by the Standards and Effectiveness Unit of the DfEE in 2001, I noticed that the letters on page 164, which show the correct formation of each letter of the alphabet, were exactly the same as the letters in the Sassoon font on my computer'. Marlene Greenwood, author and illustrator of the Jelly and Bean and Follifoot Farm books.

Fonts

Jelly and Bean books are printed in the Sassoon Primary Infant family of fonts including dotted infant fonts.

These fonts are available from http://www.clubtype.co.uk/

Handwriting

c a d o g q e all begin with an anticlockwise movement of the hand.

m n h b p r k all begin with a downward movement which is then retraced upward and followed by a clockwise movement.

t l u i j y all begin with a downward movement and a turn at the bottom of the stroke.

s f begin with an anticlockwise movement and are then followed by a clockwise movement.

v w x z all use straight lines only.

If children are taught these correct hand movements as they write, then they are less likely to mix up 'b', 'd' and 'p'. These hand movements also lead on the joined up writing.