Teaching writing numerals- poems

When I student taught kindergarten here in Grand Junction years ago (I was a newlywed!), the teacher that I worked with was Carol Wagner. I have used a lot of ideas from her in my homeschool. One of my favorites was the way she taught writing, esp. numerals. She called the lined/ dotted line paper "house paper", because it had a basement, downstairs, upstairs, floor and ceiling. I refer to the parts of the "house" below in the jingles. Each numeral had its own little poem or jingle to it. I have them written on large index cards and have used them with each of my kids. So here they are... hope you can use them!

1- A straight line down, one is fun!

2- Start a little below the "ceiling"- not down on the dotted line.

A. Over the rainbow.
B. Slant back on a railroad track.
C. Two, two, two.
(slant back & down to floor, stop right underneath where you began.)

3. Start in the same place that you start for a two.
A. Around the tree.
B. Back up
 C. And around the tree.
That's the number three!

4. A. Down

B. And over
C. (Pick up your pencil and go back to the ceiling.)
D. And down some more (clear to the floor!)
That's the number four! *Must have this tail!

5. A. A little skinny man
B. With a big, fat tummy

C. And- he always wears a hat!
 (Little skinny man is the first part of the four and the tummy is the bottom of the three. Always put hat on last.)

6. A. 6 is a snake that CURVES down on the ground.
B. But it's too dark!

C. So he comes back out halfway.
(This is the first right to left numeral, there are lots of backwards 6s and then they begin to write 2 and 3 backward too!)

7. A. Straight over

B. Slant down to heaven
That's the number 7!

8. Another right to left- very confusing! Turn on dotted line and cross on dotted line.
A. Make an S
B. But do not wait!

C. Go back to the top.
That's the number 8!

9. Right to left "loop" has to live upstairs.
A. First you make a l-o-o-o-o-p

B. Then you make a l-i-i-i-i-i-ne
It's so easy to make a 9!

0. (Right to left)
A. Make a big l-o-o-o-o-p

You'll be a hero, once you learn to make a zero!