To think I've been doing '5' wrong...

[FurrySlipperBoots]

my whole life?!

teachingmama.org/number-formation-rhymes/?fbclid=IwAR1_4E-PRQWOgMEmfkGMZeKsmexISYL1Ca-_zKPRMTLspq9g2nzaeEUxre0

Because that’s how it’s set on the app. You can change it under settings/personalisation on the website version but not on the app.

Ta mutchly MillicentMartha.

I start with the “hat” right to left and then go down the page and round in one continuous stroke

well that's a minute of my life i'll never get back!

I go bottom to top, one line. If I try any other way the hat ends up wonky..

@spugzbunny - glad that I'm not alone!

It's "down, fat, put on the hat". Yes I've taught my four year old this rhyme, no, maybe I shouldn't have 🙈

The thought of a five in two strokes has upset me a little bit. My 5 is all one thing and will remain that way. I have no issue with people starting at the bottom if that is their preference, but some things are just unnatural.

... cap becomes cape with e, hat becomes hate with e, magic magic e, magic magic e...

I remember being taught the "hat", but not as a rhyme. I do remember some other soundbites from primary school:

"2 has a curly toe."
"9 is a balloon on a string."

How about Z written with an extra curl, so it looks like a 3? I haven't seen a Z written like that for some time.

Top line left to right then pen off paper and write the rest

Huh I was at school in the late 90s/early 00s and never gave anything hat

I don't remember being taught any rhymes, and I do my 5 all in one go starting from the top right. It doesn't look like an S because I draw the right angle clearly. Seems like a waste of effort to go putting a hat on.

Speaking of wasted effort, I remember teaching myself to put an extra line across the middle of my 7s at some point in early secondary school because some other girls did that and I thought it looked smart. I've no idea why and it seems totally pointless if the 7's hat is long and flat enough, and the side slopy enough, to clearly distinguish it from a 1, but I still cross them automatically.

@wanderings I write my lower case z like that, no idea why though

I write my ‘z’s Like a curly three.

I also put a line through my sevens. I can’t remember when I started doing that. I don’t think I was taught to, but saw it somewhere and liked it.

Thought about this at work when writing a 5!
Is it a left handed/right handed thing perhaps? That it's quicker one way than the other if you're say, left handed - I do one downward stroke and am left handed? Would it take me longer to do the hat way than a right handed person?
Actually having typed that it sounds daft! Just a thought...!

I do a hat. But then I think my handwriting is quite old fashioned. (Not in a neat, cool kind of way though ) but my letters definitely look old fashioned, wonder why!

wheresthepurpleline only you can see those lilac backgrounds because that’s how you know your own posts on any topic.

Re. 5 with two strokes, you do it that way so that it doesn’t end up looking like an “s”.

I was taught that way, but now do it more like s. Age has made me lazy haha