Kendall Grabinski named Grand National Handwriting Champion
Grand National Handwriting Champion Kendall Grabinski looks up and smiles, taking a break from her careful recreation of the sentence: ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Kendall Grabinski, a fifth grade student at Lehman-Jackson Elementary School, demonstrates her handwriting skills.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Lehman-Jackson Elementary School teacher Jennifer Welby talks about the benefits of cursive writing as Kendall Grabinski works on recreating a sample of her prize-winning penmanship.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Here is a sample of Kendall Grabinski’s handwriting, chosen as a winning entry in the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Contest.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Kendall Grabinski looks closely at her work.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Ask Kendall Grabinski what she does well, and the fifth grader from Lehman-Jackson Elementary School mentions gymnastics and drawing.
Ask her teacher, Jennifer Welby, about Kendall and she describes “a very hard-worker, very determined and very kind. A good girl.”
Ask the folks who organize the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, and they’ll tell you Kendall is a champion. Specifically, she’s their Grand National Champion on the fifth grade level, skilled in the writing of flowing, cursive letters.
“I’m very proud of her,” Mrs. Welby said last week as two classroom visitors watched Kendall slowly and carefully recreate her prize-winning contest entry: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
Each of the thousands of students who entered this year’s 34th annual Zaner-Bloser contest wrote the same sentence, which was chosen because it uses every letter in the alphabet — from the “t” and “e” that pop up so frequently to the “q’ and “x” and “z” that would earn more points in a Scrabble game because they’re relatively rare.
Because Kendall prints most of her assignments, and types others on a keyboard, Mrs. Welby said, her skill in shaping and slanting cursive letters wasn’t widely known. But after the faculty chose her entry to represent her school, Zaner-Bloser selected her as one of this year’s seven Grand National Champions, each in a different grade from Kindergarten through 6.
While some schools no longer teach cursive writing, the Lake-Lehman School District considers it an important skill and teaches it to second- and third-graders.
Research has shown that writing by hand engages multiple parts of the brain, and helps develop fine motor skills. Mrs. Welby pointed out there are practical advantages, too, from being able to read historic letters and documents to being able to decipher the old family recipes that may have been written on index cards in cursive handwriting.
“Research continues to tell us that writing by hand is imperative to learning, and we believe every child should have the opportunity to learn the art of penmanship,” Lisa Carmona, Zaner-Bloser president, said via a news release. “Strong handwriting skills are associated with ongoing reading and math achievement as late as fifth grade.”
In recognition of Kendall’s achievement, Zaner-Bloser will send her $500, and award her school $1,000 worth of instructional materials.
The champion, who would like to be a veterinarian or an Olympic gymnast when she grows up, is the daughter of Amy and David Grabinski, and has two younger sisters, Abby and Peyton, who are in third grade.
Kendall is the third national champion from Lehman-Jackson Elementary School has produced in recent years. Aubriella Wojnarski won for her cursive handwriting as a fourth grader in 2020, and Ainsley Vitkoski won in the print category as a first grader in 2023.
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