Teaching Handwriting - Chicago,IL

Our school used a program called Handwriting Without Tears, which the first grade teachers really seemed to like.
Make sure she gets lots of practice strengthening her fine motor skills, beading, lacing, cutting, stuff like that. Those muscle groups need to be worked in preparation for holding a pencil comfortably and correctly.
Of course most programs require some level of worksheets or workbooks. I think that's why so many kids hate learning to write (I know I did!) but there's not really any getting around it. It's like playing an instrument, the only way to improve is practice, practice, practice, playing the same letters, or notes over and over until they are lovely and clear.

We homeschool and my daughter loves the Zaner-Bloser cursive (books ordered from their website). It's very pretty and the books are fun. You can get lined paper and break out of workbook altogether, but it's a great alphabet. Their cursive alphabet starts during a second grade book after manuscript, but my daughter started cursive during first grade.

Thanks for letting us know how old she is.

I second Mamazita's use of Handwriting Without Tears. It does make use of a book and having to practice, but truly, at some point, she will have to do that. I'd start that at 6, but meanwhile, I like what Doc7287 says.

My kids did what is called "inventive spelling" in kinder and part of first grade. It keeps them from feeling "defeated", allowing them to not have to spell everything "just right". You work on the reading and spelling at the same time as the writing so that they slowly start to write sight words and vocab words with the right spelling. What you want is for them to initially learn to put their thoughts on paper without having to struggle to only think about the spelling.

By practicing the worksheets, they get used to making the letters so that they aren't struggling to remember how to make the letters at the same time they are dealing with putting words from their head onto paper, plus the spelling.

You know those free parenting magazines you find that have ads and articles? I saw a group class taught by an OT featuring Handwriting Without Tears for children who needed help learning to write. It was wonderful. Seeing other children do the same thing really does help kids stay on task and learn to do it. My son had a weakness in his writing hand, which is the reason I did it, BUT, it taught him the appropriate way to write (which makes writing easier than writing incorrectly) and it helped him learn the alphabet inside and out. I really believe that this is why my son ended up having no trouble learning to read.

If you could find one of these classes, you would find it much easier to teach her and she would really like it. Outside of that, try the other suggestions.

I tried quite a few tactics with my almost 5 year old that she wasn't very interested in. Hooked on phonics system, tactile cards, dry erase cards, write on puzzles. She does like to practice with a dry erase board. She also likes to send letters or cards to her mimi (who lives over an hour from us), and mimi compliments her on her skills and notices when she improves.
She also likes to print out practice sheets from ABCMouse.com (thinks it's pretty cool when I let her use the printer). I put them in plastic sheet protectors and let her use the dry erase markers so she can do it over and over.