Handwriting and tracingPre-K to grade 1
Letter tracing worksheets
Prints all 26 letters, one line each, as an uppercase and lowercase pair such as Aa. The first pair on every line is dark to copy and the rest are grey to trace. It suits preschoolers through first graders who are learning to print.
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On this page
What prints
The sheet runs from A to Z with one letter pair per line, so a full alphabet takes several pages. The first copy on each line is dark. It is the model. Every copy after it is light grey and meant to be written over with a pencil. At the top is a Name line, and the title reads "Letter Tracing A to Z".
Each writing line has three guides. A thin solid line sits at the top, a dashed line marks the middle, and a darker line forms the baseline. The dashed line is placed at the height of a small letter, so an "a" or "c" fills the space between the dashed line and the baseline, while "b" or "d" reaches up to the top line. Tails of letters like "g" and "y" hang below the baseline.
The letters are plain Helvetica print, drawn in grey. They are not a school handwriting font, so a few shapes (the lowercase "a" is the usual one) may differ from the style your child's teacher uses. If your school teaches a specific style, show your child that style on a whiteboard and use this sheet for the practice of stroke order and spacing.
The settings
- Practice. Starts on "Alphabet letters". The other choices switch the sheet to numbers, a name, sentences or blank paper.
- Letters. "Upper and lower case (Aa)" is the default here. "Uppercase only" and "Lowercase only" print one case per line, which means more room for repeats.
- Line size. three choices: Large for pre-K and K, Medium for grades 1 to 2, Small for grades 3 and up. Large lines are tall and give a young hand room to move, but fewer lines fit on a page, so the alphabet spreads over more sheets. Small lines fit most of the alphabet on two pages.
How to use it
Do a few letters at a time rather than the whole alphabet. Five to eight minutes is plenty for a four-year-old. Say the letter name and its sound, then have the child trace the dark model first with a finger and then with a pencil. The goal is to start at the top and keep letters sitting on the baseline, not to stay perfectly inside the grey.
Pay attention to where each stroke begins. Most print letters start at the top and move down or around, and a habit set early is hard to change later. Watch one letter being made, then step back.
If a letter keeps coming out reversed, such as "b" and "d", do not drill the page. Make the shape in sand or with a finger on the table, then return to it another day.
Worked example: Maya, age five
Maya knows most of her letters by sight but writes "g" like a number 9 with the tail on the wrong side. Her parent chooses Letters: Upper and lower case, Line size: Large and prints the pages for G through J only.
On the "Gg" line, they cover the first dark pair and ask Maya to say the sound. She traces the capital G in one motion, then the lowercase g, starting just below the dashed line, curving to the left and finishing with the tail hanging beneath the baseline. After four grey copies she writes one of her own at the end of the line, and her parent circles the best one. Next day they do "Hh" and "Ii".
When the alphabet is familiar, move on to number tracing or to the name tracing worksheet, which uses the same lines.