How to use these letter tracing worksheets
Print one page a day and sit with your child for ten minutes. Begin with the three warm-up pages: straight lines, curves and circles are the pieces every letter is made of, and a child who can draw them smoothly finds letters much easier.
Each letter page has the same four parts, so after a day or two your child knows what to do on their own:
- a big model letter, with a green dot where the pencil starts, numbers for the order of the lines and arrows for the way they go
- a picture and a word that begins with the letter
- rows of dotted letters to trace, then room to write it on their own
- the word itself, dotted, to trace at the bottom
Capital letters first, then lowercase
Capitals are built from straight lines and big curves, and every one of them starts at the top line, so they are the gentlest place to begin. That is the order of these pages: A to E in capitals, then a to e in lowercase. If your child already writes some lowercase letters, start wherever they are — the pages work in any order.
Tips for little hands
- A short, chunky crayon or a triangle pencil is easier to hold than a long thin pencil.
- Sit at a table with feet flat on the floor, paper straight in front.
- Say the lines out loud while tracing: "down, down, across" for A.
- Praise starting at the green dot more than neat lines. Where a letter starts matters more at this age than how tidy it looks.
- Stop while it is still fun. Ten good minutes are worth more than thirty tired ones.
Who these are for
Children of about 4 to 6, in preschool, pre-K or kindergarten, who can hold a crayon and are curious about letters. The letters are a simple ball-and-stick print, the style most US schools teach first.
US Letter or A4
The download comes in both sizes: US Letter for the United States and Canada, A4 for the UK, Europe, Australia and most other countries. Print in color or in black and white — the dots and lines are dark enough either way.
Want the whole alphabet?
These thirteen pages come straight from our Kindergarten Handwriting Workbook: 107 pages with every capital and every lowercase letter from A to Z, numbers 0 to 20, color words, days and months, short sentences, and pages for writing their own name. To make a dotted page with your child's name right now, try the free name tracing maker.
