Writing the alphabet - How do we Learn to Write Alphabet Letters?

Before your child learns about writing the alphabet, it is important that they understand what the letters of the alphabet are and have an understanding of what the alphabet is.

Once they can understand this it is much easier for them to learn the reading and writing of letters.

FREE Printable Alphabet Letters. The uppercase and lowercase of each letter are presented in the dotted font for your child to trace over. You have the choice of fonts, depending on where your child goes to school.

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The way writing of the alphabet is taught, varies from school to school depending upon their language program. In most cases learning the letters of the alphabet is incorporated into the phonics program.

One of the earliest attempts your child will make at writing will often be in learning to write their own name. Give them many opportunities allowing them to write their name. Identify each letter with them, help them by writing it first yourself. Early attempts at writing will often be copying what they see.

Initially writing letters is focussed on their name and other words important to them. Gradually they will learn to write more letters until they became more independent writers. In many cases upper case letters will often be easier for the children to write. Therefore you may note that sometimes young children's writing combines both upper and lower case within words.

Within schools, there are many areas that need to be taught to young children before they begin writing the alphabet. For successful, comfortable writing and for correct letter formation, children need to learn:

  • how to sit correctly in their chair(good posture)
  • how to hold their pencil correctly
  • how to write on the paper in front of them

In many schools you may hear the following little rhyme:

One, two, three, four,
Are my feet flat on the floor.
Five, six, seven, eight,
Is my back up nice and straight.
Nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
Is my pencil properly held.

Often a handwriting book may be used for children to learn correct handwriting and letter formation. Each letter requires particular pencil motions. Some letters share these pencil motions, so these letters are often taught together. Learning may be broken down into the following order:

  • Clockwise letters - m,n,h,r,k,b,p,j (here our pencil movements go in a clockwise direction)
  • Straight Lined Letters - l,t,i,x,z (these are basically straight up and down letters. Pencil motion is made in straight lines)
  • Anticlockwise letters: u,v,w,a,d,q,o,e,c,f (here pencil moves in an anticlockwise direction to form the letters)
  • Double rotational letters - y,g,s (here the pencil moves in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions to form the letters.

Children also need to learn how these letters are written on the pages of their books. Early writing exercise books often include different lines so children learn the actual placement of letters.


This picture shows the common lined writing pad for early learners. When learning to write the alphabet letters, teachers may use a character on the lines that has a distinct head, body and tail - this may be a cat, a lizard, a seahorse etc.

Here you can see the cat's head reaches the top line, the body is within the blue lines and the tail touches the bottom line.


The second picture shows how different letters can be straight Body letters (written between the blue lines), Head and body letters or Body and tail letters.

Being able to write with correct letter formation, allows for a better quality of writing, that is legible and able to be read.

If you find your child struggling to form their letters correctly, KidsLearningisfun has handwriting cards in 2 formats, created to help your child. The cards are printed in the font your child will use at school and in dotted letters that can be easily traced over, wiped off and used over and over.


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