Letter Formation

Why it is Important to Teach Correct Letter Formation!

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

It can often be assumed children will pick up how to write letters if they see them often enough (by osmosis). This is just not the case.  Correct letter formation has to be taught. Seeing a completed letter or word or watching it being typed up and appear on a screen does not show children how to form the letters.

For children to develop a good handwriting style it is important to learn how to form letters correctly to begin with as this makes the transition from single letter formation to joined letter handwriting much easier. This enables them to develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page32 & 33; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework now recognizes and highlights the importance of teaching correct letter formation from the very beginning, so, starting in foundation stage:

“It should be:

• daily, until pupils can write legibly and easily

• taught in small steps, with lots of opportunity for practice

• cumulative: teachers should build on what pupils have learned previously 

• consolidated before teaching moves on so that pupils do not practise letters incorrectly

• revisited when further practice is needed

• demonstrated by the teacher

• additional to any handwriting that forms part of teaching phonics”

Letters are created through joining lines and curve shapes in a particular way. They have a designated start point and set directional pushes and pulls of the pencil to reach the designated finish point. This is why from the very start (2012) Teach Handwriting has always taught letter formation in groups/families rather than in alphabetical order (a Year 1 national curriculum statutory requirement in 2015). Certain groups use the same, or similar, shape and directional push and pulls of the pencil to form the letter, for instance the letter c has the same start point and anti-clockwise directional movement shape that is needed to create the letters a, d, g, o and, though a little more complicated, the letters s and e. Teaching letters in groups and families can also help to limit letter reversals such as b and d.

Another interesting and very important useful point included in the “Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 33; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework, for Year 1 is that:

“Wide-lined paper is essential at this stage. Mid-line guides can also help pupils to position letters. Pupils should be introduced to paper with narrower lines once they can write legibly and easily on wide-lined paper.”

Which I believe, acknowledging the fact that children can form their letters correctly if taught correctly but may not be ready for narrow line height paper due to their developmental stage of their fine motor skill.

Also, it explains how in Year 2:

“To join letters easily and legibly, pupils first need to form the shape of each letter correctly, starting and finishing each one at the correct point and ensuring that its size is properly related to other letters in the same family.”

Due to how handwriting has or hasn’t been taught over the generations we all have our own way of handwriting. When supporting and teaching young children we need to develop a consistent approach so that they do not get confused or frustrated by adults giving them conflicting information.

For parents this means finding out from your child’s school which letter font they are teaching so that you can support them more effectively at home. This may mean that you have to learn a new way of writing some letters.

This also applies to teachers and teaching assistants; “Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 32; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework states:

“Teachers’ own handwriting should provide a model of high standards, across the curriculum and not just in handwriting lessons, but particularly when pupils are learning to write.”

As the adults in the situation, we have to accept that it is for us to make the changes. Just because something is different to the way we were taught, or do it, doesn’t mean it is wrong, it is just different! 

Our free letter animations are not just to support children with their learning but also to provide parents and teachers (all adults really) with the knowledge and support to help children develop a consistent handwriting style.

Parent animation link: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/parents.html

Teacher animation link – click through on the Key Stage you are teaching: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/teach-handwriting-teachers.html

Stage 2 to #Handwriting Success – Single Letter Formation (non-pencil activities)

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

Over the last couple of weeks, we explained that pre-handwriting patterns are the first stage of learning to handwrite. Once a child has mastered these, they are ready to start learning how to form letters.

But where do you start?

Our view is to focus on lower-case letters first and only the capital letters for the first letter in a child’s, examples: Peter Rabbit, Sally Green, George Blue or Mary Shell.

Why?

  • One reason is that about 95% of what children write, and are exposed to, is in a lower-case form and only 5% in capital.
  • Lower-case letters are far less complicated, requiring fewer pencil lifts to complete the letters.
  • As both lower-case and capital letters require a child to form curved lines, a skill which most children have to practice, writing lower-case letters is no more difficult than writing capitals.
  • In a young child’s writing, all the letters are initially the same size, whether they are capitals or lower case; it is part of the normal developmental path of handwriting. So, the view that teaching capitals letters is easier because they are bigger is not true.
  • Young children who have learnt mostly capital letters first find it difficult to stop, as it is so ingrained into the memory, often using them half way through words and sentences. Even when they are older this inappropriate use of capitals creeps back into their work especially if they are tired or concentrating hard on composing their work.

A child’s first major achievement, in their eyes, is to write their name. So, although concentrating on lower-case letters, teach them how to form the capital letter for the first letters of their name to get them excited about handwriting.

As they master the lower-case letters introduce the remainder of the capital letters. It is important that both are taught so that a child can develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

As with the pre-handwriting patterns, part one of learning correct letter formation is through non-pencil activities. This is because it supports the storage of the larger gross motor memory movements; the stage of development that EYFS are working at. They can then tap into those gross motor memory movements as their fine motor skills are developing; taking the stored large movement to a smaller and smaller scale.  

Once again ‘The writing framework’ acknowledges that:

“On joining reception, some children may need teaching and practice in using and manoeuvring their thumb, wrist and shoulder muscles in the way they need for handwriting. Initially, handwriting lessons could include learning the movements needed to form letters, practising these movements at a range of sizes…”

Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 24; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework

It is through play that you can really engage a child in learning how to correctly form their letters, and has always been an important foundation stone in our Foundation Stage Teach Handwriting Scheme (https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/handwriting-teaching-manuals.html#hs-fs ) and strongly promoted on our website https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk ) and blog (https://teachhandwriting.blog/ ) since 2012.  

Our non-pencil – ‘Big to Small’ activities are an easy fun way to start developing these skills early on through play: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/big-to-small.html

The Three Stages to Learning Handwriting

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

There are three distinct stages for children to progress through to develop a good handwriting style:

Stage 1 – Pre-handwriting Patterns

Pre-handwriting patterns support a child towards handwriting success. They help the them to learn the shapes and directional pushes and pulls required to form letters. All letters are a combination of these shapes and lines.

Stage 2 – Single Letter Formation

For children to develop a good handwriting style it is important to learn how to form the letters correctly.

Beginning with lower-case letters and only the capital letters for the first letter in a child’s name, examples: Peter Rabbit, Sally Green, George Blue or Mary Shell.

Learning the correct lower-case letter formation also makes the transition from single letter formation to joined letter handwriting much easier.

Stage 3 – Joined Handwriting

Learning to join letters for handwriting enables children to develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

How to improve your child’s handwriting

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

School Reports – Handwriting Improvements Needed!

So, the school report has been received and you have been told that your child needs to improve their handwriting.

This is all well and good, but what exactly needs improving?

What are they finding difficult and how on earth do you write a continuous cursive z? 

So, you eventually get some handwriting practice sheets home or off the web. But no amount of time spent doing them seems to make much difference. It seemed to take longer to get them started than they spent practising handwriting. In fact they seemed worse because they were unhappy and frustrated with their own progress, so the more you try to push them the more resistant they become. Eventually you think there has to be a better way than this?

Doing more of what you are already struggling with is not always the answer. Handwriting is a complex skill to learn and there are a number of reasons why a child may be struggling.

There is a lot of information and free resources on our ‘Parent’ page which has been designed to help you: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/parents.html

Try not to get over whelm, take things slowly and keep it simple.

Some things you might want to check and work on first before thinking about your child’s letter or join formation:

  • How are they sitting, is it a good position, it makes a difference;
  • Paper position and tilt can have a real impact especially if they are left-handed writers;
  • Are they using an efficient pencil grip for their age.

If your child is finding some or all of these elements difficult it might be that you need to work on their physical strength as well. Again, you will find information and games to help build this at the same time. And with the summer holidays coming up it is a great time for you to play games and do activities which then help them to develop the strengths and skills which may be holding them back and making handwriting a difficult task to master.

It is important to check and know which letter formations are being taught in school and that this is what you teach at home. Otherwise, you will only be causing more frustration and stress for your child.

Please note that if the letter formation being shown in the @Parent@ section is not the one being taught in school, check our @Teacher@ section of the website as you may find it there: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/key-stage-1-handwriting-routes.html

Transferring handwriting skills from worksheets to paper 

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

At Teach Children our aim is to move children off of worksheets as soon as possible. To achieve this, it is important to encourage them to transfer their skills to plain or lined paper whichever is most appropriate to their ability level. We realise that it is not always possible to buy paper with the appropriate line height in all cases, so would recommend creating your own on the computer.

  • Use a combination of worksheets and lined paper in each handwriting session with your child:
    • Use the colour worksheet, or a grey scale version, and complete one or two rows.
    • Then encourage the child to try the same patterns or letters on appropriately lined paper, again try one or two rows only.

Hopefully the worksheet will last over a couple of handwriting sessions and you and the child will see an improvement over the time. The sooner they learn to transfer their skills to paper the better.

We realise that printing off our worksheets and coloured lined paper can become costly so, to help reduce the costs:

  • Use a colour version of the appropriate worksheet initially and then try printing in grey scale. Children usually make the adjustment to grey scale well once they are used to how the picture clues and colours work.
  • You could also use the grey scale worksheets and colour the start of each row with the appropriate colour.

Why it is Important to Teach Correct Letter Formation!

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

It can often be assumed children will pick up how to write letters if they see them often enough (by osmosis). This is just not the case.  Correct letter formation has to be taught. Seeing a completed letter or word or watching it being typed up and appear on a screen does not show children how to form the letters.

For children to develop a good handwriting style it is important to learn how to form letters correctly to begin with as this makes the transition from single letter formation to joined letter handwriting much easier. This enables them to develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page32 & 33; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework now recognizes and highlights the importance of teaching correct letter formation from the very beginning, so, starting in foundation stage:

“It should be:

  • • daily, until pupils can write legibly and easily
  • • taught in small steps, with lots of opportunity for practice
  • • cumulative: teachers should build on what pupils have learned previously 
  • • consolidated before teaching moves on so that pupils do not practise letters incorrectly
  • • revisited when further practice is needed
  • • demonstrated by the teacher
  • • additional to any handwriting that forms part of teaching phonics”

Letters are created through joining lines and curve shapes in a particular way. They have a designated start point and set directional pushes and pulls of the pencil to reach the designated finish point. This is why from the very start (2012) Teach Handwriting has always taught letter formation in groups/families rather than in alphabetical order (a Year 1 national curriculum statutory requirement in 2015). Certain groups use the same, or similar, shape and directional push and pulls of the pencil to form the letter, for instance the letter c has the same start point and anti-clockwise directional movement shape that is needed to create the letters a, d, g, o and, though a little more complicated, the letters s and e. Teaching letters in groups and families can also help to limit letter reversals such as b and d.

Another interesting and very important useful point included in the “Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 33; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework, for Year 1 is that:

“Wide-lined paper is essential at this stage. Mid-line guides can also help pupils to position letters. Pupils should be introduced to paper with narrower lines once they can write legibly and easily on wide-lined paper.”

Which I believe, acknowledging the fact that children can form their letters correctly if taught correctly but may not be ready for narrow line height paper due to their developmental stage of their fine motor skill.

Also, it explains how in Year 2:

“To join letters easily and legibly, pupils first need to form the shape of each letter correctly, starting and finishing each one at the correct point and ensuring that its size is properly related to other letters in the same family.”

Due to how handwriting has or hasn’t been taught over the generations we all have our own way of handwriting. When supporting and teaching young children we need to develop a consistent approach so that they do not get confused or frustrated by adults giving them conflicting information.

For parents this means finding out from your child’s school which letter font they are teaching so that you can support them more effectively at home. This may mean that you have to learn a new way of writing some letters.

This also applies to teachers and teaching assistants; “Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 32; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework states:

“Teachers’ own handwriting should provide a model of high standards, across the curriculum and not just in handwriting lessons, but particularly when pupils are learning to write.”

As the adults in the situation, we have to accept that it is for us to make the changes. Just because something is different to the way we were taught, or do it, doesn’t mean it is wrong, it is just different! 

Our free letter animations are not just to support children with their learning but also to provide parents and teachers (all adults really) with the knowledge and support to help children develop a consistent handwriting style.

Parent animation link: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/parents.html

Teacher animation link – click through on the Key Stage you are teaching: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/teach-handwriting-teachers.html

Stage 2 to #Handwriting Success – Single Letter Formation (non-pencil activities)

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

Over the last couple of weeks, we explained that pre-handwriting patterns are the first stage of learning to handwrite. Once a child has mastered these, they are ready to start learning how to form letters.

But where do you start?

Our view is to focus on lower-case letters first and only the capital letters for the first letter in a child’s, examples: Peter Rabbit, Sally Green, George Blue or Mary Shell.

Why?

  • One reason is that about 95% of what children write, and are exposed to, is in a lower-case form and only 5% in capital.
  • Lower-case letters are far less complicated, requiring fewer pencil lifts to complete the letters.
  • As both lower-case and capital letters require a child to form curved lines, a skill which most children have to practice, writing lower-case letters is no more difficult than writing capitals.
  • In a young child’s writing, all the letters are initially the same size, whether they are capitals or lower case; it is part of the normal developmental path of handwriting. So, the view that teaching capitals letters is easier because they are bigger is not true.
  • Young children who have learnt mostly capital letters first find it difficult to stop, as it is so ingrained into the memory, often using them half way through words and sentences. Even when they are older this inappropriate use of capitals creeps back into their work especially if they are tired or concentrating hard on composing their work.

A child’s first major achievement, in their eyes, is to write their name. So, although concentrating on lower-case letters, teach them how to form the capital letter for the first letters of their name to get them excited about handwriting.

As they master the lower-case letters introduce the remainder of the capital letters. It is important that both are taught so that a child can develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

As with the pre-handwriting patterns, part one of learning correct letter formation is through non-pencil activities. This is because it supports the storage of the larger gross motor memory movements; the stage of development that EYFS are working at. They can then tap into those gross motor memory movements as their fine motor skills are developing; taking the stored large movement to a smaller and smaller scale.  

Once again ‘The writing framework’ acknowledges that:

“On joining reception, some children may need teaching and practice in using and manoeuvring their thumb, wrist and shoulder muscles in the way they need for handwriting. Initially, handwriting lessons could include learning the movements needed to form letters, practising these movements at a range of sizes…”

Department of Education; The writing framework: July 2025; page 24; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework

It is through play that you can really engage a child in learning how to correctly form their letters, and has always been an important foundation stone in our Foundation Stage Teach Handwriting Scheme (https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/handwriting-teaching-manuals.html#hs-fs ) and strongly promoted on our website https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk ) and blog (https://teachhandwriting.blog/ ) since 2012.  

Our non-pencil – ‘Big to Small’ activities are an easy fun way to start developing these skills early on through play: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/big-to-small.html

The Three Stages to Learning #Handwriting

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

There are three distinct stages for children to progress through to develop a good handwriting style:

Stage 1 – Pre-handwriting Patterns

Pre-handwriting patterns support a child towards handwriting success. They help the them to learn the shapes and directional pushes and pulls required to form letters. All letters are a combination of these shapes and lines.

Stage 2 – Single Letter Formation

For children to develop a good handwriting style it is important to learn how to form the letters correctly.

Beginning with lower-case letters and only the capital letters for the first letter in a child’s name, examples: Peter Rabbit, Sally Green, George Blue or Mary Shell.

Learning the correct lower-case letter formation also makes the transition from single letter formation to joined letter handwriting much easier.

Stage 3 – Joined Handwriting

Learning to join letters for handwriting enables children to develop a speedy, fluid and legible handwriting style.

School Reports – Handwriting Improvements Needed!

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

So, the school report has been received and you have been told that your child needs to improve their handwriting.

This is all well and good, but what exactly needs improving?

What are they finding difficult and how on earth do you write a continuous cursive z? 

So, you eventually get some handwriting practice sheets home or off the web. But no amount of time spent doing them seems to make much difference. It seemed to take longer to get them started than they spent practising handwriting. In fact they seemed worse because they were unhappy and frustrated with their own progress, so the more you try to push them the more resistant they become. Eventually you think there has to be a better way than this?

Doing more of what you are already struggling with is not always the answer. Handwriting is a complex skill to learn and there are a number of reasons why a child may be struggling.

There is a lot of information and free resources on our ‘Parent’ page which has been designed to help you: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/parents.html

Try not to get over whelm, take things slowly and keep it simple.

Some things you might want to check and work on first before thinking about your child’s letter or join formation:

  • How are they sitting, is it a good position, it makes a difference;
  • Paper position and tilt can have a real impact especially if they are left-handed writers;
  • Are they using an efficient pencil grip for their age.

If your child is finding some or all of these elements difficult it might be that you need to work on their physical strength as well. Again, you will find information and games to help build this at the same time. And with the summer holidays coming up it is a great time for you to play games and do activities which then help them to develop the strengths and skills which may be holding them back and making handwriting a difficult task to master.

It is important to check and know which letter formations are being taught in school and that this is what you teach at home. Otherwise, you will only be causing more frustration and stress for your child.

Please note that if the letter formation being shown in the @Parent@ section is not the one being taught in school, check our @Teacher@ section of the website as you may find it there: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/key-stage-1-handwriting-routes.html

Transferring handwriting skills from worksheets to paper 

lucyteachchildrenLeave a comment

At Teach Children our aim is to move children off of worksheets as soon as possible. To achieve this, it is important to encourage them to transfer their skills to plain or lined paper whichever is most appropriate to their ability level. We realise that it is not always possible to buy paper with the appropriate line height in all cases, so would recommend creating your own on the computer.

  • Use a combination of worksheets and lined paper in each handwriting session with your child:
  • Use the colour worksheet, or a grey scale version, and complete one or two rows.
  • Then encourage the child to try the same patterns or letters on appropriately lined paper, again try one or two rows only.

Hopefully the worksheet will last over a couple of handwriting sessions and you and the child will see an improvement over the time. The sooner they learn to transfer their skills to paper the better.

We realise that printing off our worksheets and coloured lined paper can become costly so, to help reduce the costs:

  • Use a colour version of the appropriate worksheet initially and then try printing in grey scale. Children usually make the adjustment to grey scale well once they are used to how the picture clues and colours work.
  • You could also use the grey scale worksheets and colour the start of each row with the appropriate colour.