How it works
- Pick your letters: the whole alphabet, the vowels, or just this week’s letter.
- Choose capitals, lowercase or both, and a handwriting style.
- Set the size and rows. The sheet on the right updates as you go.
- Download and print. All the letters you picked come out in one PDF.
What’s on each sheet
Every row starts with a model box: the letter in solid ink, a colour picture and its word, like an apple for A and a kite for K. (X shows a fox, as many phonics programmes do, because so few words start with x.) Beside it are three-line handwriting guides with the letter in grey, dotted or hollow outline to trace, and empty space at the end of the row to write it alone. With start dots switched on, the first letter to trace in each row shows a green dot where the pencil starts and a red arrow for the first move.
Teaching letter formation
Start at the top
Almost every print letter starts at the top line or the dashed midline and moves down. Children who learn this early write faster and more neatly later, and it stops habits like drawing an o clockwise from the bottom.
Group letters by how they start
Many teachers introduce letters in families rather than in A to Z order: the “magic c” letters (c, a, d, g, o, q) all start with the same curve, and the down-stroke letters (l, i, t) are the easiest of all. Pick a family with the letter tiles.
Say it while they write
Talk through the strokes out loud (“start at the top, pull down, lift, cross”) and have children say the letter’s sound and the example word.
In the New Zealand Curriculum
- Te WhārikiIn early childhood, the Mana reo | Communication strand includes children coming to recognise print symbols and use them with meaning and purpose.
- First 6 monthsNew entrants learn every letter of the alphabet together with its sound, and are taught to form letters and numbers correctly.
- Year 1Letters and numbers written neatly, with a good pencil grip.
- Year 2All letters and numbers formed correctly, with a grip that feels comfortable.
The 2025 English curriculum takes a structured literacy approach, so new entrants usually meet letters in the order their school’s phonics programme teaches the sounds, not from A to Z. Tap the single letters that match this week’s sounds and have children say the sound each time they trace.
Pair the sheet with a decodable book that uses the same letters. A child who traces a sound on Monday and reads it in a story later that week sees why the letter matters.
Summarised in our own words from Te Whāriki (2017), the early childhood curriculum, and the New Zealand Curriculum: English, Years 0–6 (2025).
