The strokes inside every letter
Every printed letter is made of a few strokes: a line down, a line across, a slant, a curve. Children who can draw those strokes smoothly find letters much easier to learn. Tracing lines lets them practice the strokes on their own, before letters ask them to remember shapes as well.
A good order
- Straight lines, across and then up and down.
- Slanted lines and zigzags, for letters like v, w and z.
- Waves and bumps, the curves in letters like n, m and s.
- Loops, a first taste of joined handwriting.
- Shapes, closing a line back where it started.
Next steps
When lines feel easy, move on to alphabet tracing with start dots and stroke arrows, and toname tracing for each child’s own name. Easy mazes practice the same pencil control.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC KEarly writing with scribbles and letter strings, and telling writing apart from drawing.
- BC KConcepts of print, including reading and writing from left to right.
- BC Grade 1Legible printing with spaces between letters and words.
Pre-writing strokes aren’t listed in either province’s curriculum, which start with letter formation itself. Tracing lines prepares for it: every line here runs left to right or top to bottom, the same direction BC lists among the concepts of print in Kindergarten.
In Ontario, children start Junior Kindergarten in the year they turn four, so some begin at age three. The Big size, with thick dots and four rows, suits those youngest students, and the Small size suits Senior Kindergarten and BC’s Kindergarten year.
Summarized in our own words from BC English Language Arts (K–1).
