Print until it is automatic, then cursive. Both use the same guides, so a child can trace the same letter in both on two sheets and compare.

The child's own initial, then the letters in their name, then the straight-line letters (l, t, i, L, T, H) before the curves.

1st grade letter tracing

1st grade letter tracing worksheets

First graders finish the 52 letterforms (L.1.1.a) and many begin cursive at home. The same sheet prints any letter in manuscript print or in school cursive, on the same guides, so the letter a child knows in one style can be traced in the other.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.1.1.a.

The kind of words you'll practice

Trace the letter on each line. Then write it yourself on the rest of the line.

OoDdMmLlBbRrYyJj

Each word appears twice in light gray for tracing, then once as a blank line for writing it without help.

This sheet doesn't change from one print to the next. The same choices always give the same page, so a whole group can work from matching copies.

What's on a 1st grade sheet

Letter tracing. Trace the letter on each line. Then write it yourself on the rest of the line. 6 rows per page.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Pair the sheet with a word: after the b rows, write "bat" and "bed" on the free part of the line. For reversals (b and d, p and q), print both letters on the same day and talk about which way the circle faces before tracing.

Watch for: The whole page is one letter on purpose. Ten different letters on a page is a review; one letter, capital and small, six times each, is how a shape gets into the hand. Bottom-up letters look fine and stay slow. Watch where the pencil starts on the first copy of each row, not how the row looks when it is done.

Common questions about 1st grade letter tracing

Print or cursive?: Print until it is automatic, then cursive. Both use the same guides, so a child can trace the same letter in both on two sheets and compare.
Which letters first?: The child's own initial, then the letters in their name, then the straight-line letters (l, t, i, L, T, H) before the curves.

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Aligned to Common Core L.1.1.a. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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