Free Handwriting Lowercase Letter Strips

Give your kindergartners the opportunity to keep their handwriting skills sharp with these quick, printable lowercase letter strips.

I’m all about working smart in the classroom. It’s the reason why I decided to teach handwriting based on letter formation using similar strokes as opposed to any other way.

These little letter strips are designed to help you work smart – to give students quick, focused practice after you’ve taught letter formation.

If you haven’t taught handwriting this way, you’ll want to start by reading: How to teach handwriting in kindergarten and grab these free handwriting strokes posters.

Let’s jump into how these little letter strips work and how you can make them for free.

How they work

These handwriting letter strips are designed to give your students very quick practice forming a single lowercase letter.

They only have to write the letter a total of five times – but it is done in a way that increases the amount of formation they have to do on their own.

Here’s how they scaffold the work for your kinders:

  • A starting dot tells students where to start. After a few attempts, students should start in the correct place on their own.
  • The outline of the letters creates a road or path to help keep their letters looking uniform and looking similar to the goal. The outline is taken away at the end of the strip to allow students to try it on their own.
  • Students visually discriminate the consistent shape of the lowercase letter in a variety of fonts. This teaches them to recognize the visual pattern/look of each letter, reinforcing the formation they just practiced in the spaces above.

The starting dot and the outline are two key components of teaching handwriting in a way that is age-appropriate.

Both features are extremely visual and provide the right amount of support where students need it: where to start a letter and how to form it.

This helps you teach effectively.

And, by grouping letters together that are formed in a similar way, you are teaching smart. For example, they can quickly learn to form a d or a q because they’ve already learned how to form other backwards circle letters like o, c and a.

If these letter strips aren’t the kind of practice you’re looking for, you may like these Free Scaffolded Handwriting Worksheets for Kindergarten: Lowercase a-z.

Here’s how to complete a letter strip:

  1. Kinders write their name in the gray shaded box at the top. They use the defined space to fit their letters into.
  2. Students form the letter three times with full support – a starting dot and an outline. They can use a pencil or a crayon (use a different color crayon for each box).
  3. Then they form the letter once with some support – with an outline but no starting dot. The goal is to start in the correct place.
  4. Then they form the letter once on their own – with no outline and no starting dot. The goal is to use the repetition from the supported attempts above to start in the correct place and form the letter correctly.
  5. Students highlight (by circling or coloring) the featured letter in multiple fonts in the last box.

Remember that in kindergarten, the placement on traditional handwriting lines isn’t age-appropriate. The focus is on the starting place, the formation, and confining the shape to a defined space (each of the five boxes).

It’s my hope these little letter strips help your kinders with this standard: K.L.1.a-4. Print all lowercase letters.

How to make them

Ready to make them?

Click to download the letter strips here. [terms of use] [downloading help]

  1. Print the number of sheets you need for your student, group, or class. There are three strips per printed sheet.
  2. Use a pair of scissors or a paper cutter to cut the strips apart.
Kindergarten Handwriting lowercase letter strips free worksheet

Some teachers said that they will run these onto the backs of scrap paper (previously used/copied one side paper otherwise that might just get recycled).

Other teachers have shared that they will laminate these to use with dry-erase or vis-a-vis markers (and rinse clean) to make a reusable set.

How will you use them? Let me know in the comments below.

Let’s wrap it up

Now, keep in mind – these are a quick, review tool.

So use them to give your kinders a chance keep their handwriting skills sharp.

I hope these can help you work smart by reinforcing letter formation and helping your students gain the fluidity they need in handwriting. I only included lowercase letters at this time since those are the letters students use most in natural, open-ended writing experiences.

If your students don’t really need to practice individual letters but need to work on their names, then you want these free name writing practice sheets instead.

Free Name Writing Practice Sheet for Kindergarten

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3 Comments

  1. Thank you for these writing strips. I am a retired teacher but do learning support once a week in my grandchildren’s school. Ihave preK and K as my pullout students and these strips will come in handy.

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