Worksheet maker

Word tracing worksheet generator

Type any words, one per line, and get a traced handwriting sheet. Word families, sight words, colour words or this week's spellings.

What each option does

Words or short phrases

One per line. Each line becomes one row on the sheet, traced along the centre of every letter. A line holds up to 14 characters, which covers any single word a young child will meet and most two word phrases.

Letter size

This sets both how big the letters are and how many words fit on a page:Preschool gives three big rows, Kindergarten five, andYear 1 seven smaller ones. Type more words than fit and the list carries on to a second page.

Start dots and arrows

A green dot marks where each letter begins, with an arrow for the direction. Helpful while the letters are still new, distracting once they are not. On a page of five words it adds a lot of marks, so try it both ways.

Handwriting guide lines

The four line rule used in classrooms, with a heavier baseline and a dashed middle line. Turn it off for a plain page.

Heading

Replaces the printed title. Useful for spellings, where the week or the topic is more use than the first word on the list.

What to use it for

Word families. Four words that share an ending, like cat, hat, bat and mat. Once a child can write one, the others are a single letter away, and that is the first time writing starts to feel like a system rather than a memory test.

Sight words. The words that turn up on every page and cannot be sounded out. Said, was and one break the rules a child has just been taught, so they have to be learned whole. Writing them is one of the better ways to do that.

Spellings. Paste the list, print, done. It turns a job the child has to do anyway into handwriting practice at the same time.

Questions

How many words fit on a page?

Three at preschool size, five at kindergarten size and seven at Year 1 size. Type more than that and the extras carry on to another page rather than being dropped.

Can I use it for spellings?

Yes. Paste the week list, one word per line, put the week in the heading, and print. It is the fastest way to turn a spelling list into handwriting practice rather than a separate job.

Why is there no build-up here?

A name is one thing practised until it is automatic, so removing the support down the page makes sense. A word list is several different things practised once each, so every row is traced.

Can I trace a whole sentence?

A line holds up to 14 letters, so short phrases work and full sentences do not. Split a sentence across lines and it reads as a poem, which children usually enjoy anyway.

Looking for a single name instead? Use the name tracing generator, which builds up from a demonstration row to writing it unaided, and can do a whole class at once.