ABC Tracing Book: Free Printable Alphabet Workbook (PDF)

Who this workbook is for

This workbook is made for children who are ready to move from scribbling to letters: usually ages 3 to 5 in preschool, pre-K or the start of kindergarten. It works best if your child can already hold a crayon with some control and knows a few letters, such as the first letter of their own name.

If your child is still learning to hold a pencil, begin with the Pen Control and Pre-Writing Book and come back to the letters afterwards. If you only need a few letters, or a page for one child’s name, our letter formation worksheets and name tracing worksheets make single pages in seconds.

What is inside the ABC Tracing Book

The workbook has 62 pages. Every page is numbered in the bottom corner, so you can print one section at a time.

Letters A to F (pages 4–15)

Six letters, twelve pages. The formation page shows the capital and the small letter in large boxes, with green start dots and numbered arrows for every stroke. Below them are two rows of dotted capitals and two rows of dotted small letters, and a last row hides the letter among look-alikes for your child to find and circle. The next page says “A is for apple”: a big dotted capital and small letter to trace, an outline picture to color, two lines to trace the word and two empty lines to write it alone. The pictures are an apple, ball, cat, dog, egg and fish.

Letters G to L (pages 16–27)

The same two pages for each letter. H, I, K and L are built from straight lines, J adds a curve at the bottom, and G is the first curve that turns back inward, so give it a little extra time. The pictures are grapes, a hat, ice cream, a jar, a kite and a leaf. Ice cream is a two-word picture, which makes a good moment to talk about spaces between words.

Letters M to R (pages 28–39)

M and N zigzag up and down with straight strokes, while O, P, Q and R bring the curves back. Q and R are the busiest shapes in the set, so slow, calm tracing pays off. The pictures are a moon, nest, orange, pig, quilt and rainbow.

Letters S to Z (pages 40–55)

Eight letters and sixteen pages. S is the only letter with a double curve; T, V, W, X and Z use straight lines only, and U and Y mix lines and curves. The pictures are a sun, tree, umbrella, van, watermelon, xylophone, yo-yo and zebra. Watermelon is the longest word in the book, a nice challenge to trace near the end.

Alphabet Games (pages 56–61)

Six review pages to see what has stuck: one page of missing capital letters and one of missing small letters (fill the gaps in alphabet order), two “find and color” hunts where your child colors every copy of one letter in a grid of mixed letters, and two beginning sounds pages where they choose the picture that starts with the named letter. These pages are for fun, not a test.

Which letters should we start with?

There is no single right order. Many teachers begin with the letters in the child’s own name, then move to the simplest straight-line letters (L, I, T, H, E, F) before the round ones. The book keeps the familiar A to Z order so it is easy to follow, but you can print the letters in any order by using the page numbers in the table above.

Our guide to Letter Formation Order: Which Letters to Teach First explains one common teaching sequence, and the Handwriting Readiness Checklist: Is Your Child Ready to Write? helps you decide whether it is the right time to begin.