Free Cursive Alphabet Chart — Print and Hang

What a useful chart shows

Most free alphabet charts show finished letters. That tells a child what to aim for but not how to get there, which is the part they are stuck on. A chart worth hanging shows three things:

• The letterform on ruled lines, so relative height is visible — that t is shorter than l, that p drops below the baseline.
• Lowercase and uppercase together, so the relationship between the two is obvious at a glance.
• Letters grouped by stroke family rather than alphabetically, so the chart reinforces the teaching order instead of fighting it.

The stroke families, in order

Print these as five small charts rather than one big alphabet and hang each as you reach it. A wall of twenty-six unfamiliar shapes is noise; five letters a child is currently learning is a reference.

• Undercurve: i, t, u, w — every one starts with a swing up from the baseline.
• Loop: e, l, h, f, k, b — the undercurve taken up to the topline and looped back.
• Oval: a, c, d, o, g, q — a downcurve that rolls left and closes at the midline.
• Slant: n, m, v, x, y, z — overcurve entries, with repeated humps in n and m.
• Mixed: r, s, j, p — irregular shapes, taught individually.

Seven uppercase letters do not join to the letter that follows them: D, F, O, P, T, V and W. A chart that marks these saves a great deal of confusion when a child first writes a name like Oliver or Tom.

Where to hang it

At the child’s seated eye level at the place they actually write, not above a desk they never use. If the chart requires standing up or turning around, it will not get looked at, and the child will guess instead — which is how incorrect letterforms get practised into permanence.

A second copy inside a homework folder is worth more than a laminated poster in the hallway.

Print the letters you need

Every letter on this site has its own worksheet with the model letterform at the top, so the top of any letter sheet doubles as a single-letter chart. Print the five or six you are currently working on and put the rest away until you get there.