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What is letter formation?

Knowing how to form letters correctly will help you to write words more confidently.

There are four types of letter formation to try to remember:

Long ladder letters
These are the letters l, t, i, j, u and y.

One-armed robot letters
These are the letters r, n, m, b, h, p and k.

Zigzag letters
These are the letters v, w, x and z.

Curly caterpillar letters
These are the letters c, f, a, q and o.

Watch: Long ladder letters

You can identify these by spotting their long, straight lines.

Watch: One-armed robot letters

When you write these, your pen or pencil goes down and then up and over.

Watch: Zigzag letters

These can be recognised by their zigzagging, diagonal lines.

Watch: Curly caterpillar letters

These are written with a looping, curling shape.

Activity 1

Let's form some letters. Take a piece of paper and fold it into four sections.

In each section write the title of each letter type, like here:

• Long ladder letters
• One-armed robot letters
• Zigzag letters
• Curly caterpillar letters

Then write one word in each section that begins with each letter of that type.

Activity 2

Choose a piece of writing you have done recently, either at school or at home.

Read through your piece of writing and then complete the tasks below.

• Firstly, check you are happy with your letter formation. Are there any letters you could have written better?
• Now, pick out four words, one for each letter type, and write them down on a different piece of paper. If you prefer, you could highlight them instead in the piece of writing you chose, using different colours.
• Once you've identified one word for each type, try writing a sentence using those four words. The sentences can be as silly as you like!

For example, imagine your words are:

ladder, hamster, waved, sailor

Your sentence could be:

The sailor waved at a hamster from the top of a ladder.

Activity 3

Click on the activity sheets below and perfect your letter formation. Save your best effort for the end of each line.

If you're not able to print the activity sheets, you can just write the letters down on a piece of paper.