Handwriting worksheet generator
Free handwriting practice sheets in your state’s school font. Letters, a child’s name, spelling words or numbers, on dotted thirds or sky, grass and dirt lines, ready to print.
Want more than a practice sheet? Handwriting booklets, letter formation posters and sky, grass and dirt resources by Australian teachers.
Handwriting resources
Handwriting practice in your state’s font
Australia has no single school handwriting style. Each state teaches its own, and the differences matter to a five year old: where a stroke starts and finishes, how a letter is sloped, and whether it ends in a small flick ready to join later. A sheet printed in the wrong font teaches shapes the child then has to unlearn. I built this so every sheet starts in the right one.
| State or territory | School font |
|---|---|
| NSW and ACT | NSW Foundation |
| Queensland | Queensland Beginners |
| South Australia | SA Beginners |
| Tasmania | Tasmanian Beginners |
| Victoria, WA and NT | Victorian Modern Cursive |
How I would use the sheets
- Letter formation: one letter a row, starting with a model in black, then dotted copies to trace across the line, like a handwriting repeater on paper. Choose your own letters to follow your phonics order, such as s, a, t, p, i, n.
- Tracing cards: pick the Outlined style and the letters come hollow, wide enough to write inside; the model shows the strokes dotted down the middle, numbered where each one starts, with an arrow where it ends. In a plastic sleeve they are a wipe-clean tracing card.
- Name tracing: paste the class list and print a page per child. Slide the pages into plastic sleeves and they become a reusable name card for a whiteboard marker.
- Spelling words: put the week’s words in, two rows each. Children trace the word once, then write it on their own, which is handwriting and spelling practice in one.
- Numbers: 0 to 9 in the state font, for maths books and number formation in the first years.
Why stroke order matters
A letter that looks right can still be written wrong. A child who draws an o clockwise, or starts a d at the top like a b, will write slowly and tire quickly, and the habit is hard to undo once it is automatic. Every state guide says the same thing: teach where the pencil starts and which way it travels before you worry about how neat the letter looks. That is what the stroke guides on the model letter are for. A dot and a number mark where each stroke starts, small arrows show the direction, and a cross shows where the pencil lifts, the way the Oxford and Targeting Handwriting workbooks do it. I keep them on the model only, so the tracing copies stay clean.
The states mostly agree. Nearly every letter starts at the top, except d and e. The round letters a, c, d, g, o and q start at about two o’clock and go anticlockwise. The letters f, t, x, i and j take two strokes, with the cross bar or dot second. They differ on a handful: NSW writes the second stroke of x upward, the others write it downward; South Australia makes k in two strokes where the other states loop it in one; Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Victorian font give the capital I serifs, and all of those but Tasmania put a bar on the capital J; E is an L and two bars in NSW and South Australia but four separate strokes in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria; and Victorian Modern Cursive adds a flick to the end of most small letters, drops the f below the line and makes x from two curves. The sheet follows the guide for the font you chose. These are the charts I worked from:
- NSW and ACT: Writing K-12, Handwriting: teaching the Foundation approach (NSW Department of Education)
- Queensland: Beginner's Alphabet handwriting chart (Department of Education, 2018)
- South Australia: Handwriting in the South Australian Curriculum, 2nd edition (2007)
- Tasmania: Handwriting (Department for Education, Children and Young People, 2023)
- Victoria, WA and NT: Literacy Teaching Toolkit: Handwriting (Victorian Department of Education)
Ready-made sheets
- Name tracing for Prep
- Prep letter formation
- Outlined letters to trace
- Year 1 alphabet
- Weekly spelling words
- Numbers 0 to 9
- Capital letters
- Sentence of the week
Read more
The handwriting worksheets guide covers why handwriting still matters, how to teach it and the sky, grass, dirt model. For the hand strength that comes first, see fine motor activities, and for the sounds behind the letters, phonics activities.
Frequently asked questions
Which handwriting font does my state use?
NSW and the ACT use NSW Foundation. Queensland uses Queensland Beginners, South Australia uses SA Beginners and Tasmania uses Tasmanian Beginners. Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory use Victorian Modern Cursive. Pick your state at the top of the generator and every letter on the sheet is drawn in that font.
Can I make name tracing sheets for my whole class?
Yes. Choose Names, paste your class list with one name per line, and each child gets a page of their own: their name in black, then dotted copies to trace, then a row to write it unaided. The PDF has every page, so it prints in one go.
What are dotted thirds and sky, grass, dirt lines?
Both show a child where each letter sits. Dotted thirds have a solid head line, a dotted middle line at the top of the small letters, a solid base line and a dotted line for tails. Sky, grass, dirt colours the same three spaces: tall letters reach into the sky, small letters fill the grass, and tails such as g, p and y drop into the dirt.
Is it really free? Do I need to sign up?
It is free and there is nothing to sign up for. The sheet is made in your browser, so the names you type never leave your computer.
How do I share a sheet with my team?
Everything you choose is kept in the page address. Press Copy link and send it, and the other teacher opens exactly the same sheet, ready to print in their own room.
Can the sheet show where each letter starts and which way to go?
Yes. Turn on Stroke guides and the model letter at the start of each row gets a dot and a number where each stroke starts, arrows along the stroke, and a small cross where the pencil lifts. The order follows your state: the letter formation charts published by the NSW, Queensland, South Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian education departments are different in a handful of letters, such as k, x, E and I, and the sheet follows the one you chose.
Which size should I pick?
Foundation is the biggest, with capitals 20 mm tall, for Kindergarten, Prep, Reception and Pre-primary. Year 1 is 15 mm. Year 2 and up is 10 mm, close to the ruling in a Year 2 or Year 3 exercise book.
The fonts are the AU School Handwriting Fonts, free under the SIL Open Font License.