Handwriting Exercises With A Farm Theme By Fiddleticks Education

Even in 1st grade, handwriting is an important yet challenging skill. The blend of fine motor skills, knowledge of letters and shapes, and the act of marrying it all together is a complex task for young students. Using handwriting worksheets to support 1st grade lessons allows for the repetition and practice needed to improve your child’s writing. Handwriting helps stimulate phonemic awareness and support literacy skills too.

Handwriting worksheets teach kids how to write legibly through fun activities and games. The best worksheets allow your first graders to practice creating letters, shapes, numbers, and more! 

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How Can I Teach Handwriting?

Modeling handwriting for your child and offering them opportunities to practice their own writing are key to supporting them in this developmental skill. Your child will learn to write simple words with the support of the worksheets below as well. 

By tracing over the dotted lines first and then trying it on their own, practice worksheets reinforce the skills they need to get better at writing. Tracing is a great way to start. It helps children understand how to write letters. It also teaches fine motor skills as that is a huge part of handwriting. 

In partnership with Teach Simple, whose marketplace is full of educational materials created by actual teachers (plus 50% of all revenues go to them), I’ve gathered 19 essential grade 1 handwriting worksheets to help develop fine motor skills in your students and support students on the more complex aspects of handwriting!

Best 1st Grade Handwriting Worksheets

  1. ABC Letter Recognition Cut And Paste By Cherry Workshop

Students will work on both letter recognition and handwriting with this activity. It includes cutting, coloring, and tracing. All of these fine motor skills support handwriting together. 

  1. Handwriting Exercises With A Farm Theme By Fiddleticks Education

Tracing is a very important first step in refining handwriting skills for first graders. This worksheet looks at handwriting with a thematic approach. Students will be able to practice writing in script and cursive as well as word recognition with this resource.

  1. Kids Handwriting Workbook For Practice Printing And Letter Tracing From Brighter Child 

This tracing practice focuses on print letters. The opportunity to trace both uppercase and lowercase letters paired with letter recognition and handwriting are all available throughout this 80-page workbook.

  1. The Print Handwriting Workbook For Kids: Laugh, Learn, And Practice Print With Jokes And Riddles By Crystal Radke 

Everyone loves a good joke! This workbook uses jokes to help students practice their handwriting. The fun content and activities are sure to support your first grader’s handwriting development without it seeming like a chore.

  1. Handwriting Workbook For Kids: 3-In-1 Writing Practice Book By Scholdeners 

Practice with letters is helpful, but words and sentences are even better and more developmental to handwriting practice overall. This three-in-one practice workbook will help your little one refine their handwriting and focus in on other essential literacy skills too!

  1. Carson Dellosa Spelling And Writing For Beginners Workbook―Grade 1 By Carson Dellosa Education 

Spelling and writing go hand-in-hand with this fun workbook that allows your first grader to practice it all! With fun stories, prompts, and practice, they’ll enjoy handwriting and working on spelling and reading new vocabulary with this 64-page resource.

  1. Print Wacky Sentences By Julie Harper 

The addition of silly fun always makes learning more enjoyable. Kids will love to trace and copy silly sentences to work on their handwriting in this book made up of three sections that focus on different levels of handwriting. 

  1. Beginning Traditional Cursive By Carson Dellosa Education

Cursive is a bit of a lost art, but studehttps://www.amazon.com/Carson-Dellosa-Trace-Handwriting-Workbook-PreK-Grade/dp/1483845907/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=first+grade+handwriting+practice&qid=1651081037&sr=8-18nts who can write in cursive can read in cursive. Diversify your kids’ handwriting practice with this resource. 

  1. Trace With Me: Sight Words Kids Handwriting Workbook By Thinking Kids

This workbook uses sight words as the subject for handwriting practice. Building up a strong knowledge of CVC words and practicing handwriting together can offer a big benefit to your 1st grade student and their reading and writing skill setup for the rest of the year.

  1. Practice Writing Sentences ‘This Is Zoggy’ By Guinea Pig Education

This printable resource introduces kids to a brand new ‘Zoggy Zero’ character scheme. Students can trace the letters of the sentence and cut out words to stick in the box to make a sentence themselves. 

  1. First Grade Handwriting Practice Paper Notebook By Simply Divine Journals 

Everyone loves a personalized book, and this notebook gives your student a place to write their name and claim the book as their own. Intended for free-hand practice, this notebook has the indicators to help your child write out whatever they desire!

  1. Number Handwriting Worksheets By Have Fun Teaching

Switch it up from letter practice and have students work on handwriting with number sheets. Students can trace the number and the word for the number and then practice writing it on their own.

  1. Spectrum 1st Grade Writing Workbook By Carson Dellosa Education

This handwriting practice book is focused on a variety of interesting and unique writing prompts. Help students learn elements of handwriting and types of text structures in one place. 

  1. Letter Tracing & Handwriting Practice Book – For Kids By Jennifer L. Trace 

When learning can be disguised as fun, kids will dive in without question. This workbook allows students to practice handwriting, letters, numbers, sight words, and it is all wrapped up in 26 fun coloring pages!

  1. First Grade Fill A Sight Word By Dressed In Sheets

This fun and creative workbook will allow students to have fun using manipulatives, like string, balls, playdoh, shells or other objects to fill in the words, in addition to practicing handwriting. Students will get writing practice with each of the 41 first grade Dolch words and also write sentences with each word to increase fluency in reading and writing.

  1. The Print Penmanship Workbook For Kids By Crystal Radke 

Animals facts are always a good time, but when you add in cute illustrations it is hard to resist getting hooked to this adorable workbook. Your student can practice their handwriting, learn about animals, and develop new skills as they complete the pages of this book. 

  1. Carson Dellosa Phonics For First Grade Workbook By Carson Dellosa Education 

Phonics are hugely important for early readers. Support your students’ reading skills and handwriting with this workbook. Tracing letters and writing is focused around phonics basics on these worksheets, making this perfect for earlier in the school year!

  1. Color Words Interactive Foldable Booklet By Knowledge Box Central

This fun booklet will help your students recognize colors and their written words, and it will help teach them the spelling of the basic primary colors. It will also test their memory of each color and its color word. Plus, students can make their own booklet out of their worksheets when they are done.

What Should My First Grader’s Handwriting Look Like?

It’s not uncommon to see first graders struggle with handwriting. Their letters may be hard to read, slanted, or inverted. As the school year goes on and as students get more handwriting practice, they will refine these skills. 

Ideally in first grade, handwriting will be uniform in terms of size. Spacing between letters should make it clear where one word stops and another begins. It can be easy to conflate spelling and handwriting, but when we are focused on handwriting we are looking at the articulation of the letters. Spelling is a separate skill. 

With Teach Simple and their teacher-created resources, you’ll be able to find a variety of tools to help your students improve their writing skills; 1st grade handwriting practice doesn’t need to be an uphill battle.

About the Author

Ali Pierce has been a proud public school teacher for nearly a decade. An English teacher by day, Ali works with educators throughout K-12 in a variety of coaching and support roles. A proud Wildcat, Ali earned both her BA in Creative Writing and M.Ed. in Teaching and Teacher Education from the University of Arizona. When not teaching, Ali can be found hanging out with her two young sons and sneaking in some reading