Friendly Letter Writing Template – Print and Practice

Seven parts of a friendly letter are laid out as ruled writing lines with bracketed labels — (Date WITH comma), (Greeting and comma), (Introduction), (Body), (Conclusion), (Closing and comma), (Signature) — and a second copy keeps the identical spacing with every label removed.

Grades: Grades 2–5
File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Mar 21, 2023

Subject: Writing, ELA
Topic: Friendly Letter, Letter Writing
Resource types: Templates, Teacher Tools
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

Writing is a skill that our students can never get enough practice with. Students (just like adults) either love writing or do not feel confident as writers. The more we can provide them with writing opportunities, the more likely we are to build their confidence and improve their skills.

This is a Friendly Letter Writing Template that will provide your students with just that opportunity! You could use this at the start of a writing unit. It is a great way for you and students to gauge just how much their writing skills have improved from the start to finish of the writing unit. It is a great pre-assessment to observe what students already know about letter writing.

There ae 2 templates included. One of them is completely blank. The other provides “hints” to support student writing.

The hints included:

Date with comma

Greeting and comma

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Closing and comma

Signature

These templates are great for elementary students. Outside of a lesson or writing unit, these blank templates could be placed within a writing centre. This gives students the chance to creatively write at their leisure during centre time.

I hope you enjoy!

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In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Lay out a friendly letter in the conventional order: date, greeting, introduction, body, conclusion, closing, signature
Place a comma correctly in the date, after the greeting and after the closing
Write a letter in three developed sections rather than one undivided block, using the line allocations as the guide to proportion
Produce the same letter without prompts on the unlabelled version, once the form has been practised with support

Teaching tips

Use the labelled page first and the unlabelled page second — the layouts match line for line, so the second is a straight fade of the support rather than a different task
The three comma labels are the assessment point: mark for them specifically, since a student can produce a well-shaped letter and still miss all three
The line counts set the expectation before a word is written — six lines for the body against three each for introduction and conclusion — which heads off a two-sentence letter
Keep the unlabelled version in a writing centre as an open template, so students who already know the form can write letters without a fresh prompt
Run the labelled page cold at the start of a letter-writing unit and again at the end; the fixed layout makes the two attempts directly comparable

Skills covered

Friendly letter format — students place the date, greeting, body, closing and signature in the conventional positions marked by the bracketed labels.
Comma placement in letters — three of the seven labels name the comma explicitly, in the date, after the greeting and after the closing.
Structuring a piece of writing — the template gives the introduction three lines, the body six and the conclusion three, so students plan the proportions of what they write.
Writing without scaffolding — the second page reproduces the same layout with no labels, so students recall the parts rather than reading them off the page.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How do the two templates differ?

Only in the prompts. The first carries a bracketed label beside each part — (Date WITH comma), (Greeting and comma), (Introduction), (Body), (Conclusion), (Closing and comma), (Signature). The second has the same lines in the same positions with every label removed, so the support can be withdrawn without changing the page a student is writing on.

How much writing does the template expect for each section?

The lines are apportioned: three for the introduction, six for the body and three for the conclusion, with single lines for the date, greeting, closing and signature. The body is deliberately the largest block, which sets the shape of the letter before a student starts.

Why is WITH capitalised in the date label?

It marks the punctuation students most often leave out. The label reads (Date WITH comma), and two of the remaining labels — (Greeting and comma) and (Closing and comma) — name the comma too, so the template treats comma placement as part of the letter form rather than as a separate lesson.