Letter-join’s updated Letter Family section includes more resources, worksheets and a Lesson Planner for teaching handwriting using letter family groups.
Teaching sequence
Letter-join’s letter families follow the most common, developmental order for teaching letter formation.
Pre-writing Patterns help children build gross and fine motor control using the fundamental lines, strokes and shapes before learning to form letters.
Ladder Letters use simple, straight up and down hand actions, building instant confidence, as children find these movements easiest to master.
Caterpillar Letters curve around with the same circular movements, reinforcing one basic hand action.
Robot Letters start with a vertical stroke, then go up and over. Children learn to change direction and loop around, preparing them for more complex handwriting strokes.
Zig-zag Letters use diagonal lines which have sharp changes in direction. They require a bit more precision and fine motor control.
Each lesson uses online animations and IWB tracing activities with printable worksheets for real handwriting practice.
Once pupils have mastered the formation of the individual letters in each letter family, they will move on to practising pairs of letters before progressing onto words including the letters from each family.
When children are secure in forming the letters within words in each family, this will create the natural basis for linking letters together and prepare them for joined handwriting in Key Stage Two.
Letter Families Challenge
The Letter Families Challenge is a fun activity designed to support children’s letter formation, helping them to understand which families each of the letters belong to. Pupils can independently practise the letters on screen and are rewarded with stars for accuracy and a cheer when the task is completed.
Handwriting fonts
Letter-join offers schools the option to teach handwriting with Letter Families using any of Letter-join's unjoined or joined fonts.
Online and printed resources will be displayed in the font you have selected for your class.
Dedicated Lesson Planner
The Letter Families Module delivers a route into starting the teaching of handwriting which can be used as an alternative to Module 1 Print or Cursive.
Each set of lessons begins with pre-writing patterns, followed by the learning of letter formation and then pairs of letters, before moving onto words using the letters from each family group.
Teachers can download the Lesson Planner from their Class Home page by selecting Info, then Lesson Planners and either the Printed route or Cursive route.
A progressive set of Letter-join handwriting activities for tracking skills development and writing fluency.
Letter-join’s Handwriting Assessment Tracker has been designed in line with the 2025 Writing Framework and National Curriculum targets for handwriting and provides a complete scheme for assessing pupils’ progression in handwriting skills from Early Years to Year 6.
Children’s handwriting development can be monitored termly, annually or as-required throughout their school journey.
Letter-join’s tracker assesses key handwriting features such as letter formation, joining, speed and fluency and helps identify pupils requiring targeted intervention.
Progress can be tracked throughout each academic year, with dates recorded for each assessment and a notes section for further comments and next steps, until pupils are secure in each developmental area. The document can either be printed as a whole or the first section can be duplicated and updated electronically as individual pupil records (pages 1-4), reducing print time and costs.
The tracker is a useful resource for when children transition between classes and year groups, ensuring that receiving teachers have a clear understanding of each pupil’s handwriting ability.
Assessment pages are provided for each year group with guidance for teachers and handwriting tasks for children to complete. Pages should be duplicated for assessments that are carried out on a termly basis.
Letter-join’s Handwriting Assessment Tracker also provides photographs of handwriting examples modelling expected handwriting standards for each year group.
Download the Assessment Tracker from the Lesson Planners page, or by typing ‘tracker’ into the search bar (Letter-join School subscriptions only).
This year Diwali, the Festival of Lights, will be celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world from Friday 6th to Tuesday 10th November.
Diwali is a festival of new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness.
Letter-join has a selection of fun and engaging Diwali resources to encourage handwriting practice.
Engage your learners with some Diwali handwriting with Letter-join’s series of worksheets for each key stage.
Download these worksheets in your chosen font or find them using the search bar by typing ‘diwali’.
Early Years
Have a go at tracing some colourful, pre-writing patterns and the Diwali words for fireworks and traditional Indian patterns.
Key Stage 1
Learn about Diwali traditions and practise neat handwriting with this trace and copy worksheet.
Key Stage 2
After neatly copying the acrostic Diwali poem, get creative and make up your own!
Each year on 11th of November, we observe Remembrance Day.
Introduce your pupils to the meaning of Remembrance Day with Letter-join’s handwriting worksheets for each key stages.
All worksheets are available in your chosen printed or cursive font.
Help children to understand that on this day we remember the soldiers who died fighting for their country to make sure that their families were safe and how we remember them to say thank you for what they did.
World War One ended at exactly 11 o’clock in the morning of Sunday 11th November 1918, after both sides agreed to stop fighting.
Every year since the war, people remember the soldiers who died, as well as those who lost their lives in World War Two and more recent conflicts.
