Pre Writing Lines – Free Practice Worksheets

Practicing pre-writing lines are an important skill to get children ready for handwriting letters. This FREE download (at the bottom of the post) provides bold lines to help children practice pre-writing strokes.

Why is it Important to Practice Pre Writing Lines?

Pre-writing skills are necessary to master in the early years for many important reasons. Just like children need to walk before they can run, students need to master pre-writing skills before they can have legible and efficient handwriting.

Children begin to learn how to make marks on paper at around two years old starting with vertical lines progressing to horizontal lines then diagonal lines.

What Does the FREE Pre-Writing Lines Packet Include?

This freebie includes 5 pages of pre-writing line practice.  The dark lines provide an additional visual perceptual cue to indicate where the students should make the marks.

The 5 page packet includes:

1. vertical lines
2. horizontal lines
3. diagonal lines
4. zig-zag lines
5. curved lines

The packet can be download as full size pages, half size pages and four to a page depending upon the skill level and/or age of the child. The smaller pages are more difficult.

The children can complete the practice pages with pencil, crayon, pen, markers or paints.  For children who are not ready to use a writing utensil, practice placing different sensory materials in the white lines such as small beads of pennies.

More Pre-Writing Resources

Weekly and Daily Sign In Sheets: This packet moves students through a progression of visual motor skills.  When signing into the class or during morning work, students can practice writing vertical lines, horizontal lines, curved lines, diagonal lines, and shapes instead of focusing on letter formation.  This helps students solidify early writing skills before having to write letters.

Prewriting Activity Pages: includes 50 black and white pictures to trace and color. This is a “just right” activity for children who are learning to write, draw and color. Each picture has dotted lines for the child to trace to practice visual motor skills. Once completed, the child can paint or color the picture. Various prewriting practice strokes are included throughout the packet such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, curves, circles, squares, loops, wavy lines and more!