Write the Word: The First Letter Is Already There

A word bank runs across the top of this 1st grade write the word page in a dashed orange strip - bat, fish, fox, iguana, moose, rabbit - and the help does not stop there. Each of the six cards below shows one animal beside a handwriting line with its first letter already printed in teal at the start. The child names the picture, finds the matching word in the bank, and copies it onto the line from the letter that is waiting.

Two supports at once make this the gentlest of the three write the word pages, and it is aimed at a child who can read the words but cannot yet spell them. The first letter does more than start the word: it narrows the bank. Even so, two words here begin with f, so fish and fox still have to be told apart by looking past that first letter - which is exactly the small piece of independent reading the page is built to require.

Print the PDF free and let the child cross words off the bank as they are used; six cards and six words means the last one can be reasoned out. Once copying from the bank is quick, the no first letter version keeps the bank but empties the line, and the plain lines version removes the bank altogether and asks for the spelling from the picture alone. The abc order page uses the same kind of picture cards for sorting rather than spelling.