Basic Printing Practice Video A-Z (With Uppercase And Lowercase Letters)

I made a video to help kids practice writing their alphabet letters A-Z. This is a helpful companion to my preschool book, Catholic ABC’s, and you can find my other extra preschool resources here. This entire letter practice video lasts less than 5 minutes, and shows an actual hand writing the letters so kids can see how to correctly write them. The video also goes through the letter sounds while the letters are being written. Each letter is written first in uppercase, and the in lowercase. So let’s take a look at this basic printing practice video a-z. 

How To Use This Video With Preschoolers

Younger preschoolers should be introduced to the alphabet letters one at a time, not all at once. So this is not a video for introducing them to writing, but a video they can watch after they’ve learned the letters individually as a way to practice the entire alphabet. 

• Get your kids some actual handwriting paper with a dotted lines in the middle. This is a great affordable choice (affiliate link) or you print free handwriting paper here.
• Let them watch how to form each letter, pausing after each one is complete so they have time to write their own. We don’t want them to feel rushed. 
• The video focuses on making the letter sounds while the letter is being written. Have them repeat this letter sound as they write their letters. (more about this below)

The Video Makes Pure Common Letter Sounds For Preschoolers

Sometimes children are taught too much to focus on the name of the letter, when really it is much better for their future reading skills to instead focus on the sound of that letter as they form it. It is very good for preschoolers to repeat these common letter sounds out loud to themselves as they write each letter.

I used the most common sound each letter makes, and they are pure letter sounds. For instance, the letter “H” makes a breathy sound. The letter “H” does not actually say “huh”. Often, children are given combination sounds to go with the letters, making it harder to decode words in beginning reading skills. It is hard to write out the differences, but hopefully you will hear and appreciate these pure letter sounds in the video, as it helps tremendously with reading skills to provide the child with the most common pure sound of each letter. 

You can read more about how to introduce kids to their letters here. Are you making one of these very common letter mistakes?

Helping Older Kids With Printing Practice

I don’t know about any of the rest of you, but homeschool/virtual school has made me PAINFULLY aware that my kid’s print handwriting is ATROCIOUS! They don’t seem to be able to form letters efficiently or even know how to fit them on the lines correctly. I started looking for a video that would help them practice writing all of their alphabet letters in real time, and I couldn’t find one. 

Practicing the alphabet letters in real time with a video seemed to be exactly what my older elementary aged kids needed, so I made this video and printing system for them. 

Why Do My Older Kids Have Such Terrible Printing Skills?

I think there are 2 major factors contributing to the loss of descent handwriting skills in modern children: 

1. a lot of their school work at our public school is completed on screens, meaning they’re not getting the writing practice they would have historically 
2. handwriting can’t be tested, so therefore the teachers don’t have the time to spend on it

I want to insert here that I place absolutely zero blame on teachers for this as they aren’t given the freedom and the tools that they need to teach kids the best way they see fit. They have to teach to the testing because that’s what their job requires of them right now, but unfortunately they can’t spend too much valuable classroom time on untestable skills.

I spent almost 20 minutes looking or a simple (in focus, non-annoying, and short) video showing how to correctly print the alphabet on YouTube, and then I gave up and made one of my own.

How To Use This Handwriting Video With Older Kids

If you’re just looking to sharpen your older children’s printing skills, I will share with you my plans for this video. Because I did make this video with my older children in mind, there is nothing silly and it’s not a video that’s going to insult their intelligence. It’s just going to provide a visual guide on how to form these letters. 

• MUTE the video. Older kids do not need to hear any letter sounds, they just need to watch how the letters are being written.
• Get your kids some actual handwriting paper with a dotted lines in the middle. This is a great affordable choice (affiliate link) or you print free handwriting paper here.
• Have them practice writing their alphabet once per day with the video in real time. (The video doesn’t include ANY “fluff” and the entire alphabet takes only 4 and a half minutes to write.)
• Give them a quiz when they’re ready. Have the kids tell you when they are ready for the quiz. (I have some details about how to give the quiz below.)
• When they pass the quiz, they’re finished! No more video or handwriting practice for them. We are talking about kids that can already write anyway, and once they know how to form the letters and how they fit on the lines, it will be up to them whether or not they actually incorporate it into their daily writing or not. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. They will now at least possess the tools to form and write their letters correctly. 

Video For Letter Writing Practice

Ok, here is the free video that your kids can watch to improve their alphabet writing skills.

How To Give The Alphabet Writing Quiz

They will have a piece of handwriting paper- just like the pieces they have been practicing on. They should be able to form each letter as it was actually formed in the video (meaning now doing any unnecessary picking up of their pencils or writing letters in orders that don’t make sense) and all the letters should fit correctly on the lines. So for instance, a small “p” will have the top on the dotted line, and the bottom tail going down under the bottom line. It won’t be floating in a weird place, and it won’t be written by drawing a circle and adding a stick, but it will be written the way it is in the video.

You will watch them take the quiz to make sure they are writing the letters correctly. It’s not only about the final product of what the letter looks like, but it’s also about writing in an efficient way that makes sense. 

When they pass the quiz they’re finished using this video. 

Be sure to check out my other preschool resources for kids here.