How can you tell they’ve got it: Letter Formation Families?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Group letters by similar strokes (e.g. c, a, d, g, o family — all start with a curve); Explain why certain letters are practised together; Form letters within the same family consistently using the shared movement pattern. Or just try it together: Does your child understand that certain letters are formed in similar ways — for example, "c," "a," "d," and "g" all start with the same curved stroke — and practise those families together?

English Handwriting & Transcription Ages 5–6

Letter Formation Families

Your child can group letters that are written the same way — like c, a, d, g and o, which all start with a curve.

In curriculum terms

Understand which letters belong to which handwriting families based on similar formation patterns and practise letters in groups

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Group letters by similar strokes (e.g. c, a, d, g, o family — all start with a curve)
Explain why certain letters are practised together
Form letters within the same family consistently using the shared movement pattern

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Try this together

Does your child understand that certain letters are formed in similar ways — for example, "c," "a," "d," and "g" all start with the same curved stroke — and practise those families together?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Sitting and holding a pencilages 4–6Need to form letters before grouping into families

Letter Formation Familiesthis skill · ages 5–6

Unlocks

Nothing on the map depends on this yet.

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E1LY15low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

recognise and know how to use grammatical morphemes to create word families

AC9E1LY13low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

ENE-HANDW-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1

EN1-HANDW-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2EFLY15medium confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

VC2E1LY06low confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand

VC2EFLY06low confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Forming Capital Lettersages 5–6 Writing digits 0-9ages 5–6 Joining Lettersages 6–10 Sitting and holding a pencilages 4–6

All Handwriting & Transcription skills →