How can you tell they’ve got it: Sitting and holding a pencil?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Hold a pencil with a comfortable tripod or near-tripod grip; Write all 26 lowercase letters with correct starting points and direction; Maintain consistent letter size on lined paper. Or just try it together: When your child sits down to write, do they hold their pencil comfortably and form each letter the right way — starting from the right place and going in the right direction?

English Handwriting & Transcription Ages 4–6

Sitting and holding a pencil

Your child can sit up well and hold a pencil the right way. They form each small letter, starting and ending in the right place.

In curriculum terms

Sit correctly at a table holding a pencil comfortably and correctly; form lower-case letters in the correct direction starting and finishing in the right place

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.

Hold a pencil with a comfortable tripod or near-tripod grip
Write all 26 lowercase letters with correct starting points and direction
Maintain consistent letter size on lined paper

🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.

Try this together

When your child sits down to write, do they hold their pencil comfortably and form each letter the right way — starting from the right place and going in the right direction?

Where this sits on the map

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

Builds on

Nothing on the map comes before this — it’s a starting point.

Sitting and holding a pencilthis skill · ages 4–6

Unlocks

Forming Capital Lettersages 5–6Master lowercase formation before capitals

Letter Formation Familiesages 5–6Need to form letters before grouping into families

Joining Lettersages 6–10Joining letters builds on Y1 lowercase letter formation

Segmenting words into soundsages 4–7Handwriting needed for spelling practice

Simple Stories with Beginning and Endingages 5–7Handwriting needed for written narrative

Writing digits 0-9ages 5–6Same motor skills for digit formation

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 · 1 ACARA · 1 NSW · 2 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E1LY08low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

write words using unjoined lower-case and upper-case letters

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

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

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2EFLY15low confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

VC2E2LY13low confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · 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 Letter Formation Familiesages 5–6 Writing digits 0-9ages 5–6 Joining Lettersages 6–10

All Handwriting & Transcription skills →