What D'Nealian handwriting is
D'Nealian is a way of teaching print letters that was designed to make the later move to cursive easier. Three things set it apart from the round ball and stick print used in many classrooms:
- A slight slant. Letters lean to the right, the same way cursive does.
- Exit tails. Letters such as a, d, h, i, l, m, n, t and u end with a small upward hook, sometimes called a monkey tail. In cursive, that hook becomes the stroke that joins to the next letter.
- Fewer pencil lifts. Most lowercase letters are written in one continuous stroke.
The letters on this page follow the first two: the same single stroke letters as our print style, leaned to the right, with exit tails on the letters that have them. Letters such as a and d keep two strokes, as in ball and stick print. They are drawn in the spirit of D'Nealian, not with the official D'Nealian font, so a few letters may differ slightly from your school's handwriting chart.
How to use these worksheets
- Keep the alphabet or edit it. The box starts with Aa to Zz, one pair per page. Delete the lines you do not need, or type words and names instead.
- Pick a tracing style. Dotted lines are the classic look. Dashed lines print darker on a light printer. Light gray is easiest for beginners.
- Leave the stroke helps on. Green starting dots show where the pencil goes down, and the numbers and arrows on the first line show the order and direction of each stroke.
- Print, or save as PDF. Each line in the box becomes its own page.
To practice a child's name in D'Nealian style, type the name in the box, or use the name tracing worksheet generator and choose D'Nealian under Letters.
D'Nealian or Zaner-Bloser style?
Many US schools teach one of two print styles. Zaner-Bloser style print uses straight vertical lines and round circles, the ball and stick letters on our Zaner-Bloser style worksheets. D'Nealian style uses slanted letters with exit tails, which you get here. If you are not sure which one your child's school uses, look at a worksheet that came home: if the letters lean and the a and d end with a little hook, it is D'Nealian style.
Children can learn either one well. What matters most is that home practice matches what is taught at school, so the child is not learning two sets of letter shapes at once.
From D'Nealian to cursive
Once a child writes the slanted letters comfortably, the step to cursive is short: the exit tails are already the joining strokes. When your child is ready, the cursive name tracing page prints their name in traditional cursive, a good first cursive word to learn.