letter shape patterns help to avoid letter confusion.
This book and handwriting program has fun visual links to help students see the letter shape patterns and avoid letter confusion.
Great for back-to-school, colorful pictures with an animal and pirate theme.
Find the book here on Amazon. The printables can be purchased on TPT
Letter reversals can be a huge problem, and sometimes the letter b comes out looking like the number 6.
This is a fun way to practice the correct letter formation and the letter sounds at the same time.
Letter reversals can be a huge problem, and sometimes the letter b comes out looking like the number 6. Some students start both by drawing a straight down and then they can not remember which way the b or d should turn.
So we use the h b h b practice. I tell them the letter h and b are almost the same, the only difference is the letter b is closed at the bottom. So, make the tall letter h then close the bottom. Now it is the letter b. Be sure to make the letter sounds when you write. “h, b, h, b.” This is very important to make the letter sounds. Be careful not to use the letter name too much. Referring to the letter by its sound can help to avoid letter name interference. Letter name interference is very common with w, y, and u.
©Pure Joy Teaching
This is also a great time to remind them that the letter h is a tall letter, and the letter n is a small letter.
It is super important that students learn to start the letters at the top, not the bottom. We have found that when students start the letters on the bottom line there is a good chance that they will turn out backwards. We were seeing confusing letters and thought “Is it dyslexia?” In this case no, it was not. It was just bad handwriting habits that needed to be corrected by teaching the students to start the lowercase letters at the top, and not the bottom.
This is one of the reasons that I wrote this book R’s Pirate Handwriting Storybook. The shape of the letter r is a really good way to group all the letters that make the same starting shape. Practicing these letters together can also help remove the b d confusion. This book series is full of effective practices for teaching writing.
Have Pure JOY Teaching
You might also like these!
Capital and lowercase letters with start spot butter drip alphabet
Match up the letters in the waffle maker, or trace them out with marker or playdough. The important thing is to always start your letters at the top. The butter dip shows the direction in which your pencil should start to draw these letters. It is a great way to sort the letter too. Which ones curve, which letters slide, and which letters are straight?
This is a fun way to add play with practice in a dramatic way.
Look for this on TPT my Shop
This can be printed out for all kinds of fun play, matching, or tracing.
You may also like these!
Foundational skills of handwriting and vowel knowledge are a huge treasure for kids. Treasure-seeking pirates find things in the sand to trace around. This is how they learn the new skill of handwriting. Pirate-themed word-play helps create a memorable and fun storyline, with playful use of the letters: r, i, c, and x. The similar grouping of letter shapes makes it easy for them to learn the four-letter groups quickly. Special attention is shown to the importance of the vowel letters.
Join the pirates as they explore their island and uncover the patterns hidden within lowercase letters!
From r-shaped seaweed to coconut c-shaped curves, then on to straight-line turtle tracks and slanted shark-teeth letters, each adventure introduces a different group of lowercase letters through imaginative visual clues and storybook illustrations.
Follow the pirates with messy map pro from their first discovery of letter formation to their final discovery of all five vowels. Four adventures, one continuing story, and a treasure trove of handwriting discoveries!
Four Pirate Adventures in One Complete Storybook
Each story builds one skill of handwriting, then the next story groups letters of similar shape and starting points, till they complete all the styles.
Four books in one. The complete lowercase letter handwriting storybook collection in a one-book volume.
Treasure-seeking pirates find things in the sand to trace around. This is how they learn the new skill of handwriting. Pirate-themed word-play helps create a memorable and fun storyline, with playful use of the letters: r, i, c, and x. The similar grouping of letter shapes makes it easy for them to learn the four-letter groups quickly. Special attention is given to the importance of the vowel letters. With the help of a chatty parrot, the story has incorporated a few vowel sounds. Each letter has a specific visual cue to demonstrate the correct letter starting point. The letters are organized in clusters to help correct letter reversal errors. Each book in the series shares a close relation to Orton-Gillingham’s Style of handwriting instruction groups.
Handwriting is an adventure to treasure.
The four titles included in this book: R’s Pirate Letters, C Pirate Letters, I Pirate Letters, X Pirate Letters.
This complete storybook brings together all four Pirate Handwriting adventures, from R Pirate Letters through C and I Pirate Letters to the final adventure, X Pirate Letters.
Likewise, the posters and cards for these writing lessons are a great match for this book.
1. r, n, m, h, b, p – Letter r is seaweed on the sand; the pirates trace the /r/ shape, and that helps to make the other letters in this group. These are the dive down, slide up, and hook letters. Dark blue water is on the bottom of the cards.
2. c, a, g, d, q, o, s, e – Letter c is half a coconut. The pirates trace around it in the sand to make the curved letters in this group. These are the /c/ curved letters that share the same starting point. Letter e was added to this group. (funny story in the book for letter /e/) Tallgrass on the bottom of the cards. Great for sand trays.
3. i, j, l, t, f, k –Letter i: tracks made by turtle hatchlings. The pirates copy the straight-line letters in the sand. Light blue water is on the bottom of the cards.
4. v, w, y, x, z, u – Letter x: These are the v-shaped letters; it traces around a shark’s tooth. These are the slanted line letters. Letter u was added to this group. (funny story in the book for letter /u/) Tree trunks are on the top of these cards. The letter x is the title of the book because, of course, the pirates use the all-important x to mark the spot for the treasure.
Easy letter formation instruction with four sets of illustrated card and posters.
Orton Gillingham Style Illustrated Handwriting worksheets, letter strips, and letter cards.
Lowercase letter support to stop letter reversal errors. Easy to follow letter groups. Make handwriting fast and simple to remember by grouping similar letter shapes, making a muscle memory link.
These 4 different letter groups make a wonderful classroom display and reference for handwriting instruction.
1. r, n, m, h, b, p – The letter /r/ is seaweed on the sand, the pirates trace the /r/ shape and that helps to make the other letters in this group. These are the dive down, slide up, and hook letters.
Dark blue water on the bottom of the handwriting cards.
2. c, a, g, d, q, o, s, e – Letter c is half a coconut. The pirates trace around the coconut in the sand to make the curved letters in this group. The /c/ curved letters share the same starting point. Letter e was added to this group because it shares the same c shape. (Follow the interaction between a pirate and a monkey. It is a funny story in the book for letter /e/.)
Tallgrass on the bottom of the cards.
3. i, j, l, t, f, k – Letter i, are tracks made by turtle-hatchlings. The pirates copy the straight-line letters in the sand.
Light blue water on the bottom of the cards.
4. v, w, y, x, z, u – The letter /v/, traces around a shark’s tooth. These are the slanted line letters. Letter u was added to this group. (funny story in the book for letter /u/ and pirate underwear)
Tree trunks on the top of these cards.
Print your own set of letter strips. Great for daily practice, intervention, and more….
Using the Letter c worksheet and letter strips is a great way to teach letters c, a, g, & d. Make a tactile handwriting adventure with a sand tray.
Letter g is just the letter a with a monkey’s tail. In the story, the monkey jumps down from the tree to grab the coconut.
Starting the r letter set is what the pirates do. This is the best letter to start with, it sets kids up for the correct starting and stopping pencil strokes. It helps create good writing habits. This letter needs to start at the top, not the bottom. It has the same shape and pattern as the often tricky letter b. (r, h, b, they all go the same way)
Letter strips with pirate theme TPT
Follow this link to my shop on Teachers Pay Teachers
Get your set of cards and worksheets HERE
Books on Amazon
Handwriting letter strips with Mnemonics embedded images TPT
Follow me on Facebook
This is the fourth and final book in the Pirate Handwriting series.
The pirates’ lowercase letter adventure is coming to a close with one of their favourite letters: X!
In this book, the pirates discover the slanted letters v, w, y, x and z, along with a surprise discovery: the final vowel, u!
The lowercase letters are grouped by their shared starting positions and slanted line movements, helping children recognise familiar patterns as they learn new letters. Repeated practice of related movements helps build muscle memory and makes letter formation more manageable.
The illustrations bring the letters to life through the experience of tracing shapes in the sand. Children can see how familiar strokes and movements come together to form different lowercase letters.
Special attention is given to the vowel u, introduced by the colourful bird, in a fun and memorable story that engages young learners.
In this fourth adventure, the pirates discover the final vowel: u!
With this discovery, the pirates have found all five vowels and completed their journey through the four lowercase letter groups. Their search for treasure has led to two special discoveries: the patterns of letter formation and the five vowels!
X Pirate Letters, by D. Passmore
This is a perfect book to use with sand tray letters.
The whole pirate adventure is available in one storybook on Amazon. The Pirate Letters: Lowercase Handwriting Storybook.
Need classroom supplies for handwriting? Find them here with links to TPT.
Handwriting worksheets and cards for this book are available HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Have Pure Joy Teaching!
Join the pirates on their third adventure as they follow turtle tracks in straight lines across the sand towards the ocean. Along the way, they discover six lowercase letters that share straight-line formation movements:
Available on Amazon.
Through the story and illustrations, children explore starting positions, downward pencil movements, letter height, and the pencil lifts needed to complete different letters. The turtle eggs and hatchlings provide a special visual clue for the dots above i and j.
These letters are the third handwriting group: i, j, l, t, f, k.
i Pirate Letters – by D. Passmore
These six lowercase letters share straight-line formation movements, but each has its own finishing steps. The pencil lifts for the second stroke.
Children explore where each letter begins, the direction of the pencil movement down, and when the pencil needs to lift and move to another position or make a dot.
The lowercase letters are grouped to help build muscle memory skills and show a common starting point.
Letters are grouped by similar starting points and straight downstrokes; this can speed up the handwriting process and improve letter print recognition for reading.
The straight line letters are made alongside the little sea turtle tracks. Little hatchlings start at the top and head straight to the water. The visual theme in the story creates a reason why we start the letters at the top.
Letter size is crucial but often overlooked when students are learning to write. Letters like i, j, f, l, t, and k provide great examples to highlight this concept.
The letters in this group also help children recognise differences in letter height and position.
The illustrations help children see how these letters fit on the writing line and how their heights differ when they are all lined up together in the sand with the light blue wave under them.
This group of letters is more than just simple straight lines. Lowercase l is the only truly straight line. The other letters in this group have 2 or more steps that require the pencil to lift.
Sea turtle eggs are buried in the sand. When the hatchlings pop out, they head straight for the water. The visuals on the pages of this book use the natural activities of the baby turtle tracks in the sand and the egg as the dot on the letters i and j.
Available on Amazon.
The pirates discover that the turtle eggs are beginning to hatch! The little turtles emerge from their eggs and make their way across the sand towards the light blue ocean.
The turtle tracks follow the direction of the pencil movements, providing a visual reminder of the downward strokes used to form the letters.
“I see the vowel i” said the bird
The colourful bird returns with another important discovery! This time, the bird introduces the vowel i.
As the pirates continue their search for treasure, they discover that vowels are another kind of treasure. Each adventure brings them closer to discovering all five vowels!
A playful story that brings handwriting and early letter awareness together.
Handwriting letter strips can be found on my TPT page. These are great for students to use daily. Practicing writing the letters and making the letter sounds together is very important for reading and spelling.
This is a perfect book to use with sand tray letters.
2026 in Hardcover ISBN 978-0-473-60250-5
The next book in the series is “X Pirate Letters.“
The 4-book series can be purchased on AMAZON
Enjoy! Have Pure Joy Teaching
You may also like the c letters for sand trays.
The second book in the series, Pirate Handwriting letter formation
This is the second book in the series Pirate Handwriting.
What do a pirate’s hook and a coconut have in common? They both reveal the secret shape behind a group of lowercase letters!
In this second Pirate Handwriting adventure, the pirates discover that a familiar C shape is hidden within eight lowercase letters:
c · a · g · d · q · o · s · e
The pirates find a coconut on their island. When they cut it in half, they discover a shape that looks just like a pirate’s hook!
This becomes the visual foundation for exploring the C-shaped letter group.
Through the story and illustrations, children discover how the familiar C shape provides a foundation for forming different lowercase letters.
A curious monkey helps bring these discoveries to life.
As the monkey jumps down to grab a coconut, children discover how the shape develops into the hook of the letter g.
When the monkey drops whole coconuts from the tree, the pirates notice the round impressions left in the sand. They trace around the circular shape, beginning with the familiar C-shaped movement, to discover the letter o.
Two coconut halves provide another visual clue for exploring the letter s.
And there’s a special little surprise with the letter e! The monkey rolls a round coconut and pushes it, creating the C shape that completes the letter.
The pirate coins mark the starting positions, while the coconut shapes and playful illustrations help children recognise the familiar formation pattern.
By seeing the C shape repeated throughout the group, children build familiarity with the handwriting movement, develop muscle memory and gain a visual reference to help guard against letter reversals.
One familiar shape. Eight lowercase letters. A whole new pirate discovery!
And the pirates discover the first set of vowels. Now they are really on the path to reading.
Get handwriting letter strips, worksheets and posters on TPT.
Remember the colourful bird from the first Pirate Handwriting adventure?
When the pirates tried to read words using their newly discovered consonants, they couldn’t make sense of them. Something was missing!
The clever bird knew exactly what they needed.
“Aw, something is missing!”
“Aw, vowels!”
The bird repeats the sounds, drawing attention to the vowel sounds hidden in everyday speech.
As the adventure unfolds, the bird introduces the vowel letters a and o.
The pirates are beginning to discover that there’s more to their letter treasure than they first imagined!
Then the story continues in book 3: i Pirate letters, straight line letters and one more vowel to be found.
The next book in the series is: I Pirate Letters
The vowel discovery continues throughout the four-book Pirate Handwriting series.
Book 2 introduces a and o, Book 3 adds i, and Book 4 reveals u.
Together with the earlier discovery of the consonants, the pirates are gradually uncovering another important part of learning to read and spell words.
The pirates thought they were searching for treasure. They didn’t realise that some of the most valuable treasure was made of letters!
Correct letter formation connects the muscle memory and the visual cue of letter into a storybook adventure. The pirates can not find their treasure with messy maps. They find the r-shaped seaweed on the island and learn making letters can be easy when the all share the same shape.
This is the first book in the Pirate Handwriting series. The dive-down letters.
Six letters. One exciting discovery. A whole new handwriting adventure!
The letters in this book all share a similar ‘r’ shape and fine motor direction with a common downstroke and slide-up hook.
R-look! The h and b have the same hidden r-shape. That will be easy to make.
Take the letters h and b, for example. Both share a similar formation structure. Both tall letters that are made almost the same way.
By recognising the familiar r-shaped element, children can begin to understand the relationship between these letters and the movements involved in forming them.
The first Pirate Handwriting adventure introduces six lowercase letters: r, n, m, h, b and p.
These letters are not presented in alphabetical order. They are introduced in a carefully planned sequence that draws attention to their shared formation patterns, starting points and differences in letter height.
The adventure begins with the pirates discovering r-shaped seaweed patterns in the sand.
This familiar shape becomes the foundation for exploring the first three letters: r, n and m.
All three begin with the same starting movement and are formed to the same height. Children can build familiarity with this shared pattern as they progress from one letter to the next.
The pirates then discover that the familiar formation pattern can be found in taller letters too.
The letters h and b introduce an important new concept: letter height.
Although these letters share formation features with the first group, they extend much higher. This distinction helps children understand why n and h should look different, even though they have related formation patterns.
The last letter in the adventure is p.
Unlike the preceding letters, p extends below the writing line. Introducing it last gives children another important feature of lowercase letter formation to discover: the drop-down letter.
Throughout the story, illustrations reveal the underlying r-shaped formation using seaweed patterns in the sand. A pirate coin provides a visual starting-point clue, helping children identify where to begin.
Rather than treating each letter as an entirely separate shape, children are invited to discover the patterns, movements and differences that connect the letters.
Pirate Handwriting brings letter formation to life through visual storytelling, helping children see how letters are made and how they relate to one another.
Get the pirate letter worksheet on TPT
The lowercase r-shape is the foundation, not simply a shape that happens to appear in the other letters.
It has several connected purposes:
Now Available in Hardcover ISBN 978-0-473-60223-9 (From IngramSpark)
The second book in the series is: C Pirate Letters, by D. Passmore
Letters: c, a, g, d, q, o, s, e
The pirates find vowels, and now they can read VC and CVC words. They play word games in the sand.
Created to help children learn the correct starting points for the lower case letters, and create an auditory link between the visually related objects that make the correct letter sound. Each page has color animal actions to follow.
This book can be found on Amazon HERE
The students really like the letter u page. they laugh at the word underwear. Uncle umbrella bird flies under the underwear, these are all short u vowels sounds. This is important because bossy r words block the short u sound and the long u words like ukulele do not help students with the short vowel decoding of CVC words. (consonant vowel consonant)
Ukulele is also a Hawaiian word, so the long e sound at the end of word does not follow the normal English spelling rules.
Link to my shop HERE
You can download and print these cards, that are based on the my book. Use them in your classroom or home to help students with handwriting.
