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I Pirate Letters Storybook – Learning Lowercase Letter Formation

Handwriting in a storybook to make learning visually memorable

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:

i, j, l, t, f, and k.

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

Discover the Straight-Line Letters

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.

  • i and j: Begin with a downward stroke, followed by a pencil lift to add the dot.
  • t, f and k: Require additional formation steps and pencil lifts.
  • l: Is the exception, formed with one continuous downward movement.

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.

Discover the Different Letter Heights

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.

  • Small letter: i
  • Falling letter: j
  • Tall letters: f, l, t, k

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.

The sea turtle tracks explained

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.

Follow the Little Sea Turtles!

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.

The Bird Has Another Vowel to Reveal!

“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.

C Pirate Letters Sand Tray

R’s Pirate Letters: Handwriting Storybook Lowercase Letter Formation

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.

A Pirate Adventure That Makes Learning Handwriting an Exciting Discovery!

BUY NOW – AMAZON

R’s Pirate Letters: Handwriting Storybook Lowercase Letter Formation

This is the first book in the Pirate Handwriting series. The dive-down letters.

Join the pirates on a treasure-seeking adventure as they discover the secret of lowercase letter formation.

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.

Letters: r, n, m, h, b, p

R-look! The h and b have the same hidden r-shape. That will be easy to make.

The discovery of the r-shaped foundation.

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.

Six Letters. One Underlying Shape. A Carefully Planned Learning Sequence.

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.

First, Discover the r-Shape: r, n, m

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.

Next, Look Up: h, b

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.

Finally, Dive Down: p

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.

Learning Through Visual Discovery

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

Get the worksheet and images 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:

  1. A consistent formation movement: Children learn the r-shaped movement first and build familiarity and muscle memory through its use in the related letters.
  2. A visual reference: The underlying r shape remains visible within the other letters, helping children recognise their formation direction
  3. A reversal cue: The familiar shape provides a visual reference that helps children distinguish the correct orientation of letters.
  4. A starting-point reminder: The pirate coin identifies the top starting position.

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.

Best Handwriting Picture Book Series

Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems: ABC – Book

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.

Letter tracing cards can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers shop – Pure Joy Teaching

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.

Awesome Alphabet Poems

the perfect book for young learners! This colorful, interactive resource is designed to teach preschool and kindergarten children the correct starting and stopping points of lowercase letters, making it a fantastic tool for early literacy development.

Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems: A Fun and Engaging Learning Adventure

Welcome to Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems—the perfect book for young learners! This colorful, interactive resource is designed to teach preschool and kindergarten children. Practicing the correct starting and stopping points of lowercase letters, makes it a fantastic tool for early literacy development.

Animal Theme

Each page features fun, animal-themed poems that guide children step-by-step as they trace the letters with their fingers. With clear starting points marked by a green dot and arrows that direct the movements, little learners can easily follow the animal actions while mastering each letter.

Letter tracing activity

Find Cards HERE

b sounds Ben, bear, blueberry, buzzing bees

Find Book on Amazon

Why You’ll Love This Book:

  • Engaging & Fun: Simple rhymes and vibrant illustrations captivate children’s attention and make learning the alphabet an enjoyable experience.
  • Kinesthetic Learning: The finger-tracing activity helps build muscle memory, promoting better letter recognition and laying the foundation for handwriting skills.
  • Memorable Rhymes: Easy-to-remember sayings help children recall the movements of each letter, supporting both reading and writing success.
  • Perfect for Home or School: Ideal for classroom activities or at-home learning, this book is designed to nurture early literacy skills in a way that sparks curiosity about animals and the world around them.
  • Builds Confidence: With every turn of the page, children will gain confidence in their letter-writing abilities, setting them up for future success in handwriting and reading.
  • Letter Sounds: Poems use words that tie into the main letter sound. Letter sounds are extremely important for reading and decoding skills.

From A to Z, Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems is a fun, effective, and memorable way to help children discover the world of letters through animals, movement, and rhymes. Whether in the classroom or at home, this book is sure to be a favorite for young learners as they begin their journey toward literacy!

Handwriting

Air Writing ABC Book

© Pure Joy Teaching

Download and print the flashcards for this book. Teachers Pay Teachers


    For play-based learning; with Air Writing

    Students can pretend to be an airplane, and mirror the letter movements of the teacher. This exercise can help them learn the correct starting and stopping points of the capital letters. The helpful green dot shows the starting point of the letter, with numbered steps for letters that have more than one step. Valuable teacher instruction pages and Flash Card pages that can be cut out of the book to use in class. The reversed alphabet chart on the back cover of this book, helps to remind the teacher in which direction to make the letters. Very helpful when the book or the card is facing the students.

    Mirror image; Why does it look backwards?

    Remember my right is your left, when we are facing each other. This book will help teachers so the students will NOT be seeing the reversed Image by mistake. It can aid and support future handwriting success, while learning feels like play.

    Find on Amazon

    © Pure Joy Teaching

    Read Write and Paint in classroom

    After reading we talked about ways that we might paint like the pets in the story. 

    The kids in room 6, really enjoyed the story this week.

    Based on the Book If A Pig Could Paint

    When the pig hides the paints from the other pets, one little girl said, “I see them hiding in the hay.”

    The class did not think the pig would share the paints.

    Brainstorming in ideas

    After reading we talked about ways that we might paint like the pets in the story.   Next week they will make story bubbles and write sentences based on the book.

    I can hardly wait to see the art.

    Links to the downloads HERE.

    And find book Here.

    This children’s book features animals creating paintings, with some of their artworks resembling true masterpieces. It was thrilling to discover how many of the great artists were familiar to the young readers!

    Books

    Have Pure Joy Teaching

    Different ways to Use Flashcards

    There are lots of ways to use flashcards in the classroom.

    1. Hook them together:  a small little hole punched in the corner of each one will keep them together, & make them easier to flip.    * I love to hang my flashcards right next to my circle time chair.   The flashcards add to the decor of the room instead of creating clutter on my shelf.
    2. Dry Erase:  Some cards need to be laminated first, but Dry Erase pens are great for tracing and circling counted items. This works well at the writing table and can easily be put on a tray as a choose your own activity on the math shelf.

    The mnemonic abcs & handwriting cards are very useful cards to link together.

    Take a look below or jump to my Teachers Pays Teachers site

    Alphabet Poems Trace & Learn Letter Formation Cards: Awesome Animals ABC

    Mnemonic Alphabet cards Lowercase letters with pictures a-z short vowels

    Air Writing Flash Cards with Teacher directions 

    Try my starfish count and clip cards at my shop.

    or my heart cards Here.

    Teaching with Letter of week creation facts is fun

    In my preschool classroom, we use letter-of-the-week items.  I try to include many real creation facts in the week.  This has had an amazing result on the students.  Many parents are surprised at the new thing their kids are interested in.

    One example is the letter O for octopus.

    Octopus lives in the ocean, has 8 arms, and squits ink.   Cool right!

    I have grouped together a book, counting cards, and few playdough activities, and a coloring sheet.

    The book Oliver the Octopus

    Using olives, onions, on, off, odd, oval, opal, and open, all of these words are better than using the word orange.  Yes, the words do start with the letter o.  The phonemic sound is actually the r-controlled sound “or” and the letter g is softened to the soft “j” sound by the silent e.  These can be confusing concepts for emergent readers.  Now that I have started using easy-to-decode words with my students, my results have improved.

    I save the word orange for lessons about r-controlled words and reasons for silent e.

    Christian Valentines from Teacher to Students

    In the Christian classroom we try to always bring every holiday back to God is the reason for the season.

    During my first year teaching in a Christian preschool, I was caught off guard by Valentine’s day.   The stores did not have any Valentine’s that I wanted to give to my students.

    There were some very creative moms in my class and they inspired me to make up my own Christian Valentines for my students.  Using the shape and size of a standard Hershey bar, I created a wrapper that said,  “HE IS LOVE.”

    The kids loved it.   One precious little boy lit up with excitement, ” A big candy bar, all for me!” He was overwhelmed by the large size of it in his small hand.

    His wonderful mom said, he needed to eat lunch first and it might be nice to share that big candy bar.

    School policy says we only celebrate Christian holidays in the classrooms.  We always bring every holiday back to God and the reason for the season.  Valentine’s Day is no different.  One of our memory verses is:

    God is Love.

    1 John 4:16.

    So the phrase “He is Love, ” makes sense, for his holiday gift.

    I put other verses on the back and left a space for me to write their names.  The original master copy is signed by me, which saves me time each year.

    I have put this item on Tpt, if you’re interested in this download printable check it out HERE!

    Blessings.

    Be sure to check out:  Answers in Genesis website.   It has lots of free videos for kids and adults.  It is a valuable resource for parents and teachers.  My family loves it.

    Ed Said, “d, id, t.” Suffix Game

    Zebra countdown to Zoom book

    10, 9, 8…..Counting down to zoom, with the excitement of a rocket balloon. Zack the Zebra illustrates how to make a balloon rocket with simple household items. A Stimulating way to inspire education, fun, science, and math. Great indoor entertainment, easy DIY. Kids love balloons, spark interest in physics and release fun.

    This book is available on  Amazon in paperback and ebook.

    Balloon Rocket Tack Cards, and printable Awards for a STEM Project

    Printable downloads on TpT, Teachers Pay Teachers are in the works and will be available soon. Joining TpT is free.

    Right now there is a free download of my shape & color cards.   

    For classroom display and word wall poster printables, find my Alphabet cards, Maori Numbers, & more with the Zebra Frame Pattern.

    See more of my items HERE.