How to write the letter I

Forming the capital I

The uncertainty here is about stroke count, not shape: some print models give capital I both crossbars (three strokes) while others use a single bare vertical (one stroke). Choose one and never mix them within a set of sheets, then contrast whichever you chose against lowercase i, which is a short stroke from the midline plus a dot.

Start: Top line, at the centre of the letter space

1. Pull one tall stroke straight down the middle of the letter space, from the top line to the baseline.
2. Lift to the top line and travel rightward across the head of the stem to lay the upper bar.
3. Lift to the baseline and travel rightward across the foot of the stem to lay the lower bar.

Forming the lowercase i

Drill the order out loud: stem first, dot last. Children who dot first break the top-to-bottom habit that governs every other letter in the alphabet, and i is the easiest place to protect it.

Start: On the midline, centred in the letter space

1. Draw a short straight line from the midline down to the baseline.
2. Lift the pen and set a small dot directly above the stem, in the space between the midline and the top line.

Common mistakes with i

These are the errors that actually show up on the page, rather than a generic list. Watching for them while a child writes is far more useful than correcting the finished sheet.

• Starting on the baseline and pushing the stroke upward.
• Leaving the dot off altogether.
• Turning the dot into a circle, a heart or a large blot.
• Floating the dot up near the top line, or setting it off to one side rather than directly over the stem.
• Drawing the stem at full ascender height, which reads as l.

And with the capital I

• Leaving off one bar, top bar only reads as a T, bottom bar only reads as an L.
• Leaving off both bars, giving a bare stroke indistinguishable from lowercase l and the figure 1.
• Bars so wide that the letter looks squat and heavy against its neighbours.
• Ruling the bars from right to left.
• Adding decorative flicks to the ends of the bars.

Letters that move the same way

Single downstroke letters: One straight line pulled from the top of the letter down to the baseline, with nothing added except a dot (i) or a midline crossbar (t). This is where the start-at-the-top-and-pull-down habit is established.

Teaching these together is more efficient than working through the alphabet in order, because the hand is learning one movement rather than several unrelated ones.

lt

Practise I with words

Once the letter is reliable on its own, move to words that start with it. Letters learned in isolation often fall apart the first time a child has to join them to anything.