How to write the letter Z

Forming the capital Z

Z is the only capital whose first stroke is horizontal rather than vertical, and one of the few normally drawn with no pen lift at all, the pencil turns two corners and keeps going. Same shape and direction as lowercase z, and it usually comes last, alongside the other diagonals.

Start: Top line, at the left edge of the letter space

1. Travel rightward along the top line to lay the upper bar.
2. Without lifting, slant down and to the left, running from the end of the upper bar all the way to the baseline on the left.
3. Still without lifting, travel rightward along the baseline to lay the lower bar, finishing directly beneath the end of the upper bar.

Forming the lowercase z

Say the path aloud, across, back down, across, which is what keeps the diagonal pointing the right way. z is usually taught late, being rare in words and easy to reverse, and it benefits from an explicit starting dot on the left.

Start: On the midline, at the left of the letter space

1. Travel straight across to the right along the midline, then slide diagonally down and to the left to the baseline, then travel straight across to the right again along the baseline, three segments, normally drawn without lifting.

Common mistakes with z

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.

• Mirroring the letter, which produces a backwards shape children often then confuse with s.
• Running the diagonal down and to the right instead of down and to the left, which leaves the bars disconnected.
• Top and bottom bars of noticeably different lengths.
• Lifting between the segments and then setting the next one down out of line.
• Rounding the two corners so the letter reads as a squiggle.

And with the capital Z

• A full mirror image, with the diagonal running down to the right; z is a commonly reversed letter.
• Confusing Z with S, a documented reversal pair.
• Drawing the diagonal as a vertical, which gives an I with bars.
• Upper and lower bars of unequal length, so the letter leans.
• Lifting after the upper bar and restarting the diagonal in the wrong place.

Letters that move the same way

Diagonal-stroke letters: Straight slanted strokes rather than curves, every one of them travelling top to bottom. v is the anchor: w repeats it, y extends its right arm below the baseline, x and k cross diagonals against another stroke, and z hangs two diagonally joined horizontals off the same movement.

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.

vwxyk

Practise Z 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.