Queensland Beginners Style Handwriting & Tracing

How to make it

1. Start with the textType sight words, a sentence about the weekend, or alphabet pairs such as Aa Bb Cc. Every line becomes a practice row in the QLD style.
2. Adjust the helpChoose letter height, traced and empty rows, whether the first copy is dark, and whether later copies fade for more independence.
3. Print the setPrint at 100 percent or save a PDF for the class folder. Copy link reopens this sheet whenever you need it again.

Term 1 in a Prep classroom

The first weeks of Prep are full of new routines, and handwriting is one of them. Children in Queensland usually meet their school's beginner alphabet in that first year: how to sit, how to hold the pencil, where each letter begins, and how letters sit on the line. Teachers often keep early sheets very short, a few letters or a single word repeated, so that the focus stays on the movement rather than on finishing a page.

This generator suits that rhythm. A line of three letters at 25 mm (1 inch), a dark example and two faded copies to trace, then one empty row, fits comfortably into a ten-minute session and leaves room for a child to try once alone. Because every sheet is made fresh from what you type, you can follow the order your class is learning letters in, rather than working through a printed book in someone else's order.

How do you recognize Queensland Beginners letters?

Queensland's beginner alphabet is a simple, slightly sloped print. Letters are rounded and open, most lowercase letters stand apart, and a few, such as m and n, are commonly taught with a short curved lead-in before the first downstroke. Later in primary school, often from around Year 3, children move to a joined hand built from the same shapes, sometimes called Queensland Modern Cursive.

The font on these sheets, Playwrite AU QLD, is a semi-connected, slanted design that its makers base on the Queensland style, including the curved entry on m and n. When you type a whole word, some letters link up. If you want Prep children to see each letter on its own, put a space between the letters. As with any school-style font, check a few letters against the chart your school displays; small differences between schools are common.

Making a Queensland-style alphabet chart

Teachers often ask for a desk strip or alphabet chart in the QLD style. The quickest route is the alphabet chart maker: choose Australia: Queensland Beginners style in its style menu and it prints Aa to Zz seven pairs to a line on one page, with a row to trace under each line. To build one on this page instead, type the pairs, Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff on the first line and Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll on the next, set tracing rows to one, keep the dark example on, and choose 19 mm (3/4 inch) for a desk chart or 38 mm (1 1/2 inches) for a wall display.

A chart made this way uses the same font as the practice sheets, so the shapes children see on the wall match the ones they trace. For alphabet sheets with arrows on every stroke, there is the separate alphabet tracing generator, though its letters are upright print rather than the Queensland slope.

Dotted, dashed or faded: what the trace rows look like

People often search for a dotted Queensland font. On this sheet, the letters children trace are drawn as a fine dashed outline around the shape of each letter, with a white fill so the joins stay clean. The first copy on each line can be solid dark, and later copies can fade to a pale gray so the last few rows ask more of the child.

Why not a dotted line down the middle of each stroke? A font file only stores the outline of every letter. Our print styles are drawn from center-line stroke data, which is why they can show dots along the stroke and direction arrows, but we have not yet built that data for the school fonts. That also means the QLD rows have no arrows or start dots.

Sentences that grow through Year 1

Once single letters are steady, short sentences make practice feel like real writing. The sample sentence on this page, We play at lunch., is the kind of thing a Year 1 child might say about their own day, and it prints as one practice line with writing rows down to the bottom of a single page. Familiar topics keep attention on the pencil rather than on working out what the words mean. Start with sentences of four or five words at 16 mm (5/8 inch), two traced copies and one empty row, and watch spacing as much as letter shape: a finger space between words is a skill of its own.

As the year goes on, let the children supply the sentences. A quick class discussion on Monday about the weekend can produce six sentences, one per child in a small group, and each child traces their own line. Move the size down to 13 mm and add a second empty row once most letters sit on the baseline without help. For longer copywork later, the sentence tracing generator is set up for exactly that, and the Queensland style is available there too.

Using the QLD font in Word or on a Mac

Searches for a Queensland Beginners font for Microsoft Word usually lead to paid fonts sold by third parties. A free choice exists: Playwrite AU QLD, part of the Playwrite school font family on Google Fonts, licensed under the SIL Open Font License, which allows use in classroom materials. You do not need it installed to use this page, because the generator carries the font itself.

If you want it in your own documents too, our page on free school handwriting fonts covers installation on Windows, on a Mac and in Google Docs. One caution: typing in a word processor gives you letters but not tracing lines matched to the font, which is the part this generator handles for you.

Names and word lists for the year

For name tags and name practice, the name tracing worksheets page lets you pick the Queensland Beginners style in the Handwriting style menu and print a page per child from a class list. Sight words for the term can be saved once with Save this list and reused across word tracing, bingo and word search.

Lists and names stay in your browser on this device. For a comparison of the Queensland style with those taught in New South Wales, Victoria and elsewhere, read handwriting styles by country.