First Words: CAT, HAT, MAT, BAT

CAT, HAT, MAT and BAT, each on its own ruled row to trace and then write. These four are a word family: change the first letter and everything else stays put, which is the first spelling pattern most children ever meet.

Writing a word is a genuinely different task from writing letters. The letters have to sit on the same line, stay roughly the same size, and follow each other closely enough to read as one thing — spacing that a child who writes fine single letters often has to learn separately.

Read each word aloud before tracing it and stress the first sound: "c-at, h-at, m-at, b-at". The page is handwriting practice, but the sound pattern underneath it is what makes early reading click.