📘 Why some letters stand taller

What you’ll learn

1. Two shapes, one nameName a capital letter as the tall matching shape of a small letter, and say that they share a letter name and a sound.A and a are one letter in two clothes. Capitals stand tall so a name or a sentence can be seen. The stone letters on Trajan’s Column are the same family of shapes.
2. Ready to writeUse the ready-to-write routine — sit, slant the paper, tripod grip, watch the start — on wide-lined paper.The table, the lines and the pinch are part of the letter. Watch the teacher’s start. Tracing without watching can hide a wrong one.
3. Letters that start the same waySort capitals into families by first stroke, and explain why handwriting order is not phonics order.A family is letters that begin alike: sticks, rounds, zigzags, bumps. Phonics sorts by sound. Handwriting sorts by the start.
4. The rest of the twenty-sixForm letters from the zigzag and bump trays at a shared height, and name the left-hand adjustments.Slants and bumps still start in one watched place. Every capital is the same height. About ten in a hundred write with the left hand and need the paper slanted the other way.
5. When the tall letter comes outChoose a capital for the start of a sentence, for names of people and places, for days of the week, and for I.The doorstep of a sentence is tall. So is a name, a day, and the word I. Tonight, hunt four capitals and notice one start.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study (updated 16 July 2014) — Year 1 handwriting: sit correctly at a table, holding a pencil comfortably and correctly; begin to form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place; form capital letters; form digits 0-9; understand which letters belong to which handwriting ‘families’ (ie letters that are formed in similar ways) and to practise these. Notes: frequent and discrete, direct teaching; implement not too large for a young pupil’s hand; left-handed pupils should receive specific teaching. Year 1 vocabulary, grammar and punctuation: beginning to punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark; using a capital letter for names of people, places, the days of the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I’. Year 2 handwriting: write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
• Department for Education, English Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (2013) — Year 1 punctuation: introduction to capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences; capital letters for names and for the personal pronoun I. Terminology for pupils: letter, capital letter. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335190/English_Appendix_2_-_Vocabulary_grammar_and_punctuation.pdf
• Department for Education, The writing framework (July 2025) — Section 3 Handwriting and Appendix A. Transcription should become automatic; teach handwriting from reception, daily, in small steps, demonstrated, additional to phonics. Year 1 statutory list restated. Wide-lined paper essential; mid-line guides help. Ready-to-write: feet on the floor, bottom to the back of the chair, pencil in one hand and the other hand on the paper. Tripod grip: pinch with index finger and thumb about a finger space from the end; middle finger underneath; relaxed. Paper slant anti-clockwise for right-handers, clockwise for left-handers. About 10% of pupils are left-handed: sit to the left of a right-hander, slant paper to the right, softer pencils, grip slightly higher. Handwriting order groups letters by similar formation; phonics order is different. Families grouped by where each letter starts; programmes may differ slightly. Do not rely on tracing or unsupervised copying. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-writing-framework
• Ofsted, Strong foundations in the first years of school (8 October 2024) — teaching handwriting only in phonics sessions means children miss letter-formation foundations; key stage 1 plans do not always include handwriting families; incorrect formation becomes a habit; asking children to trace over letters rather than showing them how to form letters correctly is unhelpful. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strong-foundations-in-the-first-years-of-school/strong-foundations-in-the-first-years-of-school
• Department for Education, The reading framework (updated 2023) — Capital and lower-case letters: programmes teach that each lower-case letter has a corresponding capital letter; they share the letter name and represent the same sound; both ‘a’ and ‘A’ are called /ae/ and are usually pronounced /a/. Also cautions against requiring children to write independently before they have the necessary skills. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-reading-framework
• Common Core State Standards Initiative, English Language Arts Standards, Language — L.K.1.a Print many upper- and lowercase letters; L.K.2.a Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I; L.1.1.a Print all upper- and lowercase letters; L.1.2.a Capitalize dates and names of people. https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/K/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/1/

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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