Free · print at home · ages 3 to 5
Letter I worksheets and tracing
A tiny line and a dot, small enough to pass for an insect on the window.
“It's not an insect at all. It's i, inching up the glass.”
Watch it write itself
See i write itself
It starts at the green dot and goes the way the arrows go, in the same order your child traces it. Press Slowly and follow it with a finger.
Tap I to see the capital write itself too.
On a phone or tablet, Bring it into your room puts the letter on your floor or table, through the camera. No app to install.
How to write it
How to write i and I, in words
One line for each stroke, to read aloud while your child traces. On the sheets: the top line, the dashed middle line, and the base line, where the letters sit. If your child's school uses a different style, follow the school.
Small i
- Start at the green dot on the middle line. Go straight down to the base line.
- Dot 2: lift the pencil and make a dot above the line, halfway between the middle line and the top line.
Capital I
- Start at the green dot on the top line, in the middle. Go straight down to the base line.
- Dot 2: go across the top line, from left to right.
- Dot 3: go across the base line, from left to right.
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Letter I tracing worksheets and coloring page
Five sheets for I and i: tracing the capital and the small letter, the small i only, the capital I only, a coloring page and a find every i page. US Letter and A4, black and white first, then color.
Letter I i tracing worksheet
I and i on the road with arrows, then fainter, then from the dots alone. Then the word insect.
1 page · PDF
Small i only
Four rows of i, from the road to the dots alone. Then the word insect.
1 page · PDF
Capital I only
Four rows of I, from the road to the dots alone, and a line to write on.
1 page · PDF
Letter I coloring page
A big I and i with eyes to color, and a box to draw the insect it hides in.
1 page · PDF · black and white
Find every i
A page of letters, many of them look-alikes. Color every i, then count them. The answer is upside down.
1 page · PDF · black and white
Free for home and classroom use. To pass them on, please share the link to this page and not the file. The whole alphabet at once (the ABC chart, the A to Z tracing booklet and the desk strip) is on the alphabet page.
For show and tell
Things that start with I
Everyday things a child can carry to school for letter I day. The first one is where i hides in our book.
- ink pad
- instrumenta small one
- invitationto a party
- iglooa paper one you made
- iguanaa toy one
- index card
- inchworma toy one
The book's game, with no screen
- Print the letter. The coloring page works well: your child colors it first, then it goes into hiding.
- While nobody is looking, hide it in something that starts with its sound: under a toy insect, or inside an igloo made of pillows.
- Say the sound together, as the book does: “i, i, i... Where can i be?” When your child finds it, they trace it with a finger and shout “Got you, little i!”
Animals
Animals that start with I
Tap one with an arrow to meet it on our dinosaur pages.
- iguana
- impalaan antelope that leaps
- ibisa bird with a long curved beak
- ibexa wild goat that climbs mountains
- inchworma caterpillar that loops along
- indria lemur from Madagascar
- Iguanodona plant-eating dinosaur with a spike on each thumb
- ichthyosaura sea reptile from the time of the dinosaurs, not a dinosaur
Good to know
The letter with a dot
i is one of only two letters with a dot. j is the other.
The dot always comes last: the line first, then lift the pencil and dot. A dot, not a circle.
In our book, i pretends to be an insect on the window: a tiny body (the line) and a tiny head (the dot).
Questions
Grown-ups ask
- How do you write a lowercase i?
- Start on the middle line and go straight down to the base line. Then lift the pencil and put a dot above, about halfway up to the top line.
- Why does the capital I have lines at the top and bottom?
- In the style on our sheets, the capital I has a short line across the top and another across the bottom, so it doesn't look like a small l. Some schools teach just one straight line. If yours does, follow the school.
- What starts with I for show and tell?
- A toy insect (where i hides in our book), an ink pad, a small instrument, a party invitation or a toy iguana. I is a hard one: a few things are plenty.
More letters
Our own book
Catch the Letters! A Bedtime Alphabet Book
By Katia Sunn · for grown-ups · coming soon
In the book, i hides in the insect. Your child finds it, traces it with a finger, and catches it. Every letter hides somewhere in the house, inside a thing that starts with its sound.
Every letter page has a code: scan it with a phone or tablet and the letter comes into your room.