Free · print at home · ages 3 to 5
Letter J worksheets and tracing
A line with a hook and a dot on top. It jumped into the jam.
“j jumped into the jam and now can't jump back out.”
Watch it write itself
See j 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 J 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 j and J, 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 j
- Start at the green dot on the middle line. Go straight down, past the base line, and curl round to the left at the bottom.
- Dot 2: lift the pencil and make a dot above, halfway between the middle line and the top line.
Capital J
- Start at the green dot on the top line. Go straight down, then curve round to the left along the base line and up a little, like a hook.
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Letter J tracing worksheets and coloring page
Five sheets for J and j: tracing the capital and the small letter, the small j only, the capital J only, a coloring page and a find every j page. US Letter and A4, black and white first, then color.
Letter J j tracing worksheet
J and j on the road with arrows, then fainter, then from the dots alone. Then the word jam.
1 page · PDF
Small j only
Four rows of j, from the road to the dots alone. Then the word jam.
1 page · PDF
Capital J only
Four rows of J, from the road to the dots alone, and a line to write on.
1 page · PDF
Letter J coloring page
A big J and j with eyes to color, and a box to draw the jam it hides in.
1 page · PDF · black and white
Find every j
A page of letters, many of them look-alikes. Color every j, 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 J
Everyday things a child can carry to school for letter J day. The first one is where j hides in our book.
- jacket
- jump rope
- juice box
- jigsaw puzzle
- jack-in-the-box
- jeans
- jeta toy one
- jingle bell
- jewelry box
- jara plastic 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: in a jacket pocket, inside an empty jar, or under a jigsaw piece.
- Say the sound together, as the book does: “j, j, j... Where can j be?” When your child finds it, they trace it with a finger and shout “Got you, little j!”
Animals
Animals that start with J
- jaguar
- jellyfish
- jackal
- jay
- jackrabbit
- jerboaa little desert animal that hops
- jackdawa small crow
- jumping spider
Good to know
A dot on top, a tail below
j is the other letter with a dot, and the dot goes on last, as on the i.
It also hangs below the base line, like g, p, q and y. Its hook curls to the left. If the hook goes to the right, the j is backwards: an easy mix-up.
Questions
Grown-ups ask
- How do you write a lowercase j?
- Start on the middle line and go straight down, past the base line, then curl round to the left. Lift the pencil and add the dot on top, last.
- Which way does the j's hook go?
- To the left. If it goes to the right, the j is backwards. Tracing the road on the sheet a few times, with a finger first, helps the hand remember.
- What starts with J for show and tell?
- A small jar of jam with the lid on tight (that's where j hides in our book), a jacket, a jump rope, a jigsaw puzzle, a jack-in-the-box or a jingle bell.
More letters
Our own book
Catch the Letters! A Bedtime Alphabet Book
By Katia Sunn · for grown-ups · coming soon
In the book, j hides in the jam. 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.