Free · print at home · ages 3 to 5
Letter Y worksheets and tracing
Arms stretched high and a long tail down: the letter playing with the yo-yo.
“Holding the string is y, with its arms stretched high and its long tail hanging down.”
Watch it write itself
See y 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 Y 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 y and Y, 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 y
- Start at the green dot on the middle line, on the left. Slant down to the right, to the base line.
- Dot 2, on the middle line, on the right: slant down to the left, touch the first line at the base line, and keep going to the line below.
Capital Y
- Start at the green dot on the top line, on the left. Slant down to the right, to the middle line.
- Dot 2, on the top line, on the right: slant down to the left, to meet the first line on the middle line.
- Dot 3, where the two lines meet: go straight down to the base line.
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Letter Y tracing worksheets and coloring page
Five sheets for Y and y: tracing the capital and the small letter, the small y only, the capital Y only, a coloring page and a find every y page. US Letter and A4, black and white first, then color.
Letter Y y tracing worksheet
Y and y on the road with arrows, then fainter, then from the dots alone. Then the word yo-yo.
1 page · PDF
Small y only
Four rows of y, from the road to the dots alone. Then the word yo-yo.
1 page · PDF
Capital Y only
Four rows of Y, from the road to the dots alone, and a line to write on.
1 page · PDF
Letter Y coloring page
A big Y and y with eyes to color, and a box to draw the yo-yo it hides in.
1 page · PDF · black and white
Find every y
A page of letters, many of them look-alikes. Color every y, 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 Y
Everyday things a child can carry to school for letter Y day. The first one is where y hides in our book.
- yarna ball of it
- yogurta cup, for lunch
- yellow crayon
- yardstick
- yachta toy one
- yoga mata small one, rolled up
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: inside a ball of yarn, under the yoga mat, or in a yellow bag.
- Say the sound together, as the book does: “y, y, y... Where can y be?” When your child finds it, they trace it with a finger and shout “Got you, little y!”
Animals
Animals that start with Y
- yaka shaggy cousin of the cow, from the mountains of Asia
- yellow jacketa wasp with yellow stripes
- yellow tanga bright yellow fish from coral reefs
- yellowfin tuna
- yellow-bellied marmota big ground squirrel from the mountains of the West
- yabbya crayfish from Australia
- yapokan opossum that swims, with webbed back feet
- Yorkshire terriera small dog
Good to know
y, the letter that changes jobs
At the start of a word, y has its own sound: yo-yo, yes, yellow, yawn.
At the end of a word it borrows a sound. In my and fly it sounds like i. In happy and baby it sounds like ee. That's why y is sometimes counted as a vowel.
For now, the start is what matters: y, y, y, as in yo-yo.
Questions
Grown-ups ask
- How do you write a lowercase y?
- Start on the middle line, on the left, and slant down to the base line. Then start on the middle line on the right and slant down to the left, all the way past the base line to the line below. The second line is the long tail.
- Is y a vowel?
- Sometimes. At the start of a word, as in yo-yo and yes, it's a consonant. At the end of a word it often works as a vowel: it sounds like i in my, and like ee in happy.
- What starts with Y for show and tell?
- A yo-yo (where y hides in our book), a ball of yarn, a yellow crayon, a yardstick or a toy yacht. Or anything yellow!
More letters
Our own book
Catch the Letters! A Bedtime Alphabet Book
By Katia Sunn · for grown-ups · coming soon
In the book, y hides in the yo-yo. 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.