Valentine's Alphabet Tracing Strips

These printable alphabet tracing strips feature a cute bottle of Valentine’s hearts that are a great fit for your Valentine preschool theme. Your child will be happily tracing away and learning their letters in just a few minutes with these easy to use printables.

Tracing letters is beneficial for early learners. Tracing can help introduce the shapes and forms of letters, develop fine motor skills, and build writing confidence.

Plus these pages will keep your little one happily busy and learning while you catch a minute to yourself. Hooray!

Download these Valentine’s Day letter tracing strips with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, or both on the same strip and laminate them to use again and again.

text "free printable Valentine's Day Alphabet Tracing Strips" next to an image with three tracing strip page printables. Each page has four letters on a bottle filled with hearts. One letter is on each bottle. Next to the bottle is a row of the same letter to trace in a dotted font.

For additional free alphabet resources, be sure to download these free printable alphabet coloring pages and free printable alphabet play dough mats.

Table of Contents

Teaching reading and writing to your child

There are several different theories behind how to teach reading and writing to your child.

Some educators and parents believe that you should teach children uppercase letters first. Uppercase letters are easier to tell apart from one another. They are also less likely to be reversed by young children just learning how to write.

Others believe in teaching lowercase letters first. Most letters you encounter every day are lowercase. Also, lowercase letters can be easier to write because they involve fewer strokes.

And, of course, there are also people that believe in teaching children how to write uppercase and lowercase letters simultaneously.

Based on my own personal philosophy of teaching, graduate coursework, and experience as a Montessori-inspired homeschool preschool mom, I am teaching my daughter her lowercase letters first.

Even though one method or the other is considered “better” by professionals, it may or may not work best for you and your child. Don’t feel like you have to stick to one method if it isn’t working for you.

This is why there are three separate sets of Valentine’s Day alphabet tracing strips. One size does not fit all in education, so you have choices. There are uppercase only tracing strips, lowercase only, and upper/lowercase letters given together.

An image with three tracing strip page printables. Each page has four letters on a bottle filled with hearts. One letter is on each bottle. Next to the bottle is a row of the same letter to trace in a dotted font. Around the pages are foam letters a, b, and c as well as brightly colored children's markers.

Because nothing about kids is as simple as you’d hoped, there are also different ideas about what order to teach the alphabet in.

You might automatically assume that you should teach letters in alphabetical order. This is, of course, one option.

Alternatively, you may chose to introduce letters in non-alphabetical order. Many people introduce clusters of letters at a time, starting with the most commonly used letters. There are several different suggested orders for teaching letters. This post from Living Montessori Now addresses several different combinations used in various Montessori schools. It’s worth a read if you’re interested in teaching the alphabet in non-alphabetical order!

Luckily, it’s easy to teach letters in your preferred order using these alphabet tracing strips. Simply cut them out and only present the letters you child is working on at this time.

A close up of a child's hands playing with colorful foam letters

How to use alphabet tracing strips for preschool & pre-k

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Sometimes you need a quick, educational activity for your child to do right now with virtually no prep-work on your part.

Quickly and easily get this alphabet tracing activity into your child’s hands by printing them and having your child trace the letters without cutting the page into strips.

Your little learner can write with with a crayon, pencil, or marker. Markers glide more easily across the page. Crayons and pencils create more friction and are a bit harder to write with, which means they provide a greater fine motor challenge.

We personally use Honeysticks beeswax crayons (they’re all-natural and super smooth/creamy to write with) and Crayola Supertips markers (they’re fairly washable and inexpensive).

To introduce specific letters, use a paper trimmer or a pair of scissors to cut the page into strips along the solid lines.

To make the letter tracing strips reusable: print the strips, laminate, cut into strips, and use with fine tip dry erase markers.

I’m currently printing educational worksheets 32# bright white printer paper. It’s heavier than normal printer paper and makes images look really bright and crisp without breaking the bank. (For a side-by-side comparison of several printer papers, check out this post on the best paper for printables.)

HP Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream - 500 Sheets |...

Made in USA: HP Papers is sourced from renewable forest resources and has achieved production with 0% deforestation in North America.
Heavyweight premium printing: HP Premium32 is a heavyweight (32 pounds), brighter (100 bright) and whiter (163 whiteness) paper with a super-smooth...
Certified sustainable: HP Premium32 presentation paper is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and contributes toward satisfying credit MR1...

You can hole punch each card in the upper left corner and thread them onto a binder ring for a fun go bag activity that’s easy to clean after trips to the doctor’s office or sticky snack hands.

40PCS Loose Leaf Binder Rings, Assorted Sizes (Inner Diameter 1, 1.25, 1.5,...

【ASSORTED SIZES】 - The package contains 2 inch x 5pcs, 1.5 inch x 5pcs, 1.25 inch x 10pcs, 1 inch x 20pcs binder rings. Assorted sizes book rings...
【HIGH QUALITY】 - Binder rings are made from stainless steel, nickel-plated metal. Feature a bright, corrosion-resistant finish, hard to rust and...
【EASY TO OPEN OR CLOSE】 - Convenient to use just pull to open and squeeze to close; you can use them easily and quickly. Make your work and life...

If you need more low-prep Valentine’s Day fun for your family, snag these additional freebies on The Artisan Life:

Free printable Valentine’s Day letter tracing strips

Like all preschool printables on The Artisan Life, these are licensed for for personal and single classroom use. You are also welcome to use them with therapy clients, as long as you are not charging specifically to do this activity.

You are not licensed to alter, sell, or redistribute the files to others for their personal use. Instead, please refer your friends and colleagues to this page so they can download their own copies.

As noted above, there are three different styles of tracing strip: lowercase letters only, uppercase letters only, and upper/lowercase letters on the same strip. All 27 pages are in one convenient PDF. Pages 1-7 are lowercase, 8-14 are uppercase, and 15-21 are the combined case strips.

Download your Valentine theme alphabet tracing strips here

Ready for your child to enjoy low-prep, educational fun? Click the image below:

I hope your little learner enjoys this low-prep learning activity for Valentine’s Day! Make sure to get these additional Valentine’s Day printables while you’re here:

Stop scrolling Pinterest for Valentine's Day printables and crafts - check out these Valentine's posts right here on The Artisan Life!