Tracing number words one to twenty

Tracing number words one to twenty, joined to the numeral and the count, since a child counts to twenty before reading it. 21 pages, free PDF.

Counting to twenty out loud is a memorised song. Recognising the numeral 14 is a second skill. Reading the word fourteen is a third. This book puts all three on one page so they attach to each other instead of being learned separately.

Number word worksheet for three with three stars to count — Page 4 – three, with the numeral, the stars and the word.

What is on each page

The word — one grey copy, two dotted, then an empty ruled row.
A group of stars to count, in rows of five.
The numeral — traced, then written on a blank row.

The words that cause trouble

English number words are regular from twenty upwards and a mess below it. Eleven and twelve give no clue that they are ten and one, ten and two. Thirteen to nineteen say the units before the tens, which is the opposite of how they are written. And four spellings catch nearly everyone out: four keeps its u but forty loses it, eight has a silent gh, nine keeps its e, and twelve has a v where a child expects an f.

Number word worksheet for fifteen with fifteen stars in rows of five — Page 16 – fifteen, one of the longer words in the book.

How to work through it

One to ten first, then stop and check that all ten are readable before starting the teens. The teens take about twice as long, and starting them while the first ten are still shaky is how a child ends up writing fiveteen.

What comes next

Number Tracing 1-20 covers the numerals with less writing, and Counting Worksheets 1-20 drops the words to concentrate on the count itself.

Printing this one correctly

In your printer dialog set Scale to 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page. Fit to page shrinks the tracing letters and they stop matching the size a child's hand is learning.

Plain paper is fine for crayons and pencils. If your child uses felt pens, 100 gsm paper stops the ink bleeding to the next sheet.