Today’s post will highlight letter B, and includes a free Letter B Worksheet. The posts will have tips to the teach the selected letter, prewriting skills needed, and verbal prompts helpful to teaching the letter. As we continue our travel together through learning the alphabet with letter formation sheets, I want to remind you that this post is part of a letter skills lesson that will include all 26 letters of the alphabet in upcoming posts. Each post will offer information on how to teach the highlighted letter, and include a free download for that letter.
You’ll also want to get a copy of our letter A worksheet and all of the other 26 letters of the alphabet in upcoming blog posts on letter formation worksheets.
letter b worksheet
The Letter B Worksheet is another one of our multisensory worksheets designed for students to cut the page into sections, then staple all the pieces together to create little alphabet tracing books by grouping the dotted, tracing, playdough, and color sections together.
Each post will offer information on how to teach the highlighted letter, and include a free download for that letter of the alphabet. Collect all 26 and you have a letter writing workbook!
Today we are talking about the Letter B, both in its upper and lowercase form. There are many terrific ways to teach letter recognition and formation. A multisensory approach to learning is a great way to improve skills while meeting the learning styles of all your students.
Click the link below and add your email address to get the FREE downloadable PDF letter B worksheet.
The Letter B Worksheet is divided into six sections:
- Playdough Letter B Cards
- Letter B Tracing
- Do-A-Dot Letter B
- Color the Letter B
- Write Letter B on lines
- Write Letter B in boxes
Build Playdough letter B
Hands-on learners will love the building section of the letter B worksheet. Students can mold the letter B out of play dough, clay, sticks, or other manipulatives. Keep reading for more great ideas to build letters out of common items.
Tracing letter B
The tracing letter b section of the worksheet is great for targeting visual motor skills. We know that tracing can support these skills, so use this section with multisensory supports for more motor planning. Kinesthetic learners learn by doing, and will benefit from all the sections in these handouts, especially this section on tracing letter B and b.
Kinesthetic learners like to touch and engage in order to learn and retain information. Students can use their fingers, a wand, popsicle stick, or add a writing tool to trace the letters. You can also laminate the letter pages, place them on a tray covered with sand, salt, or shaving cream, and have students trace the letters this way.
Do a Dot letter B
Kids (and OT providers) love do a dot activities for their many skill-building abilities. Cut out this section of of Do a Dot Letter B to make an uppercase and lowercase letter. Use cotton swabs broken into pieces, the end of an eraser like a bingo type markers, or stampers to fill in the letters.
Kids love the banging movement and sound of these dot markers. Students can also dip Q-tips or fingers into paint to make dots on the paper. There are all kinds of stampers available on the web. What else can kids use to make dots on paper?
Color the letter B
Coloring is such a great strategy to build hand strength, so the color a letter B section of the page is great for all ages. Encourage developmentally appropriate grasp patterns (broken crayons work wonders for developing a tripod grasp), work on coloring inside the lines, color selection, and attention to detail.
Explore different mediums for coloring including markers, gel pens, pencils, crayons (of all types), paint, glitter, or glue and small items to fill the space.
Write the letter B
These two sections are for students to put their practice into letter formation. They will practice writing the letters on the lines with correct sizing, formation, line placement, and details.
Students also practice fitting the letters inside the small boxes to improve letter sizing and accuracy. As with the other sections, this section can also be laminated for reusability.
Be mindful that some students do not write well with dry erase markers.
how to teach letter b
This letter B worksheet is a great start to teaching letter formation. Whether you are using the Handwriting without Tears curriculum, or teaching the letters in alphabetical order, these great worksheets provide a consistent method for teaching and tracking letter formation and understanding.
There are several sites online with different letter rhymes available for teaching letters.
This YouTube video uses the HWT narrative for letter b:
- The HWT curriculum lowercase b narrative says: dive down, swim up and over, around and bump.
- The uppercase letter B HWT says: big line, little curve, little curve
Letter b rhymes include:
- Songs for Teaching’s rhyme for lowercase b says: now make a long line with a circle on the ground, and you’ve made a b with the /b/ /b/ /b/ sound.
- Songs of Sounds UK, teaches lowercase b by: starting at the top, go down, back up half way and around the big belly. Uppercase B: From the top, down, back to the top. Round to the middle, round to the bottom
- Twinkl has a great set of rhymes. Lowercase b says, go straight down and up again neatly, Then all the way round and join at the bottom to make a b. Uppercase B rhyme is: From top to bottom make a line that is straight. Go back to the top and wait. Make a round bump that bends back to the middle, and a second bump underneath, that is a bit of a fiddle.
prewriting skills needed for Letter B
As you are working on the Letter B Worksheet, be sure your students have the prewriting skills needed for writing letters.
Here is a comprehensive post about the Prewriting Skills needed before letter formation.
Some of the prewriting skills for letter formation include:
- grasping skills for holding the writing tool – it is preferable to work on forming a correct tripod grasp, but not essential for starting letter formation. Children begin to form a tripod grasp around age four. You can improve pencil grasp by working on hand strengthening activities
- finger isolation is what is needed to be able to tuck fingers into the palm when writing
- in hand manipulation – start working on training the intrinsic muscles of the hands
- following directions – this is a key to learning any new skill and quite often the biggest barrier
- hand strength needed hold pencil and manipulate objects. Students with weak hand strength often have shaky, lightly written letters, and hold the writing tool lightly
- crossing midline is an essential skill for letter formation, otherwise letters like “t” are written in four pieces rather than two intersecting lines
- beginning hand dominance – do not worry if it is not solidified by age four, just encourage fine motor tasks, and watch for signs that one hand is stronger than the other
- imitating movements is important as many children do not respond to verbal directions only
- visual perception is making sense of what is written or seen. These might include same/different, scanning, or visual discrimination
- prewriting strokes – being able to write lines and circles is important, as these are the foundation for forming upper and lowercase letters. Here is a great post on letter formation
- copying from a model
- social function skills such as attending, work tolerance, controlling impulses and body, taking turns, waiting, sharing, and more are needed skills for effective learning.
- copying from a model or directive
specific skills for letter b
In addition to the skills above, students will need to know how to form straight lines and curves to make upper and lowercase B. These segments of the letter combine to create a motor plan for writing letter B with automaticity.
Teach them about retracing so that the letters are formed correctly rather than b looking like the number six. This is a good time to start demonstrating the difference between b and d, as they are often confused.
Steps to Write Uppercase Letter B–
- Upper case letter B has a big line down which starts at the top line. This single line is a great starting point because it is one of the most basic pre-writing lines.
- Next, jump back up to the top line. This requires pencil control to place the pencil on the top of the line at the starting point.
- Next make two bumps consisting of little curves. These connect at the straight line, which again requires pencil control skills.
Steps to Write Lowercase Letter b-
- Lowercase letter b starts at the top line much like uppercase letter B. This point reinforces why teaching uppercase letters first is important, because of the consistency between pencil strokes.
- Next, move to the middle line. This is a more refined pencil control skill than the top line.
- Make a small curve, ending at the bottom of the straight line.
There are dozens of additional skills children need to learn before they are truly ready for handwriting. Children who are missing these important skills will struggle with handwriting. This lack of foundational skills can lead to poor letter formation, fatigue, compensation strategies, and inefficient writing.
tips to teach letter b formation
In addition to the rhymes above, there are other great strategies to teaching letter formation:
- write letters in the air with big arm movements
- make letters in sand, shaving cream, chalk, sandpaper
- teach the letter names and sounds before forming the letters so students understand what they are writing
- it is wise to follow the same curriculum throughout the teaching for consistency. Whether you use Learning without Tears, Teaching Mama, Songs for Sounds, or another curriculum, being consistent helps students learn the language and follow the prompts
- surround your students with letters. Use games, activities, books, gross motor games, and whole lesson plans to immerse students in learning the letters
- Use some of our multisensory Letter Formation activities to specifically target big lines down and the bump, bump of upper case be as well as the big line down and small bump of lowercase b.
- The OT Toolbox has some great handwriting resources to add to this packet for working on letter recognition and formation.
Tips and Tricks to Teach Uppercase B
We have created a video with specific tips and tricks to teach uppercase letter B. You can watch that video here:
This uppercase letter B video will have a corresponding lowercase letter b exercise coming soon.
how to use the letter b worksheet
As described above, this free Letter B Worksheet, can be cut into sections and made into mini workbooks. There are many other great options for using these work pages:
- Laminate the pages to make them reusable. Punch holes in them, and create a binder. This is especially helpful with the play dough cards
- Separate each kind of activity, and group them together to make an alphabet book. For example, make a book of all the “do a dot” letters. Keep going until your students have six mini alphabet books
- Cut the pages into six sections, then staple together. Each book with have six pages, all relating to the same letter. For example, the Letter B Worksheet would be turned into a small booklet with a traced b, written b, colored b, dotted b, playdough b, etc.
- Take a photo of the letter made of playdough, rather than having students trying to keep their dough formations stuck in their books
- Enlarge each section to make them full page sized. This might be helpful for younger learners who may need more room to write and color
- Make your own modifications to some of the sections. Instead of tracing, students can fill the section with glue and glitter! In the coloring section, students can fill them with small manipulatives. Wikki sticks can be used instead of Playdough. Water color, paint, or any other creative medium you can find to fill in the spaces
- Add this letter b worksheet to part of your bigger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, reading, math, or other daily fun activities
letter B recognition and Identification
In addition to the letter b strategies described above, there are other great tactics designed specifically to support letter b recognition. This is particularly important dur to the tendency for “b” to be confused with “d”. We discuss the letter b confusion in our blog post on to teaching letter formation:
Here are ways to support letter recognition for letter b/B:
- Letter immersion: surround your students with letters. Use games, activities, books, gross motor games, and whole lesson plans to immerse students in learning the letters. Hang up letters, sing songs and rhymes, point out letters, and talk about them. The Dollar Store is a great place to buy all kinds of supplies.
- Matching uppercase B to lowercase b: Matching upper case and lowercase letters is an important skill in letter recognition. Practice matching the upper case letter B to lowercase letter b, and vice versa, with letter flash cards. You can use these in a sensory bin or writing tray.
- Letter I Spy: ask your child to identify and find letters as you go about your day together. Use the letter of the week as well as previously learned letters.
- Making letters using nature: Take a nature walk and gather materials found on the ground. Use these supplies to form letters. Note: Rocks and leaves are easiest for forming rounded letters (B, C, D), and sticks are best for letters with straight lines (A, J, T). Here is how to use sticks to create twig letters.
- Guess the magnetic letter: Have your child close their eyes before handing them a single magnetic letter of your choice. See if your student can identify the letter in their hands by touch. For children who are still learning, provide choices for them to guess between (“Do you have a ‘T’ or a ‘B’ in your hands?”).
- Letter matching cards: Start by cutting out rectangles of paper or cardboard for your cards (or use index cards), one for each uppercase and lowercase letter. Write a letter on each of the cards, or have your student practice writing it themselves. Your child can decorate the cards, or glue an object that corresponds to each letter as a visual aide (like an apple on each of the “A” cards, a balloon for the “B” cards, and so forth).
- You can even use the sections of the letter B worksheet to create mini cards that are great for matching.
- When you are finished making the cards, mix them all up on the table and have your student select one. Their task is to find the matching upper or lowercase version of that letter from the pile. Here is a set of cursive letter flash cards.
- Make a letter B craft: Have your student form the letter using your chosen material. You can supply every student with the same material to work on copying from a model, or let them try their creativity. These will be great to try on the “build or trace” template included in the letter b worksheet.
- Post it notes letters: Write an uppercase letter on 26 Post it notes. Then, use the remaining ones for lowercase letters. Next, alternate placing uppercase and lowercase letters onto your wall or whiteboard. You might have a capital “A” followed by a lowercase “b.” Once you get to “Z,” set the remaining letters in a row so your child can see them. Point to the uppercase “A” and ask, “Can you find the lowercase letter that matches?” If your child correctly identifies the letter “a,” have them pick it up and stick it below the capital “A.”
- Use an App: If your curriculum includes a bit of educational screen time, the HOMER Learn & Grow app is a great way to let them practice letter identification.
- If you set up a free trial, send us an email at contact@theottoolbox to let us know! We’ll email you a few accompanying resources to support letter formation activities!
- Letter similarities and differences: Make or buy flash cards. Work with your student to help you sort them into two groups: those that look the same in upper and lowercase and those that look different.
- You may need to model this for your child a few times. For example, hold up the capital “S” card and ask, “Do you see a lowercase letter that looks like this?”
- Let your child examine both letters and highlight similarities and differences between the uppercase and lowercase versions. Continue sorting, letter by letter.
- Once your child sorts all the letters, have them count the cards in each bowl and see if there are more that look alike or more that are different. This is a great visual perception activity for attending to details.
a final thought on letter B
Find a lesson plan that not only works for your students, but is one that you enjoy. If it is not pleasing to you, it will get annoying and repetitive very quickly. If the rhymes you are using make no sense to you, they will be harder to teach your students. When you get excited about teaching, it will become contagious. Your students will feed off your positive energy. Teaching is not one size fits all, so it will take some trial and error to find something that works.
Want printable handwriting and sensory motor activities to target the visual motor skills needed for letter writing? Grab a copy of our Letters! Fine Motor Kit. The printable PDF contains 100 pages of hands-on letter writing practice for multisensory handwriting!
Inside the Letters Fine Motor Kit, you’ll find:
- A-Z Multisensory Writing Pages: Roll a ball of dough letters, ASL sign language letters, gross motor movement, small-scale letter box writing task, finger isolation letter trace, and writing practice area
- Alphabet Fine Motor Clip Cards– Clip clothespins or paper clips to match letters with various fonts to strengthen the hands and focusing on eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, visual processing skills, and more.
- Cut and place Fine Motor Mazes– Cut out the letter pieces and trace the maze with a finger to work on eye-hand coordination and finger isolation. Place a small letter on the letter spots to address in-hand manipulation and dexterity skills.
- A-Z Cotton Swab Cards– Includes upper case and lower case letters. Dot the cards using a cotton swab or laminate the cards and use them over and over again.
- A-Z Pattern Block Cards– These cards include a section for tracing with a finger tip for separation of the sides of the hand, eye-hand coordination, and finger isolation during letter formation. There is also a space to “finger write” the letter using the fingertip. This multisensory letter formation activity can be a great brain break during handwriting or literacy tasks. Learners can then form the letter using parquetry blocks.
- Fine Motor Letter Geo-Cards– These geo board cards include A-Z in upper case forms. Users can copy the letter forms in a variety of multi-sensory strategies.
- A-Z Color and Cut Letter Memory Cards– These upper case and lower case letter cards can be used to color for letter formation. Then use them in fine motor matching tasks or in sensory bins.
- Color By Size Sheets– Help learners discriminate between tall letters, small letters, and tail letters. This visual perception activity invites learners to color small areas, using hand muscles for strengthening and handwriting endurance.
- A-Z Building Block Cards– These LEGO block cards invite users to copy the cards to form letters using small building blocks. Users can place the blocks on the cards or copy the letter to address visual shift and visual memory. This activity set comes in upper case and lowercase letter forms.
- A-Z Play Dough Letter Formation Cards– Print off these cards and laminate them to create play dough mats. Learners can form the letters using the arrows to correctly form letters with play dough while strengthening their hands and visual motor skills. Each card includes a space for practicing the letter formation, using a dry erase marker if the cards are laminated.
- Graded Lines Box Writing Sheets– Users can trace and form letters in boxes to work on formation of letters, line awareness, starting points, and letter size.
- Alphabet Roll and Write Sheets– Roll a dice and form the letter associated with the number of dots on the dice. This is a great way to work on letter formation skills using motivation. Which letter will reach the top first? This activity is easily integrated with a rainbow writing task to increase number or repetitions for letter practice.
- Pencil Control Letter Scan– Use the letter bubble tracks to scan for letters. Users can fill in the letters of the alphabet to work on pencil control skills.
- Color and Cut Puzzles– Color the pictures to work on hand strength and letter formation skills. Then cut out the puzzles and build visual perceptual skills.
Get your copy of the Letters Fine Motor Kit today!
FREE LETTER B WORKSHEET
Want a free printable letter B worksheet that you can use to work on learning the motor plan for letter B? We have a free worksheet that offers several multisensory letter formation strategies. Print off the page and use all of the sections to create uppercase letter B and lowercase letter b. Or, cut the worksheet into sections to create mini booklets to form the letter in a single sensory style.
Enter your email address into the form below to access your copy.
This printable is also available inside our membership club!
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
Want the rest of the sheets in this series? Also grab:
