Letter W
Preschool · 3–5Color the big letter W, with Whale, watch and web to name as you go. W is two V shapes side by side, which is why the pair is taught together — and it is the water shape that dips down, where M is the mountain that points up. Filling a letter in at this size does something tracing does not: the child's eye follows the whole outline slowly, so the shape registers before a pencil ever has to reproduce it. Say the sound rather than the letter name while you color — the sound is what reading actually needs. Print it on A4 or US Letter, or color it online with tap-to-fill.
Two V shapes in a row
W is four diagonal strokes — down, up, down, up — or, more usefully for a child, two V shapes standing side by side. Teaching it straight after V means the new letter is a repetition of something already learned rather than a fresh shape, which is why the two are usually introduced together.
W flips into M, and the mountain-and-water image is the standard fix: M points up like mountains, W dips down like water. Stroke counting matters too — a W with three dips is a frequent and cheerful error, and counting out loud while drawing catches it.
The W sound
W is made with rounded lips and no contact anywhere in the mouth, which makes it one of the easier sounds to produce — and one of the most popular substitutes for the harder R and L. A child who says wabbit and wion has a perfectly good W and is simply using it where a later sound has not arrived yet. Whale, watch and web are clean teaching words.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I stop M and W being flipped?
- Mountains point up, water dips down. It is concrete and it holds up mid-word, which is where an abstract rule fails.
- Should V and W be taught together?
- Yes. W is literally two V shapes, so teaching them in sequence turns the second letter into practice of the first rather than a new problem.