Number Tracing Worksheets

Digits 0-9 with correct stroke order

These number tracing worksheets teach digit formation the same way handwriting programmes teach letters: numbered starting points and direction arrows on each model digit, repeated along the ruled line to trace over, with a blank line to copy onto when the practice mode is switched to Copy or Both. The digits preset covers 0 to 9, one numeral per line, at 5/8 inch with arrows on. Switch the preset to Numbers 0-9 and the same page writes zero, one, two as words instead, which is the spelling half of the same lesson.

Digits get much less attention than letters, and it shows: a child who forms every letter correctly will often still write a 5 that reads as an S, or a 4 with strokes in the wrong order. It is worth ten minutes a week.

How each digit is formed

Numeral shapes vary slightly between print fonts, but the stroke order below is the one taught in primary classrooms. Seven of the ten digits are a single continuous stroke; 4 and 5 are the exceptions, and they are the two that cause the most trouble.

• 0: start at the top, pull left and travel anticlockwise all the way round, closing the oval where you began. One stroke, no straight edges.
• 1: a single straight downstroke from the top to the baseline. The small flag at the top-left and the base line some fonts show are added afterwards, or left off entirely for young children.
• 2: begin at the top left, curve clockwise round to the right, then slant down to the baseline, then a straight line across to the right. One continuous stroke; the join between the curve and the diagonal is where children lose the shape.
• 3: two bumps. A short curve out from the top, back to the middle, then a larger curve out and down to the baseline. The two bumps should both face right.
• 4: two strokes. First a short downstroke that slants slightly left, ending just below the midline; then lift the pencil and draw the horizontal bar across through it, followed by the tall vertical stroke down to the baseline.
• 5: two strokes. First a straight downstroke from the top to the midline, then a horizontal bar out to the right. Lift, then start at the right end of the bar and curve out, down and round to the baseline.
• 6: start at the top right, curve anticlockwise down and round to close a small loop at the base. One stroke; the loop must close, or it turns into a b.
• 7: a straight line across the top, then a diagonal down to the baseline. One stroke. Some programmes add a short cross-bar halfway down, which is optional and worth matching to your school's style.
• 8: the hardest digit. A single continuous curve that starts at the top, sweeps anticlockwise round and closes the upper loop, then continues round to close the lower loop. It crosses itself once, at the middle.
• 9: start at the top, curve clockwise round to close the loop, then drop a straight downstroke from the right side of the loop to the baseline. One stroke; keep the loop round rather than compressed.

Sized for small hands

Pick letter height from 3/4 inch for preschoolers down to 3/8 inch for first and second graders, and choose a line style that matches the classroom: single baseline, solid top-and-base, dashed three-line ruling or the dotted four-line guide. This page opens at 5/8 inch on dashed three-line ruling with the numbered arrows on, which is a good default for the first attempt at each digit.

The line style matters more for numbers than for letters. A digit sits between the midline and the baseline; without a midline, children write 6 and 9 at wildly different heights within the same row. If your pupils' numerals wander up and down, switch to the four-line dotted guide before changing anything else.

Numbers at every age

Digit practice spans nearly four years of primary school, and what changes is the size, the guide and the numbers you ask for:

• Age 3–4: 3/4 inch letters, four-line dotted guide, only 1 to 5 on the sheet, letter style Hollow or Trace. The goal at this age is pencil control and the vocabulary of “start at the top”.
• Age 4–5 (pre-K): 3/4 inch, four-line guide, digits 0 to 9 with arrows. Two or three new digits a week, with the earlier ones repeated on every sheet.
• Age 5–6 (K): 5/8 inch, dashed three-line ruling, the full 0 to 9 run. This is also the year to add the number words, since children are learning to read them at the same time.
• Age 6–7 (grade 1): 1/2 inch, letter style on Solid and practice mode on Copy so there is a model to start each line. Move on to two-digit numbers (10 to 20, then 10 20 30 counting by tens), which teaches spacing and place value alongside formation.
• Age 7–8 (grade 2): 3/8 inch, and real-world numbers like house numbers, phone numbers, dates, money amounts and times on the clock. Digits at this size are a support for maths work rather than a lesson of their own.

Numbers worth putting on the sheet

Beyond 0 to 9, the word field takes up to 60 entries, which is more than any sheet needs. The lists that get used most:

• The teens: 10 through 20, which are written more often than any other two-digit range and are where reversed teen numbers appear.
• Counting by tens: 10 20 30 40 50, then by fives, then by twos, for skip-counting practice with a handwriting benefit.
• Number words: one through ten from the built-in preset, then eleven to twenty typed in by hand once the child can read them.
• Real-life numbers: a child's own house number, their age, the year, or a parent's phone number, which is genuinely useful knowledge to write down as well as practice.
• Ordinals: first, second, third, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, a common gap, since ordinal spellings are irregular and rarely practised.

Pasting words and digits together is worth doing once a week: one line of digits, one line of the matching number word, so the child writes 4 and four in the same session.

Printing, and saving a worksheet as a PDF

Choose US Letter or A4 in the toolbar, then press Print. The sheet is laid out at 0.75 inch margins and the print stylesheet tells the browser the page size directly, so nothing is rescaled. In the print dialog, set scale to 100% and switch fit-to-page off. Digit heights are the point of the sheet, and scaling quietly destroys them.

To produce a file rather than paper, choose Save as PDF (or Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows) as the print destination. That is the usual route for a sheet that is going to parents by email, into a class page, or onto a shared drive for other teachers. Print in greyscale for class sets: the sheet is line art, so it barely touches the toner, though the ruling comes out a little fainter in grey than in colour.

For tablet use, every page has a download button that exports it as a 3x PNG (roughly 300 DPI), which stays sharp when a child zooms in and can be written on with a stylus in any annotation app. And for repeated practice, one printed sheet in a plastic sleeve with a dry-wipe marker outlasts a stack of photocopies.

Pair with letters and names

Numbers usually arrive alongside the alphabet, so grab the letter tracing worksheets for A–Z and a–z, or the full handwriting worksheet generator for any word list, including personalised name tracing for the whole class. Once formation is secure, the cursive worksheets join the digits up the same way, and the seasonal sets (fall, Halloween, Christmas) mix number and word practice into holiday work.