Cursive handwritingGrades 2–4
Cursive B
A one-letter cursive page for B and b, with a big model, tracing lines for both cases, and three practice words. It suits children in grades 2 to 4 who are learning tall letters.
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On this page
Small b is a tall loop letter with a belly, and it is one of the letters that join from the top. Searching for cursive b usually means one of two things: how to make the small b, or what the capital B looks like, since it is different from the print B.
On the page
Across the top sits the model pair Bb, drawn large, next to a note of the print letters and the words bed, bus, ball. The lines under it are ruled the same way throughout: a thin top line, a dashed line at small-letter height, and a heavy baseline. You get two lines of capital B and two of small b, then a line of bbb joined together.
The font is Cedarville Cursive (Kimberly Geswein, SIL Open Font License). Its look is that of a teacher's own handwriting, not a certified curriculum, and a school may teach slightly different shapes. On the model sheet, capital B starts with a downstroke and then builds the two bumps on the right side.
Options
Settings are short. Letter is a menu from A a to Z z, set here to B b. Line size has Large (beginners), Medium and Small (confident writers) as its choices. Begin on Medium and move to Large if the shapes look cramped.
How to form small b
Start on the baseline with a short upstroke, then continue up to the top line and curve over in a loop. Bring the stroke straight down to the baseline, retracing the upstroke's slant. Then swing up and to the right into a small round belly that comes back to the baseline, and end with a gentle upstroke that stops at the midline.
How to form capital B
Start near the top with a small curve, then slide down to the baseline in a straight line. Lift and return to the top, or retrace up, and make two connected bumps on the right, the upper one smaller than the lower one, both closing back on the first stem. Steps vary by program. What is above is the usual Zaner-Bloser route; D'Nealian, and the sheet's own model, can differ for certain capitals.
Letter group and joins
Small b is part of the undercurve group because the first stroke is an upstroke, along with tall loop letters such as l, h and k. Its stem is a loop that reaches the top line, so it should be about twice as tall as an a.
Small b is one of the tricky joiners. Its exit stroke finishes up at the midline, not at the baseline, so it reaches the next letter along a horizontal bridge. In 'bed', the bridge runs over the top to the e. If you drop the line to the baseline, the e will look like a stuck-on l. The letters o, v and w behave in the same way.
Common slips
Three slips are common. The loop at the top becomes a flat line, so b looks like a print b with a tail. The belly is too small and closes before the baseline. And the join dips to the baseline instead of bridging at the midline, which makes 'be' read like 'bl'. If your writer has the first problem, have them trace a row of loops on a blank line before returning to b.
Worked example: writing bus
Nia, age seven, traces b in 'bus'. Her first try dips from the belly to the baseline, and the u starts too low. Her parent circles the bridge on the model and traces it with a finger, going straight across at the midline to the u. On the second row she keeps her pencil up at the midline, and the u falls into place. She writes bus on the empty line and counts three tall loops across the page: one for the b in each of her three tries.
Next steps
For all 26 capitals together, see the cursive capital letters page, then come back for c. Before this letter, you may want cursive A.