Cursive handwritingGrades 2–4
Cursive G
A one-letter cursive page for G and g, with a big model, tracing lines for both cases, and three practice words. It suits children in grades 2 to 4 who are learning descenders.
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On this page
Small g starts as an a and then drops a tail below the line, so it is the first descender many children write. The capital G looks less like a print G and more like a swirl.
Layout of the sheet
At the head of the page you will find Gg in a large size, beside the print letters and the word list (goat, gum, game). The rows beneath alternate between dark-led lines and grey-only lines for the capital and the small letter. After a row where g is chained three times, every word gets its own row, and one clear line is left at the end.
The model comes from the Cedarville Cursive font, which is open-licence and written in an everyday teacher style. No school program owns it, and some shapes may not match yours. The capital G on the model has a curl at the top, a big sweeping curve and a small hook at the end.
What you can change
You can change Line size to Large (beginners), Medium or Small, the last meant for confident writers. It starts on Medium. You can also change Letter to print a different one without leaving the page; this one is set to G g.
How to form small g
Start like a small a: curve left and down, up the right side, and retrace down. Do not stop at the baseline. Keep going below it to make a straight descender, then loop to the left and back up so the loop crosses the stem at the baseline. Finish with a small flick.
How to form capital G
Begin with a curl near the top, sweep around to the left in a large counterclockwise curve to the baseline, and hook the end back to the right with a short stroke. The tail is not as long as the one on the small g. If your child's class uses D'Nealian or another method, its capital may differ from the Zaner-Bloser style steps above and from the page model.
Letter group and joins
Small g is in the curve-forward group with a, c, d, o and q. It also has the descender loop shared with f, j, y and z.
The loop returns to the baseline and finishes with a flick, which leads smoothly into the next letter. In 'goat', the flick runs up into the o, which then needs a bridge from the top.
Watch for these
A loop that does not close leaves g looking like a q or a y. A descender that is too short makes g sit on the line like an a. Also, the bowl can end up too narrow, so the letter reads as a 9. Make sure the bowl is round and the tail drops about as far as the letter is tall.
Worked example: writing gum
Theo, age nine, traces 'gum' and sees his g look like a 9. His mother points out that the tail should loop left, not stop. He practises the g alone on the third row until the loop crosses the stem. In 'gum', the flick runs into the u, then the m's humps follow. He counts the three humps aloud, then writes gum on the empty line, checking that the g's tail dips below the baseline.
Next steps
Next, try cursive h, then put the letters together on the cursive A to Z worksheets. Before this letter, you may want cursive F.