Cursive handwritingGrades 2–4
Cursive H
A one-letter cursive page for H and h, 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 h pairs a tall loop with a hump. The capital H is written in two or three strokes in cursive and has no resemblance to the print H until you look at it closely.
Inside the sheet
The page opens with a big model of Hh in cursive, with the print forms and the three words (hat, hen, home) printed beside it. Below that come ruled lines, each marked by a thin upper rule, a dashed middle rule and a bold baseline. Lines one and two carry the capital H, lines three and four carry the small h. On the first line of each pair only the first copy is dark, with grey ones after it, and the second line is grey from start to finish.
Letter shapes are set in Cedarville Cursive, a font by Kimberly Geswein with a natural, teacher-style hand. It follows no official school method, so a classroom may form a few shapes differently. Capital H on the model has two tall sides joined by a low crossbar.
Choices
- Line size: Large for a first week of cursive, Medium for most grade 2 to 4 writers, Small once the shapes are steady.
- Letter: swap in any other letter; the page opens on H h.
How to form small h
Start on the baseline, go up to the top line and loop to the left. Bring the stem straight down to the baseline, then retrace halfway back up to the midline. Curve over into a hump, and bring the line down to the baseline to finish with a flick to the right.
How to form capital H
Start with a curve near the top and run a long stroke down to the baseline. Lift, begin a second stroke to the right of the first, curve down, and cross the two with a bar at the middle. In some programs the crossbar is a slanting line that links both stems. These are the common Zaner-Bloser style steps. D'Nealian and the model on the sheet may shape some capitals differently, so defer to the teacher if there is one.
Letter group and joins
Small h is in the undercurve group and has the same tall loop as b, k and l. The hump on the right is a short overcurve.
The finishing flick at the baseline leads to the next letter in a low join. 'Hat' is easy because the flick goes straight into the a. 'Home' needs a quick hand for the o that follows.
Troubleshooting
The hump touches the stem so h looks like a blob, or the hump is flat so it reads as a long l with an n. Children also forget to retrace and leave a gap between the loop and the hump. A stem that is not tall enough makes h look like n.
Worked example: writing hen
Lena, age seven, practises 'hen'. She writes the h and sees her hump is too low. She retraces the tall stem down and halfway up before drawing the hump, and now the arch clears the midline. The h then runs into the e. She does a row of hhh on the third line and then writes hen on her own. Her teacher checks the hump has daylight between it and the stem.
Next steps
Short sessions beat long ones. Tomorrow, cursive i is the natural step. Before this letter, you may want cursive G.