How to write a cursive e

Forming the cursive e

e and l are the same looped movement at two different heights, so teach them as a pair and let the child feel that the only decision is where to stop climbing. Watch that the loop stays a loop: when children retrace instead of crossing, e turns into a stick and reads as i or t. Lead-in is an undercurve, exit is the ordinary baseline swing.

Start: On the baseline, at the left

1. Undercurve lead-in rising from the baseline to the midline
2. Turn back down and to the left, crossing the rising line to make the small eye, then carry the curve round and down to the baseline
3. Undercurve exit at the baseline, swinging away toward the next letter

How it joins

The cursive e finishes on the baseline with an undercurve, which is exactly where the next letter begins. That is why cursive can be written without lifting the pencil: the exit of one letter is the entry of the next. Practise e inside a word rather than on its own as soon as the shape is reliable, because the join is the part that actually needs practice.

Common mistakes

• The eye is squeezed shut, so e reads as i or as a short l.
• The rise overshoots the midline and e ends up the height of an l.
• The loop is opened out too wide, which eats horizontal space and makes the join into the next letter awkward and slow.
• The letter is finished at the top of the loop rather than carried down to the baseline, so there is no exit to join from.

Letters that move the same way

Looped ascender letters: An undercurve lead-in that climbs, turns left at the top and comes back down across its own rising line, leaving an enclosed loop. e is the same movement shrunk to midline height; the other five run to the top line.

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Print first, then cursive

Cursive is usually introduced once print handwriting is automatic, typically around third grade. If a child is still thinking about how to form printed letters, adding a second script makes both harder. Theprinted e page covers that form, andwhen cursive is usually taughtexplains why the timing varies so much.