How to write a cursive k

Forming the cursive k

k is h with a knot and a leg, so build it out of h rather than teaching it cold. The image of a leg propped against the baseline is worth keeping, it stops children from drawing a short leg that dangles in mid-air. Lead-in is an undercurve, exit leaves from the baseline.

Start: On the baseline, at the left, the same starting place as b, h and l

1. Undercurve lead-in climbing from the baseline to the top line
2. Turn left over the top and slant back down to the baseline, closing the tall loop on the way
3. Retrace back up the stem as far as the midline, staying on the line already drawn
4. Push out to the right and pull straight back in to touch the stem, forming a small closed knot just below the midline
5. Kick the leg out from the knot down to the baseline
6. Undercurve exit at the baseline, swinging away toward the next letter

How it joins

The cursive k 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 k 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 knot never touches the stem, so the arm reads as a rounded arch and k looks like an h.
• The knot is drawn too big, and k starts to look like a printed capital R.
• The leg stops short of the baseline, leaving nowhere for the exit stroke to start from.
• The retrace up the stem is skipped, so a gap opens between the tall loop and the arm.

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.

befhl

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 k page covers that form, andwhen cursive is usually taughtexplains why the timing varies so much.