How to write a cursive l

Forming the cursive l

l is the parent movement for b, f, h and k and the tall twin of e, so it is worth over-practising: five other letters inherit it. The useful check is to ask whether the tall letters in a piece of writing look like loops or like sticks, sticks mean the child is retracing where they should be crossing. Lead-in is an undercurve, exit leaves from the baseline.

Start: On the baseline, at the left

1. Undercurve lead-in climbing the full height from the baseline to the top line
2. Turn left over the top and slant back down to the baseline, crossing the rising line so the loop closes
3. Undercurve exit at the baseline, swinging away toward the next letter

How it joins

The cursive l 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 l 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

• There is no loop at all, the pencil retraces instead of crossing, and l reads as t or i.
• The loop is opened too wide, which makes the letter hard to join and swallows the letter next to it.
• The climb stops short of the top line, so l reads as e.
• In double letters the two loops come out at different heights, which is very visible in words like 'ball' and 'hill'.

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.

befhk

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