Cursive Capital Letters: Write the Names

Five cursive capital letters open five pairs of lines on this 2nd grade page, each followed by a name that begins with it. On the sheet shown the capitals are M, B, E, L and A, and the names are Mia, Ben, Emma, Leo and Anna. The first line of each pair starts with a dark model capital at the margin, then two grey copies of the capital and the grey name to trace. The second line is empty for the child to write the capital and the name again. A tag in the corner names the model: traditional cursive.

Capitals are where cursive looks least like print. A cursive capital E is two open curves, an L starts with a loop at the top, and an A is closed like a large lowercase a, so children cannot rely on what they already know. Writing each capital inside a name shows why capitals matter at all: names always start with one, and a child's own name is the first thing most children want to write in cursive. The names are short so the join from capital to lowercase stays in focus.

One sheet, five capitals, five names. Look closely at each name on the page: some capitals join straight into the next letter and some stand apart, and children should copy what the model does. When the page is done, children can write their own name in cursive on the back. The base page of the cursive writing family covers lowercase letters first.