Cursive Words to Write with Pictures

Each word on this 2nd grade page comes with a picture of what it names. On the sheet shown there are four: a pear, a cat, a fish and a horse, each in a small frame at the margin. The first ruled line shows the word written in dark cursive, then the same word in grey to trace; the second line is empty for the child to write the word again. The instruction gives one order for both: join all the letters first, add the dots and crosses last, and write the word the same way on the line below.

A word is where cursive starts to pay off: four or five letters written in one movement are quicker than the same letters printed, and children feel the difference. Leaving the dot on the i in fish and the cross on the t in cat to the end is the habit that keeps the pencil moving. Pear and horse are there for the cursive r, which looks nothing like its printed form, and horse adds the cursive s as well; fish brings the tall looped f that dips below the line. The pictures make the page friendly and let even a reluctant reader know what the word says.

One sheet, four words, and every ruled line on the page belongs to one of them. Children who finish can write a word of their own choice on the back. Picture words are a good bridge to the reading face, where children read cursive words and match them to pictures, and to copying whole sentences.