2. Warm-Up: Loops, Ovals and Arches
Three more building blocks: the tall loop, the oval and the arch.
What this lesson teaches
Today you add the remaining three movements of cursive.
Tall loops will become l, h, b and k. Ovals will become a, o, d and g. Arches will become n, m and v.
Keep your arm moving, not just your fingers — whole-arm movement is what makes cursive flow.
What is on the sheet
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Ascending Loops
Copy the chain of tall loops in one continuous line. Swing up to the top line, loop back over your own stroke, and return to the baseline. Try to keep every loop the same width.
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Ovals
Copy the row of ovals. Start at the top, travel counter-clockwise, and close each oval where you started. Keep them slightly slanted and all the same size, sitting between the midline and the baseline.
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Overcurve Arches
Copy the connected arches without lifting your pen. Rise from the baseline, touch the midline, and come back down — like the humps of the letters n and m.
How to use it
Print at 100% on US Letter — not “fit to page”. The ruling is classroom size, and scaling the page down makes every letter the wrong size. The 10 cm scale at the foot of the sheet is there to check against: if it measures short, the print was scaled.
The sheet holds 3 exercises, each with a model row in full ink, a pale row to trace over, and two empty ruled rows of your own.
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