10. Tricky Letters: r, s, j, p, y and z
The six letters that follow no family rules.
Letters on this sheet
r s j a z p y
What this lesson teaches
Every cursive alphabet has its rebels.
The letter r rises to the midline, makes a small shoulder and drops back. The letter s swings up, curves back and closes on itself. The letters j, p, y and z all dive below the baseline: j and y with loops, p with a straight stem, z with a small tail loop.
Do not rush these — they are the letters most likely to make handwriting hard to read.
What is on the sheet
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The Letter r
rrrWrite three joined letters r. The shoulder is small and sits just below the midline — do not let r collapse into i.
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The Letter s
sssWrite three joined letters s. Swing up, curve back and close the little loop at the baseline.
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Word: jazz
jazzA j-loop below the line and two z with their tail loops. Keep all three descenders the same depth.
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Word: spry
spryFour tricky letters in one word: s, p, r and a y-descender. Take it slowly and keep the baseline steady.
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 4 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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