Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice
A Grade 1 cursive worksheet for tracing and copying lowercase letter u, including spaced practice, connected repetitions, and simple word exercises.
This worksheet focuses on the cursive lowercase letter u, one of the first letters students learn in the undercurve family. Mastering u builds the muscle memory for the double-undercurve stroke, a shape that also appears in i, t, and w. Because u is written in one continuous motion from baseline to exit stroke, it gives young writers early practice in keeping their pencil moving without lifting it. Begin by studying the model letter, then trace the spaced letters before moving to connected repetitions. The word practice at the bottom ties the new stroke to familiar reading vocabulary. Work through one section at a time, and encourage the child to say the strokes aloud as they write.
Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice
Look at the model letter, then trace each letter shown. Copy the letter and words on the blank lines.
Look at the model letter u and study its two undercurve strokes.
Trace each letter u, keeping your pencil on the baseline.
Trace the connected letters and notice how each u flows into the next.
Copy the letter u across both lines.
Copy each word carefully on the lines below.
Write the letter u from memory across both lines.
How to form these letters
- Start at the baseline and swing an undercurve up to the midline, then curve back down to the baseline.
- Without lifting your pencil, bring a second undercurve up to the midline and end with an exit stroke.
- Both humps of u reach only the midline — the letter never touches the topline.
See every letter at once on the cursive alphabet chart, uppercase and lowercase, in the same cursive face.
What the sheet asks the hand to do
Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice prints six blocks onto one side, with eight guided lines. One of a model to study, two of tracing, two of copying and one of free writing. The order is a model to look at, a traced row where the shape is already there, a copied row where it is not and a blank block with nothing printed at all, so the support comes away one step at a time rather than all at once.
The words on Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice are uuuuuuuu, sun, cup and bug: four distinct words, averaging 4.3 letters, the longest "uuuuuuuu" at 8 against a grade 1 limit of 10. Word length is the number to check before printing: a handwriting sheet that makes a student decode a word first is testing two things and reporting one.
Each block carries its own instruction rather than one set of directions at the top — the first reads “Look at the model letter u and study its two undercurve strokes.”, the last “Write the letter u from memory across both lines.”. That is what lets the sheet be handed to a student who is working alone.
The u itself
u is taught in the first stroke family, alongside i, t and w — letters that share its opening movement, which is why they are taught together rather than in alphabetical order. In that teaching order it is the 3rd of 26 lowercase letters, not the 21st as the alphabet would have it.
Like every lowercase letter it begins on the baseline and finishes with an exit stroke, because the exit is what the next letter is joined from — a u written correctly but stopped dead is a u that cannot be used in a word.
Where this one sits
Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice is one of 31 Lowercase Letters sheets here and one of 53 written for grade 1 (and pre-k/k). It is letter connection work, and it suits grade 1 (and pre-k/k) and grade 2.
The closest things to Cursive Letter u Worksheet — Trace and Practice are Cursive Undercurve Letters i, t, u, w (grade 2) and Cursive Letter v Worksheet — Trace and Practice (grade 1). Cursive is one of the few subjects where doing the next sheet the same day is usually wrong — the hand needs the gap more than the head does — so those are the ones for tomorrow rather than for the rest of this session.
Notes for the grown-up
- Watch for uneven humps — remind the child to pause at the midline on each undercurve before curving back down.
- A common error is lifting the pencil between the two humps. Remind the student that u is one unbroken stroke.
- The student is ready to move on when both humps are even and the exit stroke connects smoothly to the next letter.
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