Hello, everyone.

My name is Ms. Afzal and I'm really thrilled to be here with you, because we are going to be practising one of my very favourite things, and that is handwriting.

So we're gonna get into it.

We're gonna have a go at some practising some letters and some patterns.

We're gonna do some warmups.

It's gonna be a great time we have, and I hope you're ready.

I hope you're excited too.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can form a variety of patterns and hold a pencil in a comfortable and correct tripod grip." This is going to be a lot of fun to have a go at these patterns and holding our pencil correctly.

I hope you're all set.

Let's get into it.

There are a number of keywords that I would like you to look out for.

I want you to listen out for them.

I want you to think carefully about them.

Here are the keywords.

My turn, your turn.

Posture, position of paper, tripod pencil grip, pattern.

Well done for joining in with those.

Well done in advance.

I know you're gonna be looking out for them, listening for them, and thinking carefully about them.

So today's lesson introduction to handwriting skills and patterns has got three parts to it.

In the first section, we are going to get comfortable.

We're gonna get cosy.

We are gonna get all set for handwriting.

In the next section, we're gonna be warming up our hands and our wrists and thinking about our pencil grip.

And finally, we're gonna explore some handwriting patterns.

Let's get started.

Let's get comfortable.

Getting comfortable for handwriting.

So posture for handwriting is important.

So posture means the way that we are holding our body, the way that we're sitting, way that our body is shaped as we're sitting for our handwriting.

So there's a few things involved in this, in the posture for handwriting.

So first of all, we wanna make sure our feet are flat on the floor.

So make sure that your feet are placed either flat on the floor or if your feet don't quite reach the floor, then maybe you could use a box or a tray or something to put your feet on.

That's number one.

Place your feet on the floor flat.

Next, rest your back against the back of the chair.

So we want to make sure that our back is nicely aligned with the back of the chair.

So we've got some support there and we're feeling quite nice and upright and stable.

Next thing is we want to make sure that our stomach is touching against the edge of the table in front of us.

So then we are, we're like a sandwich.

We've got the bread is the back of the chair and the table in front.

And then we're the filling in the middle of this sandwich.

So we're just like nicely sandwiched in between the table and our chair.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct postures for comfortable handwriting.

A, feet flat on the floor.

B, legs crossed.

C, stomach touching the edge of the table.

D, slouched in the chair.

Choose which are the correct postures.

Pause the video here while you decide.

Well done if you selected A, feet flat on the floor and C, stomach touching the edge of the table.

We don't want our legs crossed if we're sitting in a chair and we don't wanna be slouched or slumped in our chair.

Another thing that's really important that will help us to be comfortable for handwriting is the position of our paper.

So we really need to think about how we're placing our paper.

There's a few reasons for this.

So one, we want to see where our pencil is going.

And depending upon how we've got the paper positioned, we'll be able to see that quite clearly.

What we want is, as you can see in the picture there, the two pictures, you want your paper to be in line with your writing arm.

So in the top picture, you can see that if somebody is right-handed, what you want is you want the paper to be tilted a little bit to the left.

And so it's in line with your writing hand.

And if you were left-handed, you would tilt the paper to the right.

So that's in line with your right hand.

The other thing is we want to keep the paper still with one hand.

So we'll just hold it steady.

That means it's not gonna slip and slide around and make it difficult for us to do our beautiful, neat handwriting.

Check for understanding.

Select the picture which does not show the correct paper position.

Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done, it's B.

If we have our paper like this in front of us, it's not gonna be as helpful as if we have it tilted in one direction or the other, depending upon if we are right or left-handed.

For your task, I'd like you to sit in a comfortable posture for handwriting.

First of all, place your feet flat on the floor.

Next, rest your back against the back of the chair.

And thirdly, touch your stomach against the edge of the table.

And then position your paper correctly depending upon if you write with your left hand or your right hand.

You tilt the paper in towards the opposite direction to the hand that you're using.

Pause the video here while you get into your comfortable posture for handwriting.

Well done.

Did you look something like this? Is this how you were sitting? Were you in that nice little sandwiched sandwich between the back of the chair and your stomach against the table? How about your feet nice and flat on the floor? Paper positioned correctly, holding the paper steady with your other hand.

I hope you were sitting comfortably like this.

Hope you enjoyed it.

For the next part of our lesson, we are going to be warming up and we're going to be considering our pencil grip.

So it's really important that we strengthen, nice and strong, our hand muscles for handwriting.

Strong hands are gonna help us with our pencil grip and letter formation.

So pencil grip means the way that we are holding our pencil.

Grip means to hold on.

And we know what a pencil is.

So it's how we are holding onto our pencil.

There are all kinds of ways that are not helpful, and there are some ways that I'm gonna show you shortly that are very helpful.

And strong hands help us to write for longer.

So whatever it is you want to write, think about what kind of things you like writing.

Do you like writing stories? Do you like writing letters, notes, jokes? What else could you write? Essays, whatever you like writing.

You can write for longer and longer if you've got really great strong hand muscles.

So let's have a go at some warmups that are gonna help us get ready.

Let's have a go at our hand squeeze warmup.

I'm going to go first of all and then it will be your turn.

I'm gonna choose which hand to begin with, this one.

And I'm gonna start by stretching out all my fingers, stretching them really wide, really far apart.

And then I'm gonna slowly bring them in.

And I'm going to imagine I've got something precious in my hand and I'm squeezing and holding it tight, holding something tightly in my hand.

Something tiny, tiny, and precious.

And then I'm going to open out my fingers into that lovely stretch once again.

And then back into a squeeze.

Holding something precious and tight.

I'm gonna try with the other hand, first of all, that lovely big stretch.

Stretch all my fingers.

And then bringing all those fingers in and squeezing something, holding something precious, holding it tight.

Out to that lovely stretch.

And then fingers in to a lovely squeeze.

Mm, feels great.

Okay, it's your turn.

Choose which hand you're going to begin with.

Put the hand up, open up the fingers, stretch them wide, and then squeeze them tight.

Hold something precious and tiny and tight, and then stretch and squeeze.

Lovely, other hand.

First of all, stretch.

And then squeeze the hand tight, stretch, and squeeze.

Oh, lovely job, everybody.

Next, we're going to move on to our wrist circles.

First of all, I'm going to stretch my hands out in front of me and then I'm going to pull my fingers in, form fists.

And then I'm going to make circles moving in one direction.

Lovely circles.

And then I'm going to go in the other direction.

This feels good.

This feels fun.

Are you ready to join in? Let's go.

Take your hands, put 'em out in front of you, form fists.

Let's go one direction, other direction.

Let's just do it again, because it's so much fun.

We can't really stop, 'cause we're enjoying ourselves so much.

That's the way to do it.

So we are all warmed up.

Our hands, our wrists are all set to go.

Let's get into the pencil grip.

So it takes practise to hold a pencil.

Well, it doesn't just happen or by itself.

We need to practise this.

The best way to hold a pencil is in a tripod pencil grip.

That's one of our keywords.

Do you want to say that again? Ready? Tripod pencil grip.

Okay, good.

I heard that loud and clear.

So a tripod, tri means, I wonder if anyone knows what tri means.

Think about, hmm, do you know a shape? A shape that begins with tri.

Do you know this shape? A triangle.

So tri means three.

So in the tripod grip, we are using three of our fingers to hold the pencil.

We are using this one here in the middle.

This is our tall finger.

We are using our pointing finger and we're using our thumb.

So that's why it's called the tripod grip, 'cause we're using all three of these.

And what we do is we hold the pen, we hold our pencil between those three, so the tall finger, pointing finger, and the thumb.

And our fingers are slightly bent.

And we've just got a nice secure hold there on our pencil.

This is the tripod pencil grip.

This is a great way to hold your pencil.

Let's have a practise at holding the tripod.

A pencil in a tripod grip.

So first of all, we can have our, we can just get into that position and we can even say to ourselves, "Tall finger, pointing finger on the top, thumb goes underneath." Ready? Tall finger, pointing finger on the top.

Thumb goes underneath.

Your turn.

Are you ready? Get your fingers into position.

Let's go and let's check them.

Tall finger, pointing finger on the top.

Thumb goes underneath.

One more time.

Tall finger, pointing finger on the top.

Thumb goes underneath.

Oh yes, we are ready.

We are ready to write.

Now it's time for your task and for your task, we're going to practise getting our writing hand into the tripod pencil grip several times.

So get ready.

Put your pencil down, pick your pencil up, and check your tripod grip.

Have you got all three fingers in the correct position? Let's try again.

Put your pencil down, pick it up, and check your tripod grip.

One more.

Put your pencil down.

I think you know what's coming.

Pick it up and check your tripod grip.

Well done, everyone.

How did you get on with that? Were all of your finger bent? Was the pencil between your thumb and the pointing finger? And was your tall finger on the top? I hope you enjoyed getting into the pencil grip.

You're into the tripod pencil grip and that you can adopt that position every time that you're writing.

And now onto the final part of our lesson where we'll be exploring handwriting patterns.

Practising with a handwriting pattern helps us to prepare for writing letters.

So a pattern is something that appears in a regular or a repeated kind of way.

So for example, we could have a pattern of lines that go up and down.

And if we practise these lines that go up and down, that can help us to form letters that have got straight lines in them.

And practising loops can help us to form rounded letters, so we can have patterns which have got loops in them, so we repeat a pattern like that.

And it's really gonna help us to form letters that have got curved lines, rounded letters.

Check for understanding, true or false? Handwriting patterns help us to prepare for writing letters.

Pause the video while you decide.

Yes, you've got it.

That is true, absolutely.

Patterns are gonna help us to prepare for writing letters.

I'm going to show you some up and down lines in the air now and then so first it'll be my turn, and then it'll be your turn.

So I'm gonna start down here.

I'm gonna start down at the bottom, and then we're gonna go all the way up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down.

That's it.

It's so simple.

It's straightforward.

It's your turn.

Let's have a go together.

Ready? Let's go.

You show me some up and down lines.

Let's go up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down.

Okay, let's take this a bit further.

Let's do some really big up and downs.

Ready? Let's go.

All the way up.

Massive high ups and down, up and down, up and down.

Whoa, those are pretty big.

Let's do some teeny-weeny ones.

You ready? Up and down, up and down.

Up and down, up and down.

Up and down.

Which did you prefer? Medium-sized, huge, or tiny? I quite like the tiny ones actually.

Next, let's move on to loops.

I'm gonna show you some loops in the air.

Then it will be your turn.

So I'm gonna start down here and I'm gonna go up, loop and around, up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down.

Ooh, that was really nice.

There's a lovely kind of flowing, flowing pattern and energy there.

All right, it's your turn.

Show me some loops, let's go.

Up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down.

Who feels they could just keep going on and on and on with our loops? All right, let's go for some really big ones.

Ready? Let's go.

Like imagine a huge rollercoaster.

Let's go up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down, up, loop and down.

Let's do some little teeny-weeny loops.

Let's go.

Loop, loop, loop, loop, loop, loop.

Which was your favourite that time? I quite like the big rollercoaster ones.

For your task, I'd like you to make two lines of the up and down pattern and two lines of the looping pattern on your paper.

Remember, keep your pencil on the paper the whole time that you're doing each line.

Make strong straight lines for your up and down lines.

Make continuous loops across the page for the looping pattern.

Enjoy all of the loops.

Enjoy all the straight lines.

Pause the video here.

So how did you get on and what did you prefer? Did you prefer the up and down pattern, or did you prefer the looping pattern? Did you keep your pencil on the page the whole time? Well done.

You are at this amazing stage of having practised all of the skills you need to get ready for handwriting.

You are ready for business.

In our lesson introduction to handwriting skills and patterns, we have covered the following.

First of all, we looked at sitting position.

What is that? Really helpful correct posture for handwriting.

We looked at paper position, how we should place the paper, how we should hold it steady with our other hand.

And we looked at the tripod grip using our tool finger, our pointing finger on the top and our thumb underneath to secure that pencil, so we are all set for handwriting.

Well done, everyone.

You have covered so much.

You are absolutely ready to go for it with your handwriting.

See you in the next lesson.