Hi, everybody! It's Ms. Gardner.

And welcome to the final lesson from our Handwriting Unit.

Today's a really fun lesson 'cause we get to be looking back and recapping all the joins that we've learned throughout the unit and put them into practise.

We're going to be writing some sentences using our best, neatest cursive handwriting.

So thank you for joining and let's get started.

Your learning outcome for today's lesson is to write a sentence in cursive handwriting using the four joins correctly.

Let's start by looking at the key words.

We'll do my turn, your turn.

Cursive, join, lead in, lead out, capital letter.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

Cursive is a style of handwriting where the letters are joined together in a flowing and connected manner.

A join is how the letters are connected together.

The lead in is the stroke or line that guides us into starting a letter.

The lead out is the stroke or line that guides us to smoothly finish a letter.

And a capital letter is the uppercase formation of a letter.

So there are three sections of our lesson today.

In the first, we'll be doing our handwriting warmup.

Then in the second, we'll be using the four joins in a sentence.

And then finally, we'll be writing a sentence in cursive handwriting.

So let's start with our handwriting warmup.

Before we start, have a look at these pictures.

What are they reminding you to do when it's time to practise your handwriting? Pause video now and either have a think by yourself, have a chat with your partner, your class, or whoever you're with.

Off you go.

Okay.

So the first picture is reminding us about how we should be sitting at our tables at our desk.

We want straight back.

we don't want our shoulders hunched over, our feet firmly on the floor, and our back resting against our chair.

Then the second picture is reminding us to slightly tilt our paper or book at an angle.

If we're right-handed, we'll tilt it to the left.

If we're left-handed, we'll slightly tilt it to the right.

And then the final picture is reminding us to use our tripod grip.

So your tall finger and your pointing finger on top and then your thumb underneath, all of them slightly bent.

Great.

Before starting to write, it is also important to warm up your hand and your wrist muscles.

Your hands and wrists get stronger the more that you exercise them.

And we want our hands and wrists to be really strong for everything in life, but also handwriting.

Warming up your hands before writing will help us to improve your handwriting, help make it neater, and it'll help you to be able to maintain neat cursive handwriting for a longer time.

So let's stop by doing some handwriting warmups.

Let's have a go at doing the finger touch warmup.

I'm going to have a go first and then you'll be able to have a go afterwards.

So with the finger touch warmup, you're going to put your hands like this, open like this.

And you're going to imagine you've got some Play-Doh on your thumb, resting on your thumb.

Then you're going to touch the Play-Doh with your first finger, then your next finger, then your next, then your little finger.

And then you can go backwards.

Little finger first this time, then this finger, then this finger, then this finger.

Imagining you're touching that Play-Doh.

You can go a little bit faster if you want to.

Back.

Touching it again.

And let's get your other hand.

This time you are imagining the Play-Doh to be on your other thumb.

And you're gonna touch the Play-Doh with your first finger.

Then your next, then your next, then your next.

Then backwards.

There.

Touch, touch.

And then you can get really fun.

You can do both hands together.

Little fingers, first fingers, and then backwards.

Okay, it's your turn.

You need to now choose either your right hand, your left hand, or both hands,.

It doesn't matter.

Choose which hand you want to start with.

Imagine your Play-Doh on your thumb and then start touching each finger on the Play-Doh.

Pressing it down, backwards.

Maybe get both hands this time.

Touching each finger on the imaginary Play-Doh.

I hope you can imagine the Play-Doh there and the texture of the Play-Doh, that's quite soft.

You're pushing down it.

And really good way to warm up your fingers ahead of handwriting.

Great job.

Let's use the wiper wrist technique to warm up for handwriting.

This is a really good technique 'cause not only does it warm up your wrists, but it also is a great chance to use your imagination.

So you are going to imagine your wrists are your windscreen wipers.

You are in a car, so you can imagine you are in a bus, or a taxi, or a car, or a van, whatever, and you're driving wherever you want to drive, but it is pouring with rain and it's not very easy to see if you're driving.

And there's rain splattering on the windscreen so we need to use windscreen wipers.

So we're going to imagine our hands are windscreen wipers.

And we're going to wave them left and right, speeding it up a little bit 'cause the rain's getting harder to wipe the windscreen clear so that we can see.

So, now, your turn.

Get your hands ready, pretend they're windscreen wipers.

And let's start wiping the screen clean.

Slowly and then the rain's getting harder.

It goes speed up, speed up, speed up, and slow down again.

And now your wrists should be feeling really warmed up and ready for some handwriting.

Great job.

It's also really helpful to practise writing patterns to help us prepare for writing and for joining letters.

So you can see on the screen here, we've got three different writing patterns that are really important for us to practise on paper as much as we can to get us ready for handwriting.

So I'm going to do the writing pattern in the air with my finger first.

And then you are going to have a go-to.

So you can see this one here.

It almost looks a bit like a mixture of the letter W, maybe the letter U, also a bit like an L.

So t's not a specific letter, but you will be using very similar motions in lots of your letters when you are doing cursive handwriting.

So I'm gonna start now.

I'm gonna start on the bottom, what would be the baseline? And then I'm gonna go up and then down, and then up a little bit and then down, and then up higher and then down.

And then up a little bit and then down, and then up and then down, and then up a little bit.

All the while trying to create a really smooth flowing motion.

Now, it's your turn.

You are going to do the writing pattern in the air with your finger.

So, everyone, get your finger ready.

Everyone ready? Let's start together.

We're gonna start at the bottom and then we're gonna go up and then down, and then a little bit up and then down again.

And then up, then down, a little bit, up, down, up to the top, down, little bit up and so on.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Really well done.

So it's time for Task A.

You are now going to copy and continue these patterns using your tripod grip with a pen or pencil.

Remember, don't lift your pencil off the page when you're forming the pattern.

You want to keep the movement really smooth and flowing.

And that's made possible by keeping your pencil or pen almost glued to the paper.

You don't want to remove it.

So pause video now and off you go.

Well done, everybody.

Great job.

Did you remember to use your tripod grip? Did you keep your pencil on the page? And was your movement really smooth? I'm sure you all did a brilliant job.

Really well done.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson where we are going to be using the four joins in a sentence.

Can you remember the four joins in cursive handwriting that we've learned in this unit? Here are some examples of each join.

Pause the video now and have a think or tell the person who you're with, how you can summarise each join.

Pause video.

Okay, so our first join, you can see here, a is joined to w.

So the first join is from the baseline to the x-height line.

Then the second join, how is c and h joined? The second join is from the baseline up towards the ascender line.

Then our third join o and m are joined.

Where are they joined? The third join is from the x-height line to the x-height line.

It just dips down a little bit below.

And then the fourth join.

The fourth join goes from the x-height line up towards the ascender line.

Did you remember all those? If you need to, you can pause the video now and have another close look at all these joins to make sure you're feeling quite confident with them.

So when writing words and sentences, you'll use a range of the different letter joins.

Can you spot the four different joins being used here? Pause the video now and take a close look.

Okay.

So could you support the four different joins being used here? Let's go through it.

In the word neck, we had our first join, e and c, from the baseline up to the x-height line.

Then our second join was from c to k, the baseline up towards the ascender line, the k.

Then we had our third join, o and w, that joined from the x line to the x line with just a dip below.

And then our fourth join, r to l, from the x line up towards the ascender line.

And just a reminder that the join used depends on which letter is joining to which letter.

So just checking for understanding.

Which word only uses the first join? Pause video now.

That's right, it is c.

b two e from the baseline up to the x-height line is our first join.

Great job.

Let's now look closely at a sentence in cursive.

I'm gonna read the sentence out loud first.

My small dog howls at night.

Focusing on the joins, what do you notice? Which letters are joined together and which join did they use? First, second, third, or fourth? Pause the video now and take a closer look.

Okay, so my dog hows at night.

We can see we have the first join being used, connects the letter M to the letter a in the word small.

The second join is used to connect the letter a to the letter l, also in the word small.

The third join is used to connect the letter o to the letter g in the word dog.

And the fourth join is used to connect the letter w to the letter l in the word howls.

Another to note is that the capital letter at the start, My, does not join to the next letter.

You can see there is a little gap between the letter M and the lead in to the letter y.

So you have to lift your pencil off the page.

To summarise, there is a range of joins used in this sentence to connect letters within words.

What else do you need to consider when writing a sentence in cursive? Pause the video now and have a little think or discuss this with your partner.

Okay, so we can't just be thinking about the joins when we're writing in cursive.

We also have to remember the capital letter at the start of a sentence.

We also have to remember the full stop at the end of the sentence.

And we need to remember our lead ins for the first letters of the word.

And we need to make sure there is enough spacing between letters.

We don't want the letters to be too squashed together so that you can't really tell which letter is which.

And we also need to remember our finger spaces between the words, spaces which are not too big, but also not too small.

So lots to be thinking about when we're doing our cursive handwriting, not just the joints.

Let's practise writing a sentence in cursive.

Make sure you're sitting comfortably and then you're holding your pencil in the tripod grip.

I'm gonna start by putting my pencil at.

My pen, sorry, at the correct starting point on the baseline.

My first letter needs to be a capital letter.

And then I'll lift my pencil 'cause remember we don't join the first capital letter with the next letter.

So our sentence is my small dog hows at night.

I have my pen ready at the starting point.

So ready, line, go.

Start by forming my opening capital letter 'cause I don't join it to the next letter, I'll lift my pen off the page.

And then I'm going to form my letter y with my lead out loop.

Now, I'm going to write the word small.

So starting with my lead in to form the letter s.

And then joining s to m, m to a from baseline to x-height line.

And then a to l baseline up to the ascender line.

Baseline up to the ascender line.

Okay, then I need to remember my finger space.

Not too big, not too small.

I'm going to do my lead in to form the letter d, my small doc.

Joining d to o from baseline to x-height line, o to d by dipping down below the x-height line.

And then g, the descender line, with a lead out loop.

Howls.

Starting on the baseline for my lead in, forming the letter h up to the ascender line, h to o.

And then joining o to w by dipping down below the x-height line.

w to l, x-height line up to the ascender line.

And then baseline to ascender line with the lead out on the baseline.

My small dog howls at night.

I'm gonna start, go to the next line now 'cause there's not quite enough space.

At night.

So starting with my lead in to form the letter a, a to t.

I'm not going to go all the way up to the ascender line for the letter t, just towards it.

Back down with a lead out on the baseline.

And then I'll cross my t.

And then night, our final word.

Starting with a lead in to form the letter n, n join to i, i join to g baseline to x-height line with ascender down.

Lead out loop.

g to h up to the ascender line, and then h to t join from the baseline towards the ascender line, but not all the way.

Then I can dot my i and cross my t.

And 'cause it's the end of my sentence, we need a full stop.

Great.

Checking for understanding.

Select the true statement.

A, when writing a word, you will only ever use one join.

B, when writing a word, the joins you use depends on the letters you are joining.

C, you don't need to lift your pencil after forming a capital letter.

Pause the video now.

Which one is true? That is B.

When writing a word, the joins that you use depends on which letters you are joining.

It definitely can't be A, you'll only ever use one join because there's lots of different letters that join in different ways.

And C can't also be true because you lift your pencil off the page 'cause you don't join the capital letter to the next letter.

Well done.

It's time for Task B.

You need to practise writing a sentence in cursive.

So the first thing you'll do for A is go over the grey example.

So you'll take your pencil in your tripod grip and you'll neatly go over the sentence that's already been written.

Try to stay as close to the lines as possible and try not to remove your pencil unless you're doing the dot on the i or on the cross on the t.

Then part B is to complete two lines independently.

So that means by yourself on your tram line.

So you're gonna write the sentence again, my small dog hows at night.

You're going to write it twice, but you're gonna write it as neatly in cursive handwriting as you can.

So pause the video now and off you go.

Great job, everybody.

Well done.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Let's just check that we've included everything we needed in our sentence using cursive handwriting.

Did you start the sentence with a capital letter? Did you lift your pencil after forming a capital letter off the page.

And did you join the letters within the words of the correct joins? If you need to, you can pause the video now.

Read back through your sentence and check that you are happy with your cursive handwriting.

Then read back through each word, have a really close look and think about which is your best join.

Then circle it and celebrate.

Great job.

It's now time for the third part of our lesson where we are going to be writing a sentence independently in cursive handwriting.

So there's lots of things to be thinking about when you are writing a sentence in cursive.

You need to make sure you are in a good sitting position with your back against the chair and your feet firmly on the floor.

Your page needs to be angled correctly and you're using your tripod grip.

You need to make sure to use capital letters at the start of your sentence.

Finger spaces in between words, lead ins and lead outs.

Letter spacing within words.

You don't want your letters to be squashed too close together or to have a massive gap.

You want to be thinking about the four joins, how you're going to join your words, your letters, and then full stops at the end.

And then this is really important, when you're doing cursive handwriting, you want to really try and use a smooth and flowing movement.

So I'm gonna look at this picture.

I'm gonna think of a sentence to describe this picture or to describe the part, this picture.

And then I'm gonna say it out loud because we know it's really important to say our sentences out loud before we write them down.

What am I going to describe in this picture? Okay, my sentence is going to be, the girl is wearing blue goggles.

So just a simple sentence to describe what's happening in the picture.

I didn't want to make it too overly complicated because that's not the purpose of this task.

The purpose of the task is to use cursive handwriting.

It's your turn now.

You are going to look at a picture at this picture on the screen.

And I want you to think of a sentence about to describe what's happening in the picture and say it out loud.

So pause the video now and off you go.

Well done.

I wonder what your sentence was.

I was thinking if this was my turn, my sentence probably would've been the boy held his dad's hand, I don't want to make it too complicated to describe every single thing that's happening because that's not the point of the task.

So if you need to, you can pause the video again and have another go at saying a sentence to describe something in the picture.

Otherwise, well done.

So I have written my sentence in cursive handwriting.

The girl is wearing blue goggles.

I've got my capital letter at the start.

And I haven't joined it.

I've haven't joined it to the letter h.

I took my pencil off the page.

I've got my full stop at the end and I've used cursive handwriting.

But let's just check.

Are all of the four cursive joins used in this sentence? Pause the video now and discuss and answer this question.

Off you go.

Okay.

So did all four of the cursive joins get get used here? They did, didn't they? In the word 'The', h and e were joined, which is our first join.

In the word girl, r and l is joined, which is our fourth join.

In the word blue, e and l are joined, which is our second join.

And then in the final word, goggles, o and g are joined, which is our third join.

So all four joins are used.

It's time for Task C.

You are now going to practise writing the sentence that you said out loud about that picture earlier in cursive handwriting.

The first thing you need to do is really think about how you would write your sentence in cursive.

So think about where would the capital letters be.

When will you need to lift your pencil off the page? Where will your starting point be for each word? Where will your lead in start? Which joins are you going to use? You might not use them all and that's okay.

And where will you use a lead in and a lead out? And then finally, how will you keep your words separated on the line? How are you going to make sure you're not writing just one long word? You're going to have to make sure you're remembering your finger spaces too, aren't you? So pause the video now and have a little think about how you are going to write your sentence in cursive handwriting.

Okay, now it's time for Part B of this task.

You are going to practise writing your sentence in cursive handwriting using the tram lines.

Try to keep your pencil flowing as smoothly as you can as you connect the letters.

So making sure you're remembering your capital letters at the start, your full stops, everything that you know you need to be thinking about in cursive handwriting.

Pause video now and off you go.

Great job, everybody.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Really well done.

Did you use the first join in your sentence? Did you use the second join? Did you use the third join? Did you use the fourth join? Don't worry if you didn't.

Your words might not have needed to use all of the joins, but just try to read back through your sentence and see which joins you can spot.

Don't always use all of the joins in a sentence because the joins used depends on the letters and the words in your sentence.

So don't worry if you didn't use all four.

So pause the video now and read back through your cursive handwriting, checking for all of the joins.

Off you go.

Great job today, everybody.

Here is a summary of everything we've learned.

There are four joins used to connect letters together in cursive handwriting.

The join used depends on which letter is joining to which letter.

When writing a sentence, you will use a range of letter joins.

Capital letters do not join to any other letters.

You lift your pencil after their formation.

A sentence always starts with a capital letter and all the letters in a sentence have a lead in and a lead out except for the capital letter.

Great job today in this lesson and in fact, across this whole unit, everybody, you've all worked so hard.