Hi everybody, it's Ms. Gardner and welcome to today's handwriting lesson.

In today's lesson, we are going to be learning our fourth join, which is really exciting.

Thank you for joining in on the lesson and let's get started.

Your learning outcome for today is to correctly form the fourth join.

Let's start by looking at the keywords.

We'll do my turn your turn, join, lead in, lead out, x-height line, ascender line.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

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.

The x-height line is the line that x-height letters reach up to, and the ascender line is the line at the top of the tram lines.

So there are three sections of our lesson today.

In the first we'll be doing a handwriting warmup.

Then we'll be looking at the fourth join and joining the letters W and L and O and F.

Then we'll be looking at the fourth join again, but this time looking at joining the letters R and T and O and K.

So let's start with our handwriting warmup.

So before we start though, I want you to just have a little look at these pictures and think about what are they reminding us to do when it comes to handwriting.

You can either have a think by yourself, talk to your partner, your class, or whoever you are with.

But think about what are these pictures reminding us to do? Pause the video now.

So our first picture is reminding us that when we're doing our handwriting, we need to be sat properly on our chair with our back straight, our feet, firmly on the ground and sitting on our desks.

The next picture is to remind us to slightly tilt the paper that we're writing or the book that we're writing on at a slight angle.

If you're right-handed, it'll be tilted slightly on a left angle, and if you're left-handed, it'll be slightly tilted on a right angle.

It's just a better angle for when you're writing.

Then the final picture is to remind us to use our tripod grip.

So remembering that our tall finger and our pointing finger are above and then we have our thumb below and all of our fingers are slightly bent.

We don't want them to be dead straight.

So before starting to write, it's really important to warm up your hand and your wrist muscles.

Your hands and your wrists get stronger when you exercise them and this means that warming up your hands before writing will actually then help improve your handwriting.

And help your stamina, will mean you'll be able to write neatly in cursive for longer if you've warmed up your hands.

So let's start with a handwriting warmup.

Let's warm up our hands using the piano playing technique.

This is one of my favourite warmups to do, because you get to use your imagination to imagine in your head a really lovely tune.

So you are going to pretend that you've got a piano underneath your hands and you're gonna stretch out your hands and your fingers, ready to play your tune.

Then you're gonna start pushing down on the keys and playing a melody in your head.

Maybe you might stretch your fingers, you've gotta reach a note that's a bit further away.

Maybe you're gonna push down on one finger on one note for a bit longer.

There's no right or wrong with this, you are just imagining a nice song and the tune might change, the melody, the speed might change, which means that you need to move your fingers in different ways.

Okay, it's your turn, get your fingers ready.

Imagine you've got a keyboard or a piano underneath you and then in your head, imagine a song that you are playing on the piano with your fingers.

This is a really good way to not only warm up your fingers, but also stretch them, 'cause you might need to stretch to play a different piano.

Have you got a fun song that you're imagining in your head? I'm sure you're all doing great.

Well done and I hope your fingers feel really warmed up now for handwriting.

Now we're going to do the clapping position for our warmup.

So you're going to put your hands together as if you were going to clap.

I'm gonna have a go first and then you'll be up to have a go.

So make sure your fingers are lined up, precisely touching, and then you're gonna push your hands against each other.

Feels really nice and it kind of warms up your arms, your wrists and your hands.

Okay, your turn, get your two hands, put them together as if you're about to clap and then to put some pressure on each hand, so they're kind of pushing into each other.

Should feel quite nice.

Okay, well done! Practising writing patterns is another really good thing to do before we start handwriting, 'cause it helps us to prepare for writing and, most importantly, for joining those letters together.

So you can see here on the screen, we've got some writing patterns, we've got some up and down, we've got some kind of left to right, and then we've also got some loops.

Spending time creating these patterns and becoming really familiar with these patterns is a really useful way to help make sure we're feeling really confident with cursive handwriting.

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

You can see here we've got one that has some loops in it.

So I'm gonna start at the bottom and then I'm gonna go up and loop down and then up and then down and then up and then loop down.

It almost looks a bit like a slinky, doesn't it? One of those toys that you can throw down a stairs and it bounces down the stairs.

So now your turn.

Okay, everyone get your fingers ready, let's do this together.

I'm gonna start on the bottom, on the baseline and then in a really smooth flowing motion, we're gonna go up and then down, up and then down, up and then down, creating those loops in this writing pattern.

I hope you enjoyed that everybody, really well done.

Now it's time for task A.

You need to copy and continue these patterns using your tripod grips.

You're going to do this on a piece of paper with a pencil or a pen.

Remember though, remember though, try not to lift your pencil or your pen away from the paper when you are forming this pattern, you want to keep it almost glued to the paper and focus on keeping the movement really smooth and flowing.

And you want your pattern, when you're continuing the pattern, you want it to look as similar as possible to the writing patterns that are on the page already.

So pause video now, off you go and enjoy! Great job everybody, I hope you enjoyed that.

Did you use your tripod grip? Did you keep your pencil glued onto the page? And was your movement really smooth? I'm sure it was, well done.

Now it's time for the second section of our lesson where we are going to be learning the fourth join and focusing on joining the letters W and L and O and F.

Have a look at these letter joins.

These are all examples of cursive handwriting.

Cursive handwriting involves joining letters together without lifting your pencil off the page.

How the letters are connected together depends on which letter is joining to which letter.

Cursive letter joins, refer to how letters connect together.

It's really important that we learn all the letter joins, as this will improve your cursive handwriting skills and allows for a really smooth flow of handwriting.

So let's recap some of these joins.

The first join we learned is shown below, have a look at all the examples.

What is the first join? Where do the letters join? How do you join the letters in the first join? Pause video now and have a think about this by yourself or discuss it with a partner, your class, whoever you're with.

Okay, so the summary of the first join is that the first join is from the baseline, so the green line to the x-height line, so you can see that A joins W in the first example at the end of A on the baseline and it goes up to the x-height line at the start of W and that's the same for all of those examples.

The joins start at the baseline and they go up to the x-height line.

The second join we learned is shown below.

Have another look at these examples and think about how could you describe the second join? Pause the video now.

So the second join is from the baseline again to above the x-height line, towards the ascender line.

Let's have a look at here the green arrows, which show this really clearly.

The join starts on the baseline at the end of the first letter and it goes up to the ascender line, at the top of the tram lines, so this is our second join that we've learned.

The third join we learned is shown below.

Have a look at these examples and tell the person you're next to or who you are with or just have a think, what is the join we can see here? What is the third join? Pause the video now.

So the third join is from the x-height line to the x-height line.

We join the letters on the x-height line.

Just remembering what we do have to dip down a little bit below, but just a little bit, 'cause it's doesn't join exactly on the x-height line.

So that was our third join.

Just checking for understanding.

The third join is from the x-height line to the A, descender line, B, x-height line, or C, ascender line.

Pause the video now.

That's right, it is the x-height line, just dips down a little bit below, doesn't it? On the third join, well done! So now let's think about learning our fourth join.

Let's look closely at some examples of our fourth join.

What can you see? How are the letters joined together here? How is the W joined to the L? How is the O joined to the F? Pause the video now and have a little think.

So as we can see, all the letters have a lead in and a lead out.

The first letter, both W and O, have a lead in from the baseline, the green line, and the join, the most important part, the join starts at the x-height line and reaches up to the ascender line.

And then the letter F has a lead in loop and a lead out loop, which you will remember from when you are you were learning how to form the letter F.

So you can see here, the green arrows, the joins, it starts on the x-height line and it goes up to the ascender line.

Let's just have another look at this really closely.

So just to recap, all the letters have a lead in and a lead out.

The first letter has a lead in from the baseline.

The join starts at the x-height line and reaches up to the ascender line.

The letter F has a lead in loop and a lead out loop.

And finally, you don't lift your pencil when forming the join.

So how could you summarise this join in one sentence? Pause the video now.

Okay, here's a summary.

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

Really well done everyone.

So just checking for understanding.

Select the words that use the fourth join, pause the video now.

The words that use the fourth join are, "Often," the O and the F and, "Howl," the W and the L.

Well done everyone.

So just to remind us of the summary of what is the fourth join.

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

So now I'm going to form the joins in the air using my finger, because I want to practise it first in the air before I use my pencil or pen and write it down.

So let's start with W, L.

I'm gonna start on the baseline, I'm gonna start with my lead in and form the letter W and then when I'm at the x-line, I'm gonna start my join.

I'm gonna go up to the ascender line and then I'm gonna form my L and then I finish with a lead out.

Then let's join the letters O and F.

I'm gonna start again on the baseline, my lead in, and then I'm gonna form the letter O and I'm not moving my pencil off the page, I'm gonna keep my pencil on the page.

I'm gonna go up to the ascender line for my lead in loop of my letter F and then go down to the descender line for my lead out loop and then finish there.

So it's your turn.

You are now going to form the joins using your finger in the air.

Really focus on keeping the movement smooth and flowing.

So have you got your finger ready? Let's go, we're gonna start with joining the letters W and L.

Let's start, on the baseline and then we're gonna go forming the letter W.

So we're gonna go up to the x-height line, form our letter W for letter W and then we're gonna go form our lead in, up to the ascender line form our letter L, go down back to the baseline and then lead out.

Well done, really good job.

And then fingers again, we need to form our fourth join on the letters O and F.

So let's start at the baseline, start with our lead in, let's form the letter O and then when we're back at the X height line, let's start our join.

We're gonna do the lead in loop for the letter F, up to the assembly line, all the way down to the descender line and then our lead out loop to finish our letter F.

I love drawing the letter F, I think it's such a beautiful letter.

Really well done everybody, great job.

So let's practise the fourth.

Let's practise the fourth join.

I've made sure I'm sitting comfortably, my pen is in my tripod grip and I'm ready.

So I'm gonna say to myself, ready, line, go.

Remembering that when I'm doing joining with my cursive handwriting today, I'm not going to take my pen off the page until after the join.

So starting at at the baseline, with my lead in, I'm going to start forming the letter W, up to the x-height line, and then joining to L with the fourth join up to the ascender, back down to the baseline, lead out.

Now I'm going to join letters O and F together.

So again, starting at the baseline, I'm ready.

So ready, line, go.

Start with my lead in to form the letter O and then joining O to F, by dipping down below, up to the sender line, lead in loop, down to the descender line and then a lead out loop.

Checking for understanding.

Which letters are connected using the fourth join? Pause the video now.

The letters that can use the fourth join are C, O, and H are joined together using that fourth join, well done.

It's time for task B! First you need to practise the fourth join, joining together the letters W and L and O and F.

So practise these example joins using the starting point on the baseline, you can see the grey dot on the baseline.

Then you're going to practise writing the words, "How," and, "Often," on your tram lines.

So pause video now and off you go.

Great job everybody, well done.

Did you use the correct joins when using the fourth join? Did you go from the x-height line up to the ascender line? And did you keep your pencil on the page? I'm sure you all did brilliantly.

Now read back, look back over all your joins and your words, and I want you to circle your best one and then give yourself a little celebration, great job.

It's time now for our final part of the lesson where we are going to be learning to join R, T and O and K and this is another example of using the fourth join.

So let's look closely as some more examples of our fourth join.

What do you notice? What can you see? How are the letters joined together? Pause the video now.

So what do we notice? Well, all the letters have a lead in and a lead out.

The first letter, R and O, in these examples, have a lead in from the baseline, the green line, and then the join starts at the x-line and again, it reaches up to the ascender line.

You can see here with the blue arrows, that shows that the join starts on the X line and goes up to the ascender line.

So let's look really closely again at how these letters are joined, what do you notice? All the letters have a lead in and a lead out.

The first letter has a lead in from the baseline.

The join starts the x-height line and reaches up to the ascender line.

What's interesting to notice here though, and I wonder if you notice this, for the letter T, the join reaches to between the x-height line and the ascender line.

You can see the letter T doesn't go all the way up to the ascender line, whereas the letter K does go all the way up to the ascender line and you don't lift your pencil when you're forming the join.

So how could we summarise the fourth join in one sentence? Pause the video now and tell the person next to you or your class or whoever you're with, how can we define the fourth join? Off you go.

So the summary of the fourth line is that the fourth join goes from the x-height line up towards the ascender line, great job.

Checking for understanding.

Select the words that use the fourth join, A, start, B, boat, C, bark and D, son.

Pause video now.

Okay, so the words which use the fourth join are.

"Start," and, "Bark." R and T at the end of, "Start," and R and K at the end of, "Bark," both use the fourth join, because the fourth join goes from the x-height line up towards the ascender line, great job.

So now I'm going to form the joins in the air with my finger.

So have a go practising those joins, before I start writing them down on paper.

So let's join R and T together.

We're gonna go start the baseline, we're gonna go up to the x-height line form our letter R, and then we're gonna start our join, so our lead in, to form the letter T, we're not gonna go all the way up to the ascender line here, just towards it, form our letter T and then our lead out.

Now we're going to join the letters O and K.

So we'll start on the baseline, we're gonna go and do our lead in for the letter O, go up to the x-height line, form our letter O, and then we're gonna do our lead in for the letter K, go all the way up to the ascender line, back down to the baseline, forming our letter K, finishing with the lead out.

That was really fun, it's now your turn.

You are going to form the joints in the air using your finger, and I want you to really focus on keeping the movement smooth and flowing.

So, let's do this together.

Everyone got your finger ready? Let's start by joining R and T.

We're gonna start on the baseline, we're gonna go up to the x-height line, then go down, then back up again to form our letter R and then we're gonna go and start our join.

So we're starting the lead in for the letter T, up towards the assembly line, form our letter T, and then the lead out.

Well done, let's do O and K now, starting again on the baseline, going up to the x-height line, let's form the letter O and then we're gonna start our lead in, forming the letter K, up the ascender line, back down, finishing with the lead out.

Really well done everybody, great job.

We're so ready to start writing these on some paper now.

Let's practise the fourth join.

We're going to join the letters R to T and then O to K.

So I've made sure I'm sitting comfortably, my pen is in the tripod grip, I'm ready to go.

I'm starting on the baseline, so I'm going to say, ready, line, go and then I'm gonna start my lead in to form letter R.

Up towards the X height line and then joining the letter to the letter T.

Back down to the baseline, lead out and now I'm going to cross the T.

Now we're going to join O to K, so again, starting at the baseline, I'm ready.

So, ready, line, go, lead in, up to the x-height line, forming the letter O and then joining to the letter K, up towards the ascender line, back down, forming the body of the K, baseline lead out.

Checking for understanding.

Which letters are connected using the fourth join.

Pause the video now.

The letters using the fourth join are A, O and B are joined, starting at the x-height line and going up to the ascender line, great job.

It's time for task C.

You need to practise the fourth join, joining the letters R and T and O and K.

So first you'll practise the example joins using that starting point on the baseline and then you're going to practise writing the words, "Art," and, "Curl," a curl in your hair, on your tram lines.

So pause video now and off you go! Great job everybody, really well done.

Have a look at the words and your joins.

Did you join from the x-height line towards the ascender line for the fourth join? Did you keep your pencil on the page for the join? And, was your movement smooth? I'm sure you all did a brilliant job.

So have a look over your words and your joins, circle your best join and celebrate.

And that is the end of the lesson, really well done.

Here's a summary of everything we've learned.

Cursive letter joins refer to how the letters connect together.

The letters all have a lead in and a lead out.

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

When joining to the letter T, the join reaches up to between the x-height line and the ascender line.

You do not lift your pencil when forming the join.

The letter F has a lead in and lead out loop, so it can connect to letters.

Great job today, everybody, well done.