Hello everyone.

This is Ms. Afsal here again to share some more handwriting with you.

I'm so excited to be here.

I hope you're feeling excited too.

We're going to, as always, do our best.

We are, as always, going to have lots of fun.

Are you ready to begin? Let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is I can form the letters with ascenders correctly.

We have a number of keywords in today's lesson, and I would like you to look out for these words.

I would like you to listen out for them, and let's go through what these words are now.

I will say them and then it will be your turn.

Ascender, baseline, ascender line, x-height line, starting point.

Make sure you keep looking out for and listening out for our special keywords for today's lesson.

We have got four parts to today's lesson.

First of all, we'll be exploring ascenders.

Next, we'll look at forming the lowercase letters B and H in print.

Then we'll be forming the lowercase letters L, D, and K in print.

And finally forming lower case letters, F and T in print.

Let's begin with exploring ascenders.

What do you notice about these letters that have appeared on the screen? The B, the H, the K, the D.

Pause the video here and tell someone nearby everything you notice about these letters.

Did you notice that part of each letter goes above the x-height line, reaching up above the x-height line? This part of the letter that goes above the x-height line is called the ascender.

Ascender, you say it.

Ascender.

The part of the letter that reaches above the x-height line is called the ascender.

So this part here, let's say this is our x-height line.

Here's the ascender line, and any part here, that's the ascender.

And letters that have ascenders are called, they're also called taller.

Should we have another practise of that word ascender? Ready? Ascender, your turn.

Ascender.

Exploring ascenders.

The letters L, B, H, D, and K all reach up to the ascender line.

So they are all tall letters.

They are all ascenders reaching up as high as the ascender line.

And for most of them, their starting point is on the ascender line.

The B, H, K and the L, they all start up here on the ascender line and they go down, down to the baseline.

And however, the letter D, this one starts just below the x-height line.

So it's got a slightly different starting point, but it still goes all the way up to the ascender line.

The letters T and F, they're quite interesting.

They're a little bit different.

They have got ascenders, so they go up above the x-height line, but their ascenders don't reach all the way to the ascender line.

So their starting point is actually about halfway in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

And in the middle somewhere there.

Check for understanding.

Which of these letters have ascenders? Pause the video here.

Well done if you ticked the T and the L.

Both of these have ascenders that reach up above the x-height line.

The T reaches halfway in between the x-height line and the ascender line and the L goes all the way up to the ascender line.

For your task, I would like you to sort the following letters into the correct categories.

Write the letters in the correct circles.

So one circle is for letters with ascenders, so letters that go above the x-height line.

And the other circle is for letters with descenders, letters that go down below the baseline, down to the descender line.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on of sorting the letters into the correct category? Did you put the letters that are reaching above the x-height line into the ascenders letters circle? That's the H, T, L, K, and B.

And did you put all the other letters into the letters with descenders circle? These are letters that have a descender reaching down below the baseline, down to the descender line.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming lower case letters B and H in print.

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

Your hands and wrists get stronger when you exercise them.

So warming up your hands with writing will help to improve your handwriting.

Let's have a go at the finger tap warm-up.

I'll go first and then it will be your turn.

I love this warm-up because it exercises our fingers and because it feels so good doing this on our head, giving ourselves a little massage.

So I'm gonna start by putting my hands on top of my head and I'm gonna tap each of my fingers, starting with my little finger all the way to the thumb.

And I'm actually gonna tap down the side of my head.

So moving each of my fingers tapping, and it feels great on my head.

It's like a lovely gentle massage.

Now I'm going to go back up to the top, and this time I'm going to tap down the back of my head.

Oh, this is feeling like a lovely way to begin our handwriting session.

Hmm, really nice.

And now it's your turn.

Get your hands ready.

Place 'em on top of your head, tapping down the sides of your head.

Doesn't that feel good? I love this exercise because it sounds good.

It feels good on our head.

And crucially, it's strengthening our fingers.

Ready for handwriting.

Fantastic.

Next we're going to have a go at the wrist shake.

This is really helpful for our wrists.

So all we're gonna do is just gonna hold our hand down like this and we're going to shake, shake our hand, so shaking our wrist, shaking our hand, and I'm gonna do the same on the other side, just shaking my wrist and my hand.

Now it's your turn.

Are you ready? So get, choose whichever hand you want to begin with and let's just shake that wrist.

Other side, shake your wrist.

Nice gentle shake.

Really fun way to do this is we could also shake upwards and this is lovely.

Have a go with me because this is like we're saying, "Bye." Just for now or we could be saying, "Hello." Hello.

Well done.

And practising writing patterns helps us to prepare for writing letters.

We could do patterns that go up and down, zigzagging, or looping.

Today, we are going to have a go at this pattern, which is going up and then curving back down, and a little curve up, down, up and down.

And now it's your turn.

Are you ready to get your finger in position? We're going to do a line up, curving and then all the way down, curving up, curving down, curving up and down.

That felt quite nice and relaxing doing that lovely pattern in the air.

What do you notice about these letters that have appeared on the screen? The B and the H? Pause the video here and tell someone nearby everything you notice about them.

Did you notice that both of these letters have ascenders? That means part of the letter is reaching up above the x-height line.

Did you notice that they both start on the ascender line, they go down to the baseline, and then they go back up and over in a clockwise direction? What else do we notice about the B and the H? Well, we can see that part of these letters are formed between the baseline and the x-height line, so the main part of each of those letters falls between those two lines.

However, they're not x-height letters because they both have ascenders that are reaching up above the x-height line.

I'm going to have a go at forming the lowercase letter B and then it will be your turn.

I'm going to start up at the ascender line.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, and then I'm going to go over and around in a clockwise direction down to the baseline and then joining the other line.

Let me try that again.

I'm gonna start at the ascender line all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line.

And I'm gonna go over and around in a clockwise direction down to the baseline and join the other line.

Are you ready to have a go? Let's get, let's all get our fingers ready in the air to make the lowercase letter B, starting at the ascender line down to the baseline, up to the x-height line, over and around clockwise down to the baseline, and join up those lines.

Lovely.

Let's do one more.

Ready? At the ascender line, down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, over and around clockwise down to the baseline and join those lines together.

Fantastic, they look so nice.

Shall we have a go at forming the letter H? Now I'll go first.

I'm going to start up here at the ascender line and I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, over and around, down to the baseline, and flick.

Hm, it's always nice to finish with a flick.

Let me show you one more time.

Start at the ascender line down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, over down to the baseline, and flick.

Are you ready for your turn? Let's start up here at the ascender line.

Let's go down to baseline, up to the x-height line, over, down, and flick.

One more.

Ascender line, down to the baseline, up to the x-height line, over, down, and flick.

They look fantastic.

Well done.

For your task, I would like you to practise forming the lowercase letter B and H.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot and finally, complete one line for each letter independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy forming all of those letter Bs and all of those letter Hs.

Have fun.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on forming the lowercase letter B and lowercase letter H? Did you start on the ascender line and did you go all the way down to the baseline? Did you go back up and over in a clockwise direction? Did you enjoy forming every letter? Circle your best one and celebrate.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming the lowercase letters L, D, and K in print.

And here they are, the L, the D, the K.

Here they come.

What do you notice about these letters? Pause the video here and tell somebody nearby everything you notice about them.

So what did you notice about these letters, I wonder? Did you notice that they all have ascenders? A part of each of this letter is reaching up above the x-height line.

Did you notice that letters L and K start on the ascender line and they go straight down? And did you notice that they all finished with a lovely flick on the baseline? It's time to form our letters.

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

I'm going to start with the letter L.

This one is really nice and straightforward.

We just start up here at the ascender line, go all the way down to the baseline, and flick.

That's it.

So simple.

Let's try it again.

Start at the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline, and flick.

It's your turn.

Get your finger ready to form the letter L.

Let's go.

Ascender, down to baseline, flick.

One more.

From the ascender, straight down to the baseline, and flick.

Fantastic.

Now I'm going to form the lowercase letter D.

I'll go first then it'll be your turn.

I'm going to start just below the x-height line and then I'm going to go around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline.

And then I'm going to go all the way up to the ascender line, back down to the baseline, finish with a lovely flick.

Let me show you again.

So I'm starting just below the x-height line and then I'm going around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline, and flick.

Now it's your turn.

Get ready to form the letter D.

Just under the x-height line is where we'll begin.

We're going anti-clockwise, we're going down to the baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline, and flick.

One more.

Just below the x-height, around anti-clockwise, baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, down to the baseline, and flick.

Fantastic, well done.

And now it's time to form the lowercase letter K.

I'll go first, and then it will be your turn.

I'm going to begin at the ascender line.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, go back up a little, and then I'm going to make a loop that touches the x-height line.

And then I'm going to make a little line down to the baseline, finish with a flick.

We love those flicks.

Let me start again.

Up here at the ascender line, down to the baseline, back up just a little bit.

Make a loop that touches the x-height line, and then a line down to the baseline, and flick.

Are you ready to go? Show me your finger ready at the ascender line.

Let's go down to the baseline.

Back up just a little bit.

Let's make a loop that touches the x-height line and then a small dot line down to the baseline and flick.

One more.

Ascender line down to baseline, up a little, loop to touch the x-height line, line down to the baseline, and flick.

Wonderful.

For your task, I would like you to practise forming the lowercase letters L, D, and K.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And finally complete one line for each letter independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy forming these three letters.

Pause the video here.

So how did you get on with forming the lowercase letters L, D, and K? Did you start on the ascender line and go down for the L and the K? Did you finish each of them with a flick on the baseline? Circle your best and celebrate.

And the next part of our lesson is forming the lowercase letters F and T in print.

Are you ready for these letters? They're quite special ones.

Let's find out more.

So what is it you notice about these two letters? Look at the F.

Look at the T.

What do you notice? What can you see? Tell the person next to you.

Pause the video here.

Did you notice that they both have ascenders? Remember an ascender is part of the letter that reaches above, let's say this is the x-height line, reaches above the x-height line and both of these letters have ascenders.

And they both have starting points between the ascender line and the x-height line.

So it's kind of somewhere halfway in between those two lines.

And it's a little bit different to the other letters with ascenders that go, those ones go all the way up to the ascender line.

So these ones are a little bit different.

And they both have a cross, a lovely line going across the x-height line.

Did you notice those things? Well done, well done if you did.

All right, here we go.

We are going to be forming these letters in the air.

This is gonna be a lot of fun.

I'm gonna have a go first of all, then you're going to join in.

Okay, so I'm going to start with the letter F and remember the starting point.

It's in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

Then we go halfway in between.

And I'm gonna go in an anti-clockwise direction.

That means the opposite way to a clock, all the way down to almost to the descender line, just above it, and we do a nice little curl up.

Hmm, lovely.

Finger off, and then I go back up to the x-height line and make a cross.

Let me try that one more time.

Start in between the ascender line and the x-height line, anti-clockwise, and then all the way down to just above the descender line.

Curl up, finger pencil off, and a line across.

Okay, it's your turn.

Are you ready? Get your finger into position in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

Let's go.

Anti-clockwise, all the way down to just above the descender line, curl up, pencil off, line across at the x-height line.

Let's do one more.

Start in your position in between the ascender and the x-height line, anti-clockwise all the way down to just above the descender line, lovely curl up, pencil off, line across.

That looks great.

Loving those F's.

Well done everybody.

Okay, now I will have a go at forming the letter T.

I've got the same starting position in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

Just there in the middle.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, a little curl up there, and pencil off, and line across on the x-height line.

One more time.

At the start in between the ascender line and the x-height line, all the way down to the baseline line, curl up, pencil off, and the line across.

Okay, it's your turn.

Ready.

Get in position in between the ascender line and the x-height line, halfway in between, go all the way down to the baseline, curl up, pencil off, line across.

One more.

Get in your starting position all the way down to the baseline, curl up, pencil off, and line across.

Mm, those T's look good.

I'm loving the F's, loving the T's.

Really great job everybody.

For your task, I'd like you to go over the grey examples of the F and of the T.

Next, I'd like you to try using the starting dots.

Remember our starting position in between the ascender line and the x-height line, halfway in between.

And then finally complete two lines of these letters.

Each of these letters independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy every F, enjoy every T.

Have a lot of focus, have a lot of fun.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on with forming the lowercase letters F and T? Did you start in between the x-height line, x-height line, and the ascender line? Did you put a cross on the x-height line? Did you enjoy every single one? Circle your best one and celebrate.

Woo, well done.

In our lesson practise of letters with ascenders, we've covered the following.

The part of a letter the reaches above the x-height line is called the ascender.

The letters H, B, D, K, L, T, and F all have ascenders.

The starting point for the letters H, B, K, and L is on the ascender line.

And for the letter D, it's just above the x-height line.

The starting point for the letters F and T is between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Really well done everyone at practising these letters with ascenders.

It's been really great to spend time with you and I'm looking forward to the next lesson.

See you then.