The outcome for today's lesson is I can form the letters with descenders correctly.

This is going to be a lot of fun practising all the different letters that contain descenders.

Are you ready? Let's have a look at our keywords for today's lesson.

Got quite a few keywords here today, so let's pay very close attention and let's listen to them.

We'll do my turn, your turn.

Descender.

Baseline.

Descender line.

X-height line.

Starting point.

So these are our, how many have we got? One, two, three, four, five keywords, and let's make sure we are looking out for them all through the lesson.

Let's listen out for them.

Let's think carefully about them.

Let's enjoy interacting with these words.

Let's go into finding out more about what's involved in today's lesson.

So today's lesson, practise of letters with descenders has three parts to it.

In the first part, we are going to be exploring descenders.

Next, we'll be forming the lowercase letters, g, q, and f in print.

And then we'll be forming the lowercase letters, y, p, and j in print.

Let's begin with exploring descenders.

Oh, here they, look at all these letters.

Mm.

What do you notice about them? The y, p, q, j, g and f.

Pause the video here and tell someone next to you what you notice about these letters.

Did you notice that part of each of these letters goes below the baseline? Let's say this is the baseline.

They're going below the baseline.

They are going down below the baseline.

And this part of the letter is called the descender.

Something that descends goes down, to descend means to go down.

So they're going down beneath the baseline.

So here we have all these different lines.

So we've got the ascender line all the way up here.

We don't need to worry about that in this lesson.

Then we've got the x-height line, the baseline, and the descender line.

And the part of the letter that falls below the baseline is called the descender and the descender line, all the way down here at the bottom, that's where a descender will reach to for most letters that have descenders.

And the starting point for most descender letters is on the x-height line.

However, the letter F starts just above the X height line.

Let's take a look at these letters, y, p, q and g.

What do you notice about the formation of these letters? Do you notice that parts of these letters are formed between the baseline and the x-height line? So they each have a section of their letter that's between those two lines.

However, they're not x-height letters because they have descenders.

So they're not just staying within that region of the baseline, x-height line, they're going down beneath the baseline.

Check for understanding, which of these letters have descenders? Pause the video here while you decide.

Well done if you selected the p and the y, both of these letters have got part of the letter descending down below the baseline, they have descenders.

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

Write the letters into the correct circles.

So you've got two categories, letters with descenders and x-height letters.

Pause the video here while you go through all of those letters on the left hand side and decide which category they should go into.

Well done if you selected the p, y, j, q and g as being the letters with descenders.

And the i, v and a as being the letters that are at x-height.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming the lowercase letters, g, q and f in print.

Let's get started.

Well, before we get writing, it's always helpful for us to warm up our hand and wrist muscles.

And your hands and your wrists get stronger when we exercise them.

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

Let's have a go at some practises.

Let's have a go at the finger pull warmup, first of all.

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

So I'm going to take my hand and with my other hand, I'm going to pull first of all my thumb.

Then I'm going to pull each of my fingers and I'm gonna pull, and I'm gonna squeeze at the same time.

It feels really good.

It feels like a lovely, nice kind of hand massage really.

So I'm gonna do the other hand, pulling each of my fingers and squeezing as well.

It's your turn.

Are you ready? Take whichever hand you want to begin with.

I'm gonna start here actually.

And you can start with your thumb and you're just gonna pull and squeeze.

And then the next one, you are gonna do the same thing for each of your fingers.

It feels really great.

Let's have a go on the other hand and we're just going to squeeze and we're gonna pull each of our fingers.

We are getting our hands and our fingers ready and strong for handwriting.

Yes, it feels great.

Next, we're going to have a go at the rolling wrists warmup.

For this, I'm gonna take my hand, actually put it in the same position as I started the last one.

And I'm going to imagine that my hand is going to be mixing something really, really delicious to eat.

So maybe you like yummy cakes, you could be mixing some delicious cake mixture.

I really like soups.

I'm gonna pretend I'm mixing my soup in the pan.

So just doing this movement here.

And what we're doing is we're rolling our wrist, so we're gonna go in one direction and then back in the other direction.

I'm going to do that with this hand now as well.

I am stirring my delicious soup.

What's in a soup? Mm, carrots.

Yummy.

What else is in there? Maybe some potato.

This tastes good.

And I'm going to roll in the other direction.

Okay, now it's your turn.

Choose which hand that you're gonna begin with.

Choose most important decision, what are you going to be mixing? Is it some yummy cookie mixture? Is it a delicious soup? What are you stirring? Just imagine it and rolling your wrist around like this.

Now let's go in the other direction.

Keep stirring.

Mm, keep smelling that delicious food that you're mixing and stirring.

And let's have a go with the other hand.

One direction, stirring, mixing, smelling the delicious food and going around the other way.

We are making our wrists so strong for handwriting.

This is going to really, really help us.

Plus we get to imagine that lovely food.

Well done, everybody.

You've done a wonderful, wonderful job.

Practising writing patterns helps to prepare us for writing letters.

So I'm going to have a go at doing the following writing pattern in the air, and then it will be your turn.

So I'm gonna start up here.

I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna make a loop up, down, loop, and up, down, loop, up, down, loop, up.

Oh, it's a really nice pattern, down, loop, up.

And now it's your turn.

Are you ready? Get your finger in position.

We're gonna start at the top.

We're gonna go down, loop, up, down, loop, up, down, loop, up, down, loop, up.

Really nice, down, loop, up.

Oh, that felt really good.

Hope you enjoyed it.

What do you notice about these letters? Look at these three letters that have appeared on the screen.

The g, the q, the f.

Pause the video while you tell somebody nearby what you notice.

Did you notice that they all have descenders? They all have part of the letter that goes beneath the baseline.

And they also, they all go round in an anticlockwise direction.

So remember clockwise is like this, the way that a clock turns, but anti-clockwise is the other way.

So going in an anti-clockwise direction.

I'm going to have a go at forming the letters g and q in the air.

Use my finger and then you'll have a go.

So I'm gonna start with the g.

I'm gonna start up here at the x-height line.

I'm going anti-clockwise all the way down to the baseline.

Back up to where I started, down to the descender line and curl up.

Let me show you one more time.

Starting at the x-height line, go anti-clockwise around, up to the x-height line, down to the descender line.

Curl up.

It's your turn.

Are you ready? Have a go at the letter g.

Start at the x-height line, anti-clockwise around to the baseline.

Back up, all the way down to the descender line and curl up.

One more.

Let's start at the x-height line.

Anti-clockwise down to the baseline.

Back up to where we started, down to the descender line, curl up.

Fantastic, those g's look great.

Loving those.

Now I'm going to have a go at forming the letter q.

I'm going to start at the x-height line, and it's quite similar to the letter g.

I'm going around anti-clockwise, to the baseline, back up to where I started, all the way down to descender line and then a little diagonal line out to the side.

I'll show you one more time.

Start at the x-height line, anti-clockwise to the baseline.

Back up to where I started.

Straight down to the descender line and the diagonal.

It's your turn.

Are you ready? Get in position at the x-height line.

Let's go anti-clockwise, down to the baseline.

Back up to where we started.

Straight down to the descender line and a little diagonal.

One more at the x-height line.

Let's begin.

Go anti-clockwise, to the baseline, back up to where we started.

All the way down to the descender line and a diagonal.

Those q's are looking quite terrific.

Wonderful.

And now I'm going to have a go at forming the letter f in the air.

I'm gonna use my finger and then you'll have a turn afterwards.

So I am, this is a really special letter because it's got all those wonderful things.

It's got its special position.

It's not quite at the ascender line.

It's not quite at the descender line.

It's a little bit in between and it's got curl ups.

It's got a line across, it's anti-clockwise.

There's all sorts going on.

Let's begin.

All right, so I'm gonna start in between the ascender line and the x-height line, going anti-clockwise all the way down, almost to the descender line.

Curl up, pencil off and back to the x-height line for across.

And let me show you again.

So I'll start in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

Halfway in between, anti-clockwise all the way down, almost as far as the descender line, curl up, pencil off and a line across.

Okay, it is your turn.

Are you ready? Get your pencil or your finger or your writing instrument in position in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

Let's go anti-clockwise all the way down to almost to the descender line.

Curl up, pencil off, cross at the x-height line.

Let's do one more.

Starting between the ascender and the x-height line.

Let's go anti-clockwise all the way down to the almost descender line, curl up, pencil off, across at the x-height line.

Look at those f's.

They look fabulous.

For your task, I'd like you to practise forming the lowercase letters, g, q and f.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot so you know where to begin.

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

Enjoy forming all of these letters, all the anti-clockwise formations, the descenders, the flicks, the curl ups, diagonals.

Enjoy it all.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on with forming the lower case letters, g, q and f? Did you go round in an anti-clockwise direction? Did you go down to the descender line for the g and the q? Did you go to just above the descender line for the f? Did you enjoy every single movement that you made? Hope so.

Circle your best letter, g, q and f and celebrate.

Woo-hoo! Great job, everyone.

Next, we'll be forming the lowercase letters, y, p, and j in print.

And here they are, y, p, and j.

What do you notice about these letters? Take a good look at them.

What do you notice? What do you see? Pause the video here and tell somebody what you notice.

Did you notice that they all have descenders? Part of these letters goes down below the baseline, down, descending down to the descender line.

And they all start on the x-height line.

There's something special about the y and the j.

They both have a curl up on the descender line.

And there's something special about the y and the p because the main part of each of these letters sits between the x-height line and the baseline.

I'm going to form the letter y in the air and then it'll be your turn.

And after that I'm going to form the letter p in the air.

So I'm gonna begin my y on the x-height line.

I'm going to come down to the baseline and then back up to the x-height line, all the way down to the descender line.

Finish with the curl up.

Let me show you one more time.

I'll start on the x-height line.

Come down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, all the way down to descender line.

Finish with that lovely curl up.

It's your turn.

Get your finger ready for the letter y.

Let's go.

From the x-height line down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, all the way down to the descender line and curl up.

Fantastic.

Let's do one more.

Why have we stopped there? Let's keep going.

Go, go, go.

Y starts on the x-height down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, down to the descender line and curl up.

Those y's look terrific.

Now I'm going to have a go at forming the lower case letter p.

I'm going to start at the x-height line and I'm going to go all the way down to the descender line and then all the way back up to where I started at the x-height line.

I'm going to go around in a clockwise direction, down to the baseline, and then just joining up around the baseline with the vertical line.

Let me show you one more time.

Start at the x-height line, all the way down to the descender line, all the way back up, go in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline.

And then we'll just join up with the other line.

Wonderful.

Now it's your turn.

Get ready for the letter p.

Start at the x-height line all the way down to the descender line.

All the way back up to where we started, around in a clockwise direction, down to the baseline.

And then just allowing those two lines to meet.

Let's do one more.

From the x-height line, down to the descender line, all the way back up to the x-height line, around in a clockwise direction, down to the baseline.

And then just joining those two lines together.

Wonderful.

Great job, everyone.

Next I'm going to form the letter j, and then it will be your turn.

I'm going to start at, have you guessed it? It's the x-height line.

And I'm going to go all the way down to, do you know where? The descender line, and then a lovely curl up.

Then I'm going to take my finger off the page and I'm gonna add a dot on top of my j.

This is quite a fun letter.

Let's do this one again.

So I'm starting at the x-height line, all the way down to the descender line.

Curl up.

Pen off.

Add a dot.

It's your turn.

Get your pencil ready.

Let's go, from the x-height line down to the descender line.

Curl up, pencil off, add the dot.

Again.

Let's do it again.

We can't stop.

We can't stop when we've got these lovely dots to add.

Let's go, down, down, down to the descender line, curl up, pencil off, add a dot.

Fantastic, everyone.

For your task, I would like you to practise forming the lower case letters y, p, and j.

First of all, go over the grey examples for each of these three letters.

Remember to go all the way down to the descender line.

Next, try using the starting dot.

This will help you to start in the right position.

And then finally, complete one line for each of these three letters independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy forming these letters.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on with practising these letters, the lower case letters, y, p, and j? Did you start on the x-height line and go all the way down to the descender line? Did you remember to add that lovely dot on top of the j? Did you have fun? Circle your best of each letter and celebrate.

In this lesson, practise of letters with descenders, we have covered the following, the part of the letter that reaches below the baseline is called a descender.

The letters g, q, f, y, j, and p all have descenders.

The letters g, q, y, p, and j all have a starting point on the x-height line.

Letters with descenders all reach down towards the descender line.

Well done for joining in with this lesson, practising all of our letters with descenders.

It's been great fun.

It's been great to have you here.

Look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.