Hello, everyone, I am Ms. Absel, and I'm feeling really excited because guess what we're going to do together? We're going to do some handwriting.

I love sharing handwriting.

I love forming new letters together, making patterns.

It's all so much fun.

So what you need to be ready is to have your eyes ready looking, you need your ears ready to listen out for keywords, and we're gonna be warming up our hands and our wrists soon.

So you'll need those ready.

And let's begin.

Let's have a great time.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can form the pre-cursive letters c, a, and d.

Let's get into it.

Here are our keywords.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Lead in.

Lead out.

X-height letter.

Curved upstroke.

So every time you see one of these letters, these words, I want you to really think carefully about it.

I want you to listen carefully to it.

I want you to look out for these words.

They are gonna be an important part of our lesson today.

So our lesson has got four parts to it.

We're going to start with our handwriting warm-ups.

I always enjoy those.

Next, we'll be forming the pre-cursive letter c.

Then we're forming the pre-cursive letter a.

And finally, we'll be forming the pre-cursive letter d.

But first of all, warm-ups and why they're important.

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

Your hands and wrists get stronger when you exercise them.

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

What's not to love about warming up your hands before writing? Let's have a go at the finger pull warm-up 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're 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 warm-up.

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 be, 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 the soup? (moans) 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 are you 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.

(moans) 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.

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

We can do up-and-down patterns, zig-zag patterns, loops.

I love these ones.

I love them all.

I'm gonna have a go at doing the loop pattern in the air, my favourite, with my finger, and then it will be your turn.

Let me show you again.

I'm just looping up, around, and down.

Looping up, around, and down.

Up, around, and down.

Are you ready for your turn? Let's go.

Looping up, around, and down.

Up, around, and down.

Up, around, and down.

It's just really nice and flowing.

Find it quite relaxing.

How about you? Great job, everyone.

I'm loving the loops.

For your task, I would like you to copy and continue this looping pattern using your tripod grip.

And remember, don't lift your pencil when you're forming the pattern.

Just keep your pencil on the page the whole time.

Enjoy the flow, enjoy the loops.

See you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

It's good to see you again.

It's good to see all of those loops, but I have a couple of questions.

Did you use your tripod grip the whole time while you were making this pattern? And did you keep your pencil on the page the whole while? And let's throw in one more, did you enjoy it? That's the main thing.

Next, let's move on to forming the pre-cursive letter c.

Here it comes.

Here it is.

Here is the c.

Take a very close look at it.

What can you see? Pause and tell the person next to you.

Did you notice all of these things? Did you notice that it has a lead-in? Did you notice there's a lead-out? It's an x-height letter.

It goes up as high as the x-height line.

And it's made up of curve, curved lines.

The main part of the c is just this one lovely curve.

What else can we find out about this curious letter c? This is the pre-cursive formation of the letter c.

The pre-cursive formation of the letter c has a lead-in, and it has a lead-out.

Letter c is an x-height letter.

It goes as high as the x-height line.

The pre-cursive letter c starts on the baseline, and it goes up to the x-height line.

It's that fun time to form letters in the air.

I'm gonna go first.

I'm gonna form the letter c in the air with my finger.

Then afterwards, it will be your turn.

I'm gonna start on the baseline.

To remind me to start here with my lead-in, I'm gonna say, "Ready, line, go." There's my lead-in.

And I'm going all the way up to the x-height line.

Then I'm gonna curl around in an anti-clockwise direction.

I'm curling down to the baseline.

And I'm gonna finish with an upstroke for my lead-out.

Are you ready? Let me show you one more time.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, up to the x-height line, then I'm going back on myself.

I'm going anticlockwise, curling around down to the baseline.

And then I've got this curved upstroke for my lead out.

It's your turn.

Are you ready? Let's go.

Ready, line, go up to the x-height line.

Then go back anti-clockwise.

Curl around to the baseline.

And then you finish with that lead-out.

One more.

Ready, line, go! Lead in, up to the x-height line.

Go back anti-clockwise down to the baseline, curved upstroke.

All those c's look really, really nice.

I'm enjoying seeing all of your c's.

Well done, everyone.

I'm going to show you how to form the pre-cursive letter c.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in the tripod grip.

I'm gonna say to myself, "Ready, line, go," which remind me to put my pen on the baseline for that first lead-in.

Ready, line, go.

And I'm gonna go up to the x-height line.

I'm gonna curl around.

Then in an anti-clockwise direction, down to the baseline.

And I'm gonna finish with curved upstroke as my lead-out.

Let's try that again.

Ready, line, go.

That's my lead-in.

I'm going up to the x-height line.

Then I'm gonna curl around in an anticlockwise direction down to the baseline, and there's my curved upstroke for the lead out.

One more.

Ready, line, go.

Up to the x-height line.

Curl back around anti-clockwise down to the baseline and curved upstroke.

Check for understanding.

Which is the correct formation of the pre-cursive letter c? Take a look at these three c's.

Which one will you choose? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected a.

This one has got the lead-in at the baseline.

It's going up to the x-height line.

And then it's finishing at the baseline.

And it's got that lead-out.

For your task, I'd like you to practise forming the pre-cursive letter c.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy every c, enjoy every movement.

Stay focused, stay with it.

And I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

Okay, we're back together.

It's good to see you.

It's good to see the c's.

I have some questions.

Did you start on the baseline? Did you remember to curl up to the x-height line for the lead-in? And then did you remember at the end, a curved upstroke for your lead-out, also on the baseline? Circle your best c, celebrate.

This is a good time.

Well done, everyone.

Now, we'll be forming the pre-cursive letter a.

Here it is.

Here's the letter a.

It's pre-cursive.

What do you notice about it? Tell someone next to you everything that you can see and that you notice.

And we'll hear from you shortly.

Pause the video here.

Okay, so what did you notice? Did you notice that lead-in? Did you notice the lead-out? How about the height of this letter? Did you notice that it goes up as high as the x-height line? It's an x-height letter.

Well done if you spotted all of these things.

Let's find out more about this letter.

This is the pre-cursive formation of the letter a.

The pre-cursive letter a has a lead-in and it has a lead-out.

Letter a is an x-height letter.

It goes up as high as the x-height line.

The pre-cursive letter a has a curved upstroke as the lead-out.

So by curved upstroke, what we mean there is a stroke is like a line and it's curve curving upwards.

So it's a curved upstroke.

And what this helps us with is that when we move into cursive writing from that curved upstroke, that lead-out is gonna lead in, lead us to the next letter.

So it's really, really helpful to have that curved upstroke.

Let's have a go, forming the letter a in the air.

I'm gonna go.

First of all, I'll use my fist.

It's ready, it's here at my baseline.

I will say to myself, "Ready, line, go." And I'm going up to the x-height line.

Then I'm going around in an anti-clockwise direction, curling around down to the baseline.

Then I'm going straight up to the x-height line.

I'm going down to the baseline.

And I'm gonna finish with a curved upstroke for my lead-out.

Let me show you again.

Then it will be your turn.

Are you ready? Just watching here.

Ready, line, go, lead in.

I go up to the x-height line.

Then I'm gonna go back to myself anti-clockwise down to the baseline, up to the x-height line, straight down, and then there's my curved upstroke for the lead-out.

It's your turn, are you ready? Line, go.

Lead in to the x-height line.

Curling around anti-clockwise down to the baseline.

Back up to the x-height line.

Down to the baseline and lead out.

That's looking really nice.

Let's try it again.

Ready, line, go.

Up to the x-height line.

Go anti-clockwise, curling around down to the baseline.

Back up to the x-height line, straight down to the baseline, lead out.

Those a's are really, really looking good.

I hope you're feeling proud.

I'm going to show you how to form the pre-cursive letter a.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in a tripod grip.

I am gonna start at the baseline.

I'm gonna say to myself, "Ready, line, go," to give me that lead-in.

And I'm going all the way up to the x-height line.

Then I'm curling around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline.

Going back up to the x-height line.

Down to the baseline.

And I'm gonna finish with a curved upstroke as my lead-out.

Let's try that again.

Ready, line, go.

That's my line for my lead-in.

Up to the x-height line.

Curl around, anti-clockwise down to the baseline.

Back up to the x-height line, down to the baseline, and finish with a curved upstroke for the lead-out.

Let's try one more.

Ready, line, go! Lead in.

X-height line.

Anti-clockwise back down to the baseline.

Up to the x-height line.

Baseline and lead out.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct formation of the pre-cursive letter a.

Which of these a's is the a for you? Pause the video while you decide.

Yes, I hope you selected that a in the middle.

That's sitting in the, correctly, in between the x-height line and the baseline.

It's got the lead-in.

And then it's all made in one continuous movement, and it's got its lead-out.

That's the a for us.

Well done if you selected that.

For your task, I'd like you to practise forming the pre-cursive letter a.

First of all, go through the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

Finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy every a, that's what it's there for.

Everything is there.

All of these letters are there for us to enjoy.

So have a great time forming your pre-cursive a's.

And I'll see you when you finish.

Pause the video.

How did it go? How did it go forming the pre-cursive letter a? Did you remember your lead-in at the baseline? Did you go round in an anticlockwise direction? At the end, did you remember that curved upstroke as the lead-out? Really great job, everyone.

Circle your best a and celebrate.

It's time to look at forming the pre-cursive letter d.

Are you ready? Here it comes.

Here's the d.

Take a close look at it.

Look at it from every angle.

What do you notice? What do you see? Tell the person next to you what can you see? Pause the video here.

Did you notice the lead-in? Did you notice the lead-out? Did you notice the fact that it's an ascender? It's going all the way up to the ascender line.

Well done if you spotted these things.

Let's find out more.

This is the pre-cursive formation of the letter d.

Letter d starts on the baseline to form the lead-in.

The pre-cursive letter d has an ascender.

It ascends.

Ascends means to go up.

And it's ascending all the way to the ascender line.

The pre-cursive letter d has a curved upstroke as the lead-out.

So remember when we finish our letters, we want them to have this lead-out, which will help when we move into cursive.

It'll help to join onto the next letter.

So it'll be like they're holding hands.

So we want that curved upstroke at the end of our pre-cursive letter d.

Let's have a go at forming the letter d in the air.

I'll have a go first of all, I'll use my finger.

Then it will be your turn.

I'm gonna say to myself, "Ready, line, go," to remind me about that line.

Starting at the baseline, do my lead-in, and you go up to the x-height line.

And then I'm gonna curl around anti-clockwise back down to the baseline.

And then I'm going all the way up to the ascender line, coming back down to the baseline, and I finish with a curved upstroke for my lead-out.

Fantastic, I'm proud of myself.

Let's go again.

Ready, line, go.

I've got my lead-in.

I'm going to the x-height line.

I'm going back around anti-clockwise down to the baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, back down to the baseline, curved upstroke for my lead out.

It is your turn.

Ready, line, go, lead in.

Up to the x-height line.

Go anti-clockwise curling around.

All the way up to the ascender line, all the way back down to the baseline, and curved upstroke for your lead-out.

That's looking really good.

We can't stop here.

Let's just keep going.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, x-height line.

Go anti-clockwise, curl around.

Go all the way back.

All the way up to the ascender line.

Back down to the baseline.

Curved upstroke for your lead out.

You are leaders in forming the pre-cursive letter d.

You've just done a fantastic job, everyone.

I'm gonna show you how to form the pre-cursive letter d.

I'm sitting comfortably.

I'm holding my pen in the tripod grip.

I'm gonna say to myself, "Ready, line, go," to remind me about that lead-in from the baseline.

And I'm gonna go up to the x-height line.

Then I'm gonna curl around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline.

I'm gonna go all the way up to the ascender line.

Then back down to the baseline.

And I'm gonna finish with a curved upstroke for my lead-out.

Let's try that again.

Ready, line, go.

There's my lead-in.

Going up to the x-height line, curling around anti-clockwise, up to the ascender line, down to the baseline, curved upstroke for my lead-out.

Let's try one more.

Ready, line, go.

That's my lead-in to the x-height line.

Anti-clockwise, back up to the ascender line.

All the way up down to the baseline.

Curved upstroke for my lead-out.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct formation of the pre-cursive letter d.

Have a look at these three d's.

Two of them are imposters, one is the correct one.

Pause the video while you decide which is which.

Well done if you're correct.

Well done if you selected the d at the end above the c.

This one correctly has got lead-in, and then it's going anti-clockwise.

It's going all the way up to the ascender line.

Then it's coming down to the baseline, and it's got its curved upstroke for the lead-out.

That's the d for us.

Well done if you pick this one.

For your task, I'd like you to practise forming the pre-cursive letter d.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

Finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy every d.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

It's good to see you again.

It's good to see those d's.

I've just got a few questions for you before we finish.

First of all, did you start on the baseline for your lead-in? Did you curl around in an anti-clockwise direction? Did you go all the way up to the ascender line? Did you remember your curved upstroke with lead-out? Most important, did you have fun? Did you enjoy these pre-cursive letter d's? I hope so.

Circle your best one.

I'm sure it'll be hard to decide.

I'm sure they're all looking fantastic, but circle your best and celebrate.

You did it! In our lesson, pre-cursive formation of c, a, and d, we have covered the following.

The pre-cursive letters c, a, and d all have a lead-in from the baseline.

The pre-cursive letters c, a, and d all have a curved upstroke as the lead-out on the baseline.

The letters c, a, and d are all formed by curling around in an anti-clockwise direction.

Letters c and a are x-height letters.

I just wanna say, "Well done, everybody." You have shown fantastic joining in.

I love the way you are doing your lead-ins.

I love the anti-clockwise direction and those curved upstrokes at the end were looking great.

So just well done, everybody.

I hope you're feeling really proud of yourselves, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the next lesson.

Bye for now.