Hello, everyone.

I am Ms. Afzal, 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 letters i, l, t, u, y and j.

I'm really looking forward to this.

I hope you are, too.

Let's get into it.

We have got keywords to look out for in this lesson.

There are three of them in particular that I'd like you to pay attention to and to look out for and listen out for and think carefully about.

Let's go through them.

My turn, your turn.

X-height letter.

Ascender.

Descender.

Fantastic.

I'm excited for us to encounter these words through our lesson today.

There are two parts to our lesson, formation of i, l, t, u, y and j.

The first part is forming the lowercase letters i, l, and t in print, and the next part is forming the lowercase letters u, y and j in print.

I wonder if you can work out why they're in those two particular groupings, and it will become clear as we go through the lesson.

Let's start with the first part, forming the lowercase letters i, l and t in print, and just before that, some warmups.

Can you remember why it's important to warm up your hands before handwriting? Well, it's because your hands and your wrists get stronger when you exercise them, just like any other muscle in your body.

So making your hands and your wrists stronger will help you to hold your pencil using your tripod grip.

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'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 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 cake, so 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.

Okay, take a look at these letters that have appeared on the screen.

What do you notice about these letters? Did you notice that all these letters are lowercase formations in print? The letter i is an x-height letter, and it has a dot at the top.

The letter t has a cross at the x-height line.

And the letters l and t both have ascenders as part of the letter that goes above the x-height line.

It's quite interesting that the ascender for the t is a little bit shorter than the ascender for the l.

Usually, the ascenders go all the way up to the ascender line, but for the t, it's a little bit different, it's just going midway in between the x-height line and the ascender line, but it is still an ascender.

Do you notice anything else about these letters? Again, have a close look.

What else do you notice about these letters or about the way that they're formed? Pause the video and tell someone nearby.

Did you notice that they all start at the top and they go down? They go straight down.

Did you notice that all of these letters finish with a flick at the baseline? These letters are in the same letter family, as they're formed in a similar way.

Okay, it's that fun time to be forming letters in the air.

So let's start with the letter i.

I'm gonna have a go at forming it in the air, I'm gonna use my finger.

After that, it will be your turn.

So what we want to remember is where we start.

So we're gonna start here at the x-height line, and I'm going to go straight down to the baseline and have a flick there at the end.

Then I'm gonna take my pencil off, and I'm gonna place a dot on top of the i.

That feels good.

Let me show you again.

Start at the x-height line, gonna go down to the baseline, flick, pencil off, and a dot.

It's your turn.

Are you ready to join in? Get your finger ready at the x-height line, let's go straight down to the baseline and flick.

Pencil off, dot.

Again, from the x-height line down to the baseline and flick.

Pencil off, dot.

I feel like we can't stop.

Let's keep going.

Down to the baseline and flick, pencil off, dot.

Let's just do one more.

We just gotta do this.

Flick, pencil off, dot.

Look at those i's.

They are terrific.

Well done.

Next, it's time to form the letter l in the air.

I'll go first of all.

I'm gonna use my finger.

Next, it will be your turn.

Now, for this one, can you remember where we start? We start all the way up at the ascender line.

This letter has an ascender, and we are gonna go all the way from the ascender line down to the baseline, flick, and that's it.

Oh my goodness.

I think this must be the simplest letter out of all of the letters to form.

Should we try that again? Gonna start at the ascender line.

What do we do? Straight down to the baseline, and flick.

Boom, that's it, it's done.

Wow, that's satisfying.

I want you to have this satisfaction, so let's go, let's do this together.

Are you ready? Put your finger at the top at the ascender line, and let's go down to the baseline, flick.

Done.

Doesn't that feel good? Should we just keep going? Let's go.

At the ascender line, let's go down to the baseline and flick.

We're done.

Let's go again.

Let's, from the ascender line, down to the baseline and flick.

Wow, look at those l's.

They are standing tall and proud, and they're looking fantastic.

Well done, everybody.

Okay, it's time to form letter t in the air.

I'm gonna go first of all.

I will be using my finger.

After that, it's your turn.

Now, this is an interesting one in terms of where we start.

This letter t has an ascender, but it doesn't start all the way at the ascender line, it starts halfway in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

So I'll find my place about halfway.

I'm gonna go all the way down to the baseline and flick, then I take my pencil off, go back to the x-height line and make a cross.

There we go, done.

Let me try that again.

So I'm starting just above the baseline in between the ascender line and.

Sorry, I'm starting just above the x-height line in between the x-height line, ascender line and the x-height line.

I'm gonna go all the way down to the baseline and flick, take my pencil off, and make a cross at the x-height line.

Okay, are you ready to join in? Let's go.

Place your finger at the starting place in between the ascender line and the x-height line, go all the way down to the baseline and flick, take your pencil off, make a cross.

Again.

Get into our starting position, and then head all the way down to the baseline, flick.

Pencil off, make a cross.

Let's do one more.

It's feeling good.

Ready, all the way down to the baseline and flick, pencil off, make a cross.

Look at those t's.

They're just looking terrific.

Well done, everybody.

It's time for your task.

I would like you to practise forming the lowercase letters i, l and t.

First of all, go over the grey examples of the i, the l and the t, 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 every i, every l, every t, every dot, every cross, every bit of simplicity of the l.

Enjoy it all, and I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

Okay, we are back.

How did you get on with forming the lower case letters i, l and t? Did you go down from the correct starting point? And they all have a different starting point.

The i is on the x-height line, the t is halfway between the x-height line and the ascender line, and the l is at the ascender line.

So did you get the starting point correct? Did you have a flick at the end of each one? Did you enjoy them all? Did you feel proud? I hope so.

Circle your best one of each letter and celebrate, yes.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming the lowercase letters u, y and j in print.

Here they are.

Here's the u, here's the y, here's the j.

What do you notice about these letters? Pause the video here while you have a think about that.

Okay, did you notice that all these letters are lowercase formations in print? And the letter u is an x-height letter, as it sits between the baseline and the x-height line.

The letters y and j have a part of their letter that falls below the baseline, and that part is called a descender.

And here it is, that's the descender there that's been marked.

It's the part that goes down below the baseline.

What else do you notice about these letters? Did you notice that all these letters have a starting point on the x-height line? And that the letters u and the y, here's the u, and the y, they're formed in similar ways, however, the letter y goes on to have a descender, so it goes down below the baseline, so it's a little bit different at the end.

And did you notice that the letter j has a dot at the top? These letters are all in the same family, because there's things about them where they're formed in a similar way.

I'm going to have a go at forming the letter u in the air.

I'm gonna use my finger.

After that, it will be your turn to have a go.

So I'm going to start at the x-height line.

I'm going to go down to the baseline, and I'm gonna curve up to the x-height line, back down to the baseline and flick.

Ooh, that felt nice.

Why is that so satisfying? Let's try again.

I'm going to start at the x-height line, down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, down and flick.

Lovely.

I won't keep this to myself.

I'm gonna let you join in.

Are you ready? Fingers at the ready at the x-height line.

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

One more.

X-height line, down to the baseline, curl there, curve there up to the x-height line, down and flick.

Let's do another.

I'm enjoying these too much to stop.

X-height line down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, down and flick.

I'm feeling very calm for some reason.

How about you? Next, let's form the letter y.

I'll have a go first of all.

I'm gonna use my finger to make the letter y, and then it will be your turn.

So this is interesting, 'cause it's similar.

It starts off in the same way that we made the letter u.

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

I'm gonna go down to the baseline, make a curve up to the x-height line, and then I'm gonna go down to the descender line and have a curl up there.

Lovely.

Let me show you again.

Start at the x-height line, down to the baseline, curve there, up to the x-height line, and then I go all the way down to the descender line, and I finish with a curl up.

Also feels quite lovely doing this one.

I'm gonna let you join in too now.

Ready? Let's go with the y.

Start at 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.

One more.

X-height line, down to the baseline, make a curve there up to the x-height line, all the way down to the descender line, and curl up.

Final one.

One, one, one more.

Ready.

X-height line to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, descend, descend, descend, and curl up.

Ooh, they feel really good.

Are we ready for our final letter? This is the j.

I'm gonna go first of all.

I'm gonna make letter j in the air with my finger, and then you can follow along.

I'm starting at the x-height line, so they all start, all three letters start at the same place, and I'm going down, down, down past the baseline, descending to the descender line, curl up, pencil off, and a dot.

I'll show you again.

X-height line, all the way down to the descender line, curl up, pencil off, and a dot.

Yep, this one feels pretty good, too.

What is it with these letters today, hey? All right, it's your turn, ready.

At the x-height line, let's go down to the descender line, curl up, take your pencil off, dot.

Again.

From the x-height line, let's go down, descend, descend, descend to the descender line, curl up, curl up, curl up, pencil off, dot.

One more.

We can't stop this when we're having such fun.

Let's go from the x-height line down to the descender line, curl up, pencil off, dot.

Job done.

For your task, I'd like you to practise forming the lowercase letters u, y and j.

First of all, go over the grey examples of each letter.

Next, try using the starting dot.

That will show you where to begin.

And remember, for each of these letters, we start at the x-height line, so they all have the same starting position.

And finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy every u, enjoy every y, those descenders, the curl ups.

Enjoy the j, enjoy the dot at the top.

This is gonna be a lot of fun.

Stay focused, enjoy it all, and I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

Okay, we are back together.

How did you get on with your practise of forming the lowercase letters u, y and j? Did you make every single letter start on the x-height line? Did you remember to add a flick for the u? And how about the curl up on the descender line for the letters y and j? Did you remember those? Did you remember the dot at the top of the j? Are you ready to circle your best one and to celebrate? I hope so.

Really well done, everybody.

Great, great job.

In our lesson, formation of i, l, t, u, y and j, we have covered the following: The letters i, l and t are formed by going down and finishing with a flick, letters u and y go down and up, go down, up and down again, the letters l and t have an ascender, and letters y and j have a descender.

So many things you have covered today.

Letter families, descenders, ascenders, dots, crosses, flicks.

We've covered it all.

You've done a really great job of focusing and joining in, and I hope you enjoy forming all of these letters every time you form them from now on.

I'll see you in the next lesson.

Well done.

Bye for now.