Hello everyone, this is Ms. Afzal 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 for today's lesson is, I can correctly form the first join with a lead in and a lead out.

This is exciting stuff, getting into the joins.

I can't wait to begin.

There are some keywords for today's lesson.

Let's go through them.

My turn, your turn.

Joined, lead in, lead out, Joined, lead in, lead out, baseline, x-height line.

Let's make sure we look for those words.

Let's listen carefully for those words.

Let's think about those words, and let's get curious about them.

What are these words all about? Let's find out what's involved in today's lesson.

So in our lesson, the first join: in, ig, ed, eg with lead in.

We will cover the following, first of all, handwriting warm ups.

Next, we'll look at the first join, in and ig.

Then we'll look at the first join, ed and eg.

Let's get started with thinking about why our warm ups are so important.

Well, before starting to write, we know it is important to warm up our hands and our wrist muscles.

That's because they get stronger when we exercise them.

So warming up your hands before you write will help to improve your handwriting, especially because we are moving onto joined up handwriting today.

We are focusing on that first join so it's really great that we have our hands warm and ready to get into this.

Let's do a warm up.

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

I will go first of all, and then it will be your turn.

I'm going to imagine I've got a little bit of Play-Doh here on my thumb and I'm just gonna touch that Play-Doh with each of my fingers.

So this is the finger touch warm up and I can go backwards.

I can go back in the other direction, towards and backwards.

I'm gonna take my other hand.

Imagine I've got a little bit of Play-Doh there and I'm gonna just touch the piece of Play-Doh with each of my fingers going the other way.

So you can just go back and forth in each direction, wonderful.

Now it's your turn.

Are you ready? Take whichever hand you want to begin with and imagine your little bit of Play-Doh there.

And you're just gonna touch Play-Doh with each of your fingers.

Each of your fingers is stretching out, reaching down, and touching that Play-Doh.

And you can go in the other direction.

Try with your other hand.

There's your little bit of Play-Doh.

So you're gonna touch it with each of your fingers.

You can go back in the other direction, fantastic.

Should we do some really fun? Both hands at the same time.

There's your bit of Play-Doh, let's go.

So we're gonna touch that bit of Play-Doh.

We're gonna go back the other way and we're gonna speed it up.

Do you wanna try that? Speeding it up a little bit in one direction, the other direction, what fun.

Next, we're going to have a go at the wiper wrists warm up.

This is really gonna help our wrists and it's gonna be good for our imagination 'cause we are going to imagine that we are in some kind of vehicle.

So we could be in a car or a bus or a van or whatever you like, something that has windows, and we're imagining that it's raining really hard and we don't want that rain to get in the way of us seeing clearly through the windows.

So we are going to be wiping the windows with these wipers, windscreen wipers.

Who knew that our hands could be really effective windscreen wipers? So let's just do this.

Let's keep wiping away that rain.

And now, it's your turn.

Are you ready? Get your hands up your windscreen wipers, and let's go.

Oh my goodness, it's raining so hard.

We really need to get this rain off of our screen so we can see clearly and so that we can get to school or the park or the library or wherever is our favourite place to go.

Well done, great job.

As well as handwriting warm ups, practising writing patterns also helps to prepare us for writing and crucially for joining letters.

Check for understanding.

Practising writing patterns helps to prepare us for joining letters.

True or false? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done, that is true.

Well done if you selected that.

Indeed, practising writing patterns is going to help us.

It's gonna support us with joining our letters.

For your task, I'd let you to copy and continue these patterns using your tripod grip.

So we've got a line going all the way up, and then coming back down, and then a shorter line back up, down, and a shorter line.

And can you see how they're all sort of joined together? There's a lovely joining pattern going on there.

And then the next pattern is these really nice loops.

Have a go at those.

Pause the video while you practise these patterns.

So how did you get on with copying and continuing the patterns using your tripod grip? Did you hold your pencil in the tripod grip the whole time? Did you keep your pencil on the page while you did each of these patterns? Was your movement smooth and flowing? Did it feel quite lovely? I hope so.

And now, for the next part of our lesson, we are moving into the first join.

This is an exciting time.

We're gonna look at the first join joining between the letters i and n, and i and g.

Print and cursive are the most common forms of handwriting.

So print is when each letter is formed separately.

As you can see here with the word cat, we have got the C, it's independent.

It's all by itself.

It's not joined to anything else.

Next to it, the A.

Again, it's just they're doing its thing by itself.

And there is the T just all alone.

It's not touching anything else.

So yeah, of course, altogether they form the word cat, but they are all written separately and they are not joined in any way.

So this we call print.

Cursive, also, this is called joined up handwriting is something quite different in cursive handwriting.

What this involves is joining the letters together in a flowing manner.

So now, look at the word cat.

Can you see the difference there? So we've got this lead in with the C, and then the C has a lead out.

And it's actually what it's doing is it's joining to the letter A.

Then we form the letter A, and then that is joining to the letter T.

So all of those letters have been formed in one continuous flowing movement.

Of course, we lifted the pencil to draw across the t.

There's also a form of handwriting which comes in between print and cursive, which is called pre-cursive.

And pre means before.

So it means before cursive.

And pre-cursive formation supports the transition.

It supports us moving from print to cursive.

So as you can see here with these two letters, these are pre-cursive formations of the letter L and U.

So can you see with the L, it has that lead in.

And from the end of the L, we can lead out into the next letter.

And with the U, again, we have got that little line at the beginning, that's the lead in.

And then at the end of the U, we can lead out from that little curve upwards at the end.

So here, we can see the whole thing laid out as the journey.

All right, let's look at this word leg.

Okay, first of all, L-E-G, all separate doing their own thing.

Of course, together they mark the word leg, but they're not joined in any way.

So that's print.

Next, in the middle there, we can see pre-cursive letters.

And here, that L is quite different to the first L because it's got the lead in.

The E has a lead in.

The G has a lead in and they all also have that lead out.

So just at the end, there's a little bit extra.

That means that's gonna help for them to go from that lead out into the next letter to join to the next letter.

And then on the right-hand side, we have cursive.

We have joined up handwriting.

And take a look at this.

Let's have a look.

So with L, it's got the lead in.

You form the L.

And then from that L, it joins to the E, form E.

And then the E, we keep going, keep the pencil on page, and we join to the G.

And then at the end of the G, there's a lead out.

So there's always a lead in at the beginning of a word and a lead out at the end.

And all the letters in between join to each other.

There are one or two letters that are an exception to that which we will come to.

So now, we can see once again, first one, print formation, no lead in, no lead out.

Next one, pre-cursive formation has a lead in and has a lead out.

Finally, cursive formation, all the letters are joined.

Take a look at these sets of letters that have appeared on the screen.

And can you see that they are all, are they print? Are they pre-cursive or are they cursive? Have a think about that.

Pause the video while you decide.

Yes, you are right.

They are cursive because they have a lead in.

Then the first letter has a lead in, and then it joins to the next letter, and the final letter has a lead out.

And that's the same for all of these, the in, the ig, the ed, and the eg.

Cursive handwriting involves joining letters together without lifting your pencil.

So you keep the pencil on the page the whole time, unless of course, you need to go back at the end to dot an i or cross the t or dot a j and so on.

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

So there are some different kinds of joins.

Cursive letter joins refers to how letters connect together.

And learning the letter joins will improve your cursive handwriting, allowing for a smooth flowing handwriting.

I'm telling you now, it feels good.

It really feels good when you get the hang of cursive handwriting.

And also, it looks good.

So it's really a win-win situation.

Check for understanding.

Cursive letter joins refers to.

the size of the letter, how the letters connect together, the print formation of the letter.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done, it's B, it's how the letters connect together.

So the join is the part in between each letter that is joining them together.

Let's look closely at examples of our first join.

Take a look here at the i and the n, and then the i and the g.

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

Pause the video here.

What did you notice? I wonder, did you notice that each of these pairs of letters begins with a lead in? Let's look at the in.

Can you see there's a lead in to that first i? Letter joins to the next one, to the n, and then the n has a lead out at the end.

Let's check the ig.

Is it the same? Have we got lead in? Yep, there's a lead in for the i, and then the g.

Oh, look at that lovely loop, and then it kind of flicking upwards above the baseline.

That's our lead out.

I wonder if you spotted those.

What do you notice about how these letters are joined? All the letters have.

Well done, a lead in.

And they all have a.

Well done, a lead out.

So a lead in, remember, is the part of the letter that is taking us into the letter.

It's leading us into the letter.

We don't just start the letter as we would in print.

Normally, if we were writing in print, we would begin an I at the x-height line.

But here, because we're writing in cursive, we have a lead in and all of the letters have a lead out.

That's so that the letter can join to the next letter.

The first letter has a lead in that comes from the baseline and the join.

So at the end of the i, it starts at the baseline and it goes up to the x-height line.

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

So this is the first join.

Key things to remember.

It starts at the.

Baseline, well done, and it goes up to the.

x-height line, well done.

There's our first join.

And always remember, when we're joining the last letter, we'll have a lead out.

And there is that join.

There is our first join.

Remember to remember us.

Remind ourselves one more time, starting at the baseline, that first join goes all the way up to the x-height line.

And here, we have another reminder.

The first join is from the baseline to the x-height line.

Now, it's a very exciting time of forming these joins.

We're gonna form the first join between letter i and n, and then the join between i and g.

I'm gonna have a go.

First of all, I'll use my finger.

Afterwards, it will be your turn.

What I'm really gonna focus on is keeping my movement flowing, smooth, kind of rhythm, a pattern to it.

Okay, so here we go.

I'm going to start at the baseline with my lead in, I'm gonna form the i, and then I'm gonna keep my pencil going from the baseline to form my join, which goes all the way up to the x-height line.

Then I'm going to form the n and finish with a lead out.

And then I'll just go back to dot the i.

Okay, let me show you one more time.

I'll go from the baseline, right, lead in, letter i, and then I'll keep my pencil going from the baseline all the way up to the x-height line for the join, then I'll form the letter n, and I'll finish with a lead out, dot the i.

Okay, are you ready for your turn? Shall we do this? The first join, this is exciting, ready? From the baseline, let's go lead in form the letter i.

And then keep your pencil going from the baseline to the x-height line.

There's your join, amazing.

Form the n, finish with lead out.

Go back to dot the i.

Let's try it one more time, ready? From the baseline, lead in, form the i, and let's keep going.

Keep the pencil going for the join all the way up to the x-height line.

Then we'll form the n, and then we'll finish with a lead out and a dot for the i.

All those in look really, really good.

Well done for your first join.

Are you ready for the ig? Let me show you how to do that.

It's quite similar.

The first bit is very similar.

The i and the join are similar, let's go.

I'm going to start at the baseline with my lead in.

I'm gonna form the i.

And then I'll keep my pencil going to make the join from the baseline to the x-height line.

And then I'm going to go anticlockwise to form the first part of my g.

And then I'm gonna go down to the descender line.

I really enjoy this bit, the loop that goes past the baseline for the lead out.

Go back to dot the i.

Let me show you one more time.

From the baseline, lead in, form the i, and then keep my pencil going to make my join.

Go up to the x-height line, anticlockwise for the g.

And come down, I loop and lead out, dot the i.

Oh yes, that's looking pretty good.

How about you? Are you ready for your turn? Let's start at the baseline.

Ready, line, go.

We could say lead in for the I.

Join from the baseline to the x-height line.

Let's go anticlockwise to form the g.

Make a lovely loop, and lead out, dot the i.

One more, from of baseline, lead in, form the i.

Are you feeling this rhythm and flow? Here's our join up to the x-height line.

Let's form the g loop, lead out, dot the i.

I'm so proud of you.

I hope you're feeling really, really good about these wonderful first joins that you have made.

They look so, so fantastic.

I'm going to show you how to form the first join with letters in.

I'm sitting comfortably.

I'm holding my pen in the tripod grip, and I'm going to start by saying to myself, ready, line, go.

And I'm gonna put my pen on the baseline and start my lead in to form the letter i.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep my pencil going from the lead out all the way up to the ex-height line.

And then I'm going to form the letter n and I'm gonna finish with a lead out, and then dot my i.

Let's try that again.

So ready, line, go.

Here's my lead in to the i.

And then from the lead out, I'm gonna keep my pen going all the way up to the x-height line.

Now, I'm going to form my n, lead out, and a dot for the i.

Let's try that one more time.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, i, going from the baseline up to the x-height line for the join, form my n, lead out, dot the i.

I'm going to show you how to form the first join between that letters i and g.

I'm sitting comfortably.

I'm holding my pen in the tripod grip.

I'm going to say to myself, "Ready, line, go." And I'm gonna begin on the baseline with my lead in to the letter i.

Then I'm going to keep my pencil going from the lead out all the way up to the x-height line.

And I'm gonna form the letter g going around anticlockwise down to the descender line.

Make a loop.

Now finish with a lead out that goes past the baseline, and dot the i.

Let's try that again.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in to the i.

And then I'll keep my pencil going from the baseline up to the x-height line.

For the join, I'll form the g anticlockwise down to the descender line, form a loop.

There's my lead out, dot the i.

One more, ready, line, go.

Lead in, i, keep my pencil going that lead out all the way up to the x-height line, form the letter g.

There's my loop, lead out, dot the i.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct join.

Which of these ins is formed correctly? Has the join and the correct formation of the two letters.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected the one in the middle.

This has got the lead in, the lead out, and it's got the correct join, and it's all made in one continuous flowing movement with no breaks in between.

Choose those correct joint for the i and g.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected the first one.

We have got the join going from the bottom of the i down from the baseline all the way up to the x-height line.

There is our first join, fantastic.

For your task, I'd like you to practise the first join in.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot to help you.

And finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Keep your pencil on the paper for the whole time of forming the i and the n as you join them together.

And then just going back to dot the i.

Next, I'd like you to practise forming the join between the i and the g.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

Finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy this join.

This is a big moment.

This is an exciting moment.

Enjoy your moment.

Pause the video, and I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, we are back together.

I am extremely curious to find out how you got on with your first join.

Did you join from the baseline to the x-height line? How did you get on with that join? Did you keep your pencil on the page as you made that joining movement? Was your movement smooth? Was it flowing? Did it feel great? I hope so, really hope so.

Circle your best join and celebrate.

And now, are you ready to have a look at our first join, which this time? And now, are you ready to explore the first join between the letters ed and eg? And they're about to go up on screen.

Are you ready for it? Here they are.

Let's look closely at more examples of our first join, this time between the letters e and d, and e and g.

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

Pause the video here.

Did you notice we begin with a lead in? The letter e has the lead in.

Did you notice the letter d has a lead out? Well-spotted, what do you notice about how these letters are joined? Did you notice that the first join is coming from the baseline? So it's coming the n, the e is finishing at the baseline, and then it's joining from there up to the x-height line.

So that's the first join from the baseline to the x-height line.

Did you notice all of these letters have a lead in and they have a lead out? The first letter has a lead in from the baseline.

The join starts at the baseline and it goes all the way up to the x-height line.

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

You just keep it all going with one flowing movement.

And the last letter has a lead out.

And there is our join.

Do you remember where it goes from? From the baseline, well done, up to the x-height line.

Amazing, well done.

That's the first join, baseline to x-height line.

Okay, we have come to the super exciting time of forming the joins in the air.

We are gonna form the join between the e and the d, and e and the g.

I'll go first.

I'm gonna form the join of my finger.

Afterwards, it will be your turn.

We're gonna focus on smooth flowing movements.

Let's have a go.

Okay, I'm going to start with a, can you remember what goes first? Yes, it's a lead in.

We always begin with a lead in when we are joining.

So I'll start at a baseline with my lead in.

For the letter e, I'm gonna form the e.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep my pencil on the lead out all the way up to the x-height line.

Then I'm gonna go around anticlockwise to form the d all the way, you remember all this? All the way up to the ascender line down.

And I'm gonna finish with a.

Yes, you got it, a lead out.

Let me show you one more time.

Start on the baseline with my lead in for the e.

I form my e.

Oh, see that nice flowing movement there? Then I keep going with the lead out.

That makes my join up to the x-height line.

And then I'm going anticlockwise for the d, form my D, finish with a lead out.

Fantastic, I say it myself.

I think it looks pretty good.

Okay, your turn.

Ready, line, go.

From the baseline, lead in, e.

Let's keep going with that lead out and it turns into a join all the way up to the x-height line.

Anticlockwise the d all the way up to the ascender line down and join out.

And now, it's your turn.

Are you ready? Let's do this.

We'll start at the baseline.

Let's go, lead in, form the e.

And then to join, keep going with that lead out.

And we go all the way up to the x-height line.

That's our join.

Anticlockwise for the d, form out d, and we finish with a lead out.

Let's try it together one more time.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, form the e.

We keep going from the baseline all the way up to the x-height line for the join.

And then we form out d and finish with a lead out.

That's looking very good.

Well done, everybody.

Okay, next, we're gonna move on to eg.

First of all, I will have a go.

I'm gonna start same way that I started the ed.

I'm gonna start with my lead in at the baseline, lead in for my e, and then I'm gonna keep my pencil going for the lead out all the way up to the x-height line.

There's my join, first join, anticlockwise with the g.

Oh, I like this bit, all the way down to the descender line, loop.

And then a finish, past the baseline for my lead out.

One more time, I'll show you.

I'll start at the baseline, lead in, form the letter e, and then I'm going to keep my pencil going to form that join up to the x-height line, and make my g down to the descender line, loop, lead out.

Okay, it's your turn for the eg.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in for the e.

Keep going, keep going.

Lead out from the e becomes the join.

As you go up to the x-height line, join to the g, form the g, down to descender line.

Oh, really nice loop to lead out.

One more, ready? Let's do it together.

From the baseline, lead in, form the e.

Keep going, keep going.

Keep the pencil going from the e all the way up to the x-height line for the g.

Let's form our g, down to the descender line, loop, leading out.

Oh my goodness, I'm really proud of you.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

They look amazing.

Well done for those first joins.

I'm going to show you how to form first join between letters e and d.

I'm sitting comfortably holding my pen in the tripod grip.

I'm going to say to myself, "Ready line, go." And I'm gonna start at the baseline with my lead in, form the e, form the letter e.

And then I'll keep my pen from that lead out going all the way up to the x-height line.

Now, form the d, and then I'll finish with a lead out.

Let's try that again.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, form the e, keep my pencil going to make my join up to the x-height line, form the letter d, and there's my lead out.

One more, ready, line, go.

Lead in, to the e.

Keep my pencil going.

My pen going to form that join up to the x-height line.

Form the D.

There's my lead out.

I'm going to show you how to form the first join between letters e and g.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in the tripod grip.

I'm gonna begin by saying, "Ready, line, go." And I'll begin with my lead in to the e or form my letter e.

And then to join, I'll keep going from the baseline up to the x-height line.

And then I'll go anticlockwise, form my letter g.

There's my loop for the lead out and the line that goes just above the baseline to lead out.

Let's start again.

Ready, line, go.

Lead in, form the letter e.

Then to join, I'll keep going with that lead out up to the x-height line, form a letter g.

I'll loop and go from there and to my lead just past the baseline.

Let's try one more, ready, line, go.

Lead in, there's the e.

To join, I'll go from the baseline up to the x-height line, form my letter g.

There's my looping, lead out.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct join.

Which of these eds is joined correctly? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected the one in the middle.

That has got the join going correctly.

Remember how the first join goes from the baseline up to the x-height line? And how about these egs? Take a look at them.

Which has got the correct join? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected the join above the C.

This one has got the join going correctly from the baseline up to the x-height line.

And the g has got a loop as part of its lead out, well done.

For your task, I would like you to practise the first join between the e and the d.

Go over the grey examples, first of all.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Remember to keep that flow in your movement as you keep your pencil on the page while you form the lead in, the e, the join to the d, the d, and the lead out.

Next, I'd like you to practise the first join, this time between letters e and g.

Go over the grey examples, first of all.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And finally, complete two lines independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy the flow, enjoy the movement, enjoy the joins, why not? Pause the video here while you have a go.

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

We are back together and I'm so pleased about that because I want to know how you got on.

How did it go joining from the baseline to the x-height line between the e, the d, and the e, and the g? Did you keep your pencil on the page for the join? Were your movement smooth, flowing, comfortable? I wonder how it was for you.

I really hope you enjoyed that first join.

Circle your best join and celebrate.

In today's lesson, the first join: in, ig, ed, and eg with lead ins, we have covered the following: Cursive handwriting involves joining letters together.

Cursive letter joins refer to how the letters connect together.

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

And the first join goes from the baseline to the x-height line, and you don't lift your pencil when forming the join, and the motion should be smooth and flowing.

Well done, everybody, for joining in with this lesson.

I feel this is quite a momentous lesson.

The first join is a pretty big deal.

So I really hope that you enjoyed this lesson and I hope that you had a really good go at that first join from the baseline to the x-height line.

That's a whole new world we're entering of bringing these letters together in this way.

Well done, and I'm looking forward seeing you for the next lesson.

Bye for now.