Hello everyone.

My name is Miss Afzal, and I'm really thrilled to be here with you because we are going to be practising one of my very favourite things, and that is handwriting.

So, we're gonna get into it.

We're gonna have a go at practising some letters and some patterns.

We're gonna do some warmups.

It's gonna be a great time we have, and I hope you're ready.

I hope you're excited too.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can correctly form the fourth join." There are some key words in today's lesson.

Let's go through them one at a time.

My turn.

Your turn.

Join, lead out, ascender line, x-height line.

Fantastic! I heard those loud and clear.

Let's make sure that we listen out for those words.

Let's look out for them.

Let's think about them.

Let's be curious and excited about them.

These are our special keywords for today's lesson.

So what are we covering in our lesson today? The fourth join: rl, rk, and rt with no lead in.

Well, we'll begin with handwriting warmups.

Next, we'll look at the fourth join: rl and rk, and then we'll finish with the fourth join: rt.

But, first of all, handwriting warmups.

And why are they important? Before starting to write, it's important to warm up your hand and your wrist muscles.

Your hands and wrists get stronger when you exercise them.

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

We're going to start our handwriting warmups with a really, really fun warmup.

This one is piano playing.

And this is so much fun because we get to exercise our hands, and we get to imagine a really fun tune in our head.

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

I'm getting my fingers in position on top of my imaginary piano, and I am going to start pressing each of these keys on the keyboard by moving my fingers and pressing them down, stretching my fingers, moving along the keyboard, making a lovely tune.

Oh my goodness.

This sounds great.

I'm enjoying hearing this in my mind.

Wonderful.

And now it's your turn.

Get your hands ready.

Get your fingers in position just above the keys on your piano keyboard.

And let's go! Let's start playing our tune.

So you're pressing your fingers down on the imaginary piano keyboard.

You are stretching out your fingers 'cause you need to reach some of those notes that are a little bit further away.

Oh, how's your tune sounding? Are you enjoying it? I can hear all these lovely imaginary tunes.

What a great, great sound.

What a great stretch for our fingers.

Well done, everyone.

Next, we're going to have a go at the clapping position.

So, for this, we're going to bring our hands together as if we were clapping.

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

And I'm gonna press all of my fingers into each other.

So fingers from this hand are pressing into the fingers from this hand, and my palms, the centre of your hand, those are the palms, are pressing against each other as well.

It's a really, really nice way for us to get our hands and our wrists as well ready for handwriting? Mmm.

It feels really nice.

It's your turn.

Get your hands ready as if you're going to clap.

You'll deserve a clap after this.

And let's press them together.

Pressing together each of your fingers.

Pressing together your thumbs.

Pressing the palms of your hands together.

Your wrists are getting a nice little stretch here as well.

Doesn't this feel great? Ah, lovely.

And relax.

Well done.

Practising writing patterns helps us to prepare for writing and joining letters.

Look at these fantastic patterns on the screen.

Let's have a go at making a pattern.

So I'm gonna go first, and then it will be your turn.

I'm gonna make this zigzagging pattern, and I'm gonna go like this.

I'm gonna zigzag, zigzag, zigzag, zigzag.

And I'm gonna go back zigzagging all the way back, and I just can't stop.

So I'm gonna do it one more time.

Oh, yes, that felt good.

And now it's your turn.

Are you ready? Let's go.

Zigzag, zigzag, zigzag, zigzag, zigzag, zigzag.

And let's go back making that same pattern.

Oh my goodness.

Let's just go back one more time because it's so much fun.

Well done everyone.

They look great.

For your task now, I would like you to copy and continue these patterns using your tripod grip.

So we've got that lovely zigzag pattern that we just had a go at and some loops.

What fun! Remember, don't lift your pencil when forming the pattern.

Focus on keeping your movements smooth and flowing.

I hope you enjoy making these patterns.

So pause the video here while you have a go at this task.

All right! It's good to be back with you.

Hmm.

I'm wondering about a few things.

Now, did you use your tripod grip while you made those patterns? Did you keep your pencil on the page? And was your movement smooth? Was it flowing? Did you enjoy it? I really hope so.

And now we're onto the next part of our lesson, the fourth join: rl and rk.

Here we can see some joins.

Take a look at these joins on the screen.

Hmm.

Let's find out a little bit more about joining letters together.

Cursive handwriting involves joining letters together without lifting your pencil.

So joining is one of our keywords.

If we're joining, what we're doing is we are connecting or we're linking.

So that's what we're doing to our letters.

We're joining them together.

And we keep our pencil on the page while we make the join.

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

Cursive letter joins refers to how letters connect together, and there are a few different cursive letter joins.

And by learning these letter joins, we will improve our cursive handwriting skills which will allow for a smooth flow of handwriting.

It looks good.

It feels good.

It's really worth putting some time and effort into.

Okay, so the first join we learn is shown below on the screen.

Can you have a look at those joins? Hmm? What do you notice about the way that each of these pairs of letters are joined together? Where does that first join begin? Where does it start, and where does it go to? Can you spot that? Hearzei should help us.

"The first join is from the baseline to the x-height line." Did you get that? I hope so.

And here it is.

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

Thank you, Aisha, making that so clear for us.

The second join we learned is shown here on the screen.

Hmm, now I'll take a look again.

What do you notice? Where is this join starting, and where is it going to, or where is it going towards? Hmm.

Let's have a think about this.

Here's Jun to tell us.

"The second join is from the baseline "to above the x-height line "and up towards the ascender line." Fantastic.

Thank you for sharing that, Jun, and for those very helpful arrows.

There's our second join.

Okay.

Next up is the third join.

Take a look at these pairs of letters.

Ooh, what are you noticing about this join? Where is it going from and to? Shall we get a little bit of help from Alex? "The third join is from the x-height line "to the x-height line." It just goes across like this.

Thank you, Alex.

So helpful.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct third join.

Take a look at these three pairs of joined letters.

Hmm.

What are you noticing? Two of them, I'm not so sure about, but one has got the correct third join.

Pause the video while you decide which one this is.

Well done if you selected the wi in the middle.

This has got the third join going from the x-height line to the x-height line.

Great job, team.

Okay, here we have an example of the fourth join.

In fact, we've got two examples of the fourth join here on our screen.

Let's look closely at them.

Hmm.

Take a very good look.

What do you see? What do you notice? Tell someone nearby.

Did you spot that lead out? The l has got a lead out at the baseline.

How about the k? Yep, k as well.

k has got a lead out at the baseline.

These two letters are joined together.

Fantastic.

Good spot everyone.

And now let's find out more about how these letters are joined.

What did you notice about the way these letters are joined? Let's see.

Did you notice that the last letter has a lead out? Yeah, we spotted that, didn't we? What else? The letter r has a starting point on the x-height line.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Now, let's go into, we've got some keywords here.

So a lead out is the special line that takes us out of the letter.

It leads us out of the letter.

And, in fact, what it does is it leads us into the next letter.

So it's what helps us to join our letters.

And we can see the letter r has a starting point on the x-height line.

That's the dotted line we can see on our set of tram lines.

So x-height letters, such as the r or an o or an m or an a or a c, those are all x-height letters, and they go up as high as the x-height line.

The fourth join starts at the x-height line, and it goes up towards the ascender line.

And the ascender line is the top line in our set of tram lines, the l and the k both reaching all the way up to the ascender line.

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

And Izzy's here to remind us, "The fourth join goes from the x-height line "up towards the ascender line." There it is, like so.

Thank you, Izzy.

Okay, it's time to have some fun and to form these joins in the air.

I'm gonna go first, joining rl.

Then it'll be your turn.

And then we'll have a go at rk.

All right.

Here we go.

Do you remember where I start the letter r? On the x-height line.

Here we go.

Forming my letter r.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep my pencil on the page from the lead out, and I'm gonna go up towards the? Yep, you got it, the ascender line, and I'm gonna form my l.

Finish with the lead out at the baseline.

Lovely.

Let me do one more.

There's my r, and here we're joining.

I'm gonna keep going from my lead out all the way up to the ascender line.

Form the l.

Lead out.

Fantastic.

It's your turn.

I'm not gonna keep all the fun for myself.

Let's do this together.

Ready, let's go.

Ready, line, go! r, and to join, let's keep going from the lead out up to the ascender line.

Form the l.

Lead out.

One more.

Form your r.

And let's go.

Join by going all the way up to the ascender line.

Form your l.

Lead out at the baseline.

Job done brilliantly.

And now I'm going to form rk.

The r, I start in the same way.

At the x-height line, form my r.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep going, keep my pencil on the page from the lead out.

And I'm going to go up to the ascender line.

I'm gonna form my k.

I love that loop in the k.

And I'll finish with a lead out at the baseline.

It's your turn.

Let's do this.

Here's our r.

Here's our join.

We're going all the way up to the ascender line.

Form the letter k.

Lead out at the baseline.

One more.

r, join goes up to the ascender line.

Form the k.

Finish with the lead out at the the baseline.

Great job.

I'm going to show you how to form the fourth join: rl.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in a tripod grip.

I'll say to myself, "Ready line, go." And then I'll put my pen at the x-height line and form a letter r.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep my pen going from the lead out up to the ascender line.

And then all the way down.

Form the letter l.

Finish with a lead out.

Let's try that again.

Here's my r.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep going up.

Keep my pencil on the page.

Keep going up to the ascender line.

Down to the baseline.

Finish with the lead out.

One more.

Here's the r.

Here's the join.

Keep my pen going up to the ascender line.

Form the l.

Lead out at the baseline, I'm going to show you how to form the fourth join: rk.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in a tripod grip.

I'm going to say to myself, "Ready, line, go." And then I'll put my pen at the x-height line, and I'll begin by forming the r.

Then I'm gonna keep my pen going from that lead out up to the ascender line.

And I'm gonna form my letter k.

And I'll finish with a lead out at the baseline.

Let's try that again.

There's my r, and here's the join.

I'm gonna keep going from that lead out all the way up to the ascender line.

Form my letter k.

Lead out at the baseline.

Let's try one more.

There's the r.

And we keep going up to the ascender line.

Form the letter k.

Lead out at the baseline Check for understanding.

Select the correct join.

Which of these rls is formed correctly.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you selected the rl in the middle.

That one has got the join going from the x-height line all the way up towards the ascender line.

How about these rks? I'm not sure about two of them, but, yep, I can see one has been formed really, really fantastically.

Which one is it? Pause the video while you decide.

Well then, if you selected the first rk, this has got the join going from the x-height line all the way up towards the ascender line.

And the k has got a lovely lead out at the baseline.

For your task, I'd like you to practise the fourth join: rl.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And, finally, complete two lines independently, fluently, flowingly on your tram lines.

After that, I'd like you to practise the fourth join: rk.

First, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

And, finally, complete two lines independently on your tram lines.

Enjoy every rl.

Enjoy every rk.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

All right.

It's good to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task? Did you start on the x-height line? Did you join from the x-height line to the ascender line? And did you keep your pencil on the page? Circle your best join, and celebrate.

You deserve a celebration.

And now it's time for us to look at the fourth join: rt.

Here it is.

Here is rt on the screen.

Take a close look at this wonderful example of the fourth join.

What do you see? What do you notice? Tell someone nearby.

Mm-hmm.

What a lot to notice there is.

Did you spot the lead out from the t at the baseline? Did you notice there's a cross? There's a cross across the t at the x-height line, and the t reaches up to between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Kind of about halfway between.

And these two letters are joined.

So what else do you notice about how these letters are joined? Did you notice that the letter r has a starting point on the x-height line? The fourth join is from the x-height line up towards the ascender line.

When joining to the letter t, the join reaches from the x-height line to between the x-height line and the ascender line.

So it doesn't go all the way up to the ascender line for the letter t.

The letter t has a lead out at the baseline.

The cross for the t is added once the letter string is complete.

Here's Izzy to remind us that, "The fourth join goes from the x-height line "up towards the ascender line," like so.

Thank you, Izzy.

All right.

It's time to have some fun.

Let's form this join, rt, in the air.

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

I'm gonna begin at the? Yep, well done, you got it.

The x-height line.

I'm gonna form my letter r, and then, to join, I'm gonna keep going from that lead out, keep my pencil on the page, and I'm gonna go up to halfway in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

I'll form my t.

There's the lead out at the baseline.

Take my pencil off, and cross the t at the x-height line.

I'll show you one more time.

I'll form my r.

And then to join, I'm gonna keep my pencil going from that lead out all the way up to in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Form my t.

Lead out at the baseline.

Cross at the x-height line.

Oh, yes.

That's looking good if I say so myself.

It's your turn.

Ready, line, go! r.

To join, let's go from the x-height line up to in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Form the t.

Lead out at the baseline.

Cross at the x-height line.

Yep, looking good.

Let's do another.

Here's the r.

To join, keep your pencil going from that lead out.

Let's go up to in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Form your t.

Lead out.

Cross.

Fantastic job.

They're looking great! I hope you're feeling very proud.

I'm going to show you how to form the fourth join: rt.

I'm sitting comfortably.

My pen is in the tripod grip.

I'll say to myself, "Ready, line, go." And I'll begin my r at the x-height line.

And, then to join, I'm gonna keep going from that lead out.

Go up to in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Form my t.

Lead out at the baseline.

Cross at the x-height line.

Let's try that again.

Here's my r.

And then to join, I'm going up to in between the x-height line and the ascender line, form the t with the lead out and across.

And let's do one more.

r.

There's the join going up to in between the x-height line and the assembly line.

Join.

Lead out, and across at the x-height line.

Check for understanding.

Select the correct join.

Take a look at these rts.

Oh, I'm not too sure about two of them, but one of them I can see has been formed correctly.

Pause the video while you decide which one that is.

Well done if you selected the rt in the middle.

Absolutely.

This is a fantastic join.

The join is going from the x-height line and up towards the ascender line.

But not all the way there.

And the t has a lead out at the baseline.

It's time for your task.

I would like you to practise the fourth join: rt.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot, and, finally, complete two lines independently, smoothly, flowingly, with great enjoyment on your tram lines.

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

Pause the video here.

It's great to see you again.

How did you get on with your task? Did you use the correct starting point? Did you go from the x-height line to between the x-height line and the ascender line? Remember, that's where we go to for the letter t.

Did you remember to add the cross for the t at the end? Did you have a really good time? That's the most important thing with our handwriting.

Circle your best join, and celebrate.

Yes, you deserve to celebrate.

In our lesson, the fourth join: rl, rk, and rt with no lead in, we've covered the following: cursive letter joins refer to how the letters connect together; the letter r has a starting point on the x-height line; the fourth join starts at the x-height line and reaches up towards the ascender line; the letters l and k both reach up to the ascender line; when joining the letter t, the join reaches up to between the x-height line and the ascender line; the cross for letter t is added once the letter string is complete; you do not lift your pencil when forming the join.

I'd like to say really, really well done to you today for how you joined in with this lesson, making those fantastic lead outs and loops and joins.

It's been a terrific lesson.

Hope you're feeling proud of yourselves, and I'll see you at the next lesson.

Bye for now.