Lesson video

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 of today's lesson is I can form the letters with ascenders correctly.

We have a number of keywords in today's lesson, and I would like you to look out for these words.

I would like you to listen out for them.

And let's go through what these words are now.

I will say them and then it will be your turn.

Ascender, baseline, ascender line, x-height line, starting point.

Make sure you keep looking out for and listening out for our special keywords for today's lesson.

We have got four parts to today's lesson.

First of all, we'll be exploring ascenders.

Next, we'll look at forming the lowercase letters b and h in print.

Then we'll be forming the lowercase letters, l, d and k in print, and finally forming the lowercase letters f and t in print.

Let's begin with exploring ascenders.

What do you notice about these letters that have appeared on the screen, the b, the h, the k and the d?

Pause the video here and tell someone nearby everything you notice about these letters.

Did you notice that part of each letter goes above the x-height line, reaching up above the x-height line?

This part of the letter that goes above the x-height line is called the ascender.

Ascender, you say it.

Ascender.

The part of the letter that reaches above the x-height line is called the ascender.

And we can see here we have the ascender line all the way at the top, then the x-height line, the baseline, and then all the way down the bottom is the descender line.

Letters with ascenders are also called tall letters.

And in this lesson we don't need to worry about the descender line.

It's not involved when forming ascender letters.

So goodbye descender line for today's lesson.

Let's think a little bit more about exploring ascenders.

So the letters l, b, h, d and k all reach all the way up to the ascender line.

Their starting point is on the ascender line, except for the letter d, which starts just below the x-height line.

And letters t and f also have ascenders, but they don't reach quite up as far as the ascender line.

Their starting point is in between the x-height line and the ascender line, about halfway in between.

Check for understanding.

Which of these letters have ascenders?

Pause the video here.

Well done if you ticked the t and the l.

Both of these have ascenders that reach up above the x-height line.

The t reaches halfway in between the x-height line and the ascender line, and the l goes all the way up to the ascender line.

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

Write the letters in the correct circles.

So one circle is for letters with ascenders, so letters that go above the x-height line.

And the other circle is for letters with descenders, letters that go down below the baseline down to the descender line.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on with sorting the letters into the correct category?

Did you put the letters that are reaching above the x-height line into the ascenders letters' circle?

That's the h, t, l, k and b.

And did you put all the other letters into the letters with descenders' circle?

These are letters that have a descender reaching down below the baseline down to the descender line.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming lowercase letters b and h in print.

Before starting to write, it's important to warm up your hand and 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.

Let's have a go at the finger tap warmup.

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

I love this warmup because it exercises our fingers and because it feels so good doing this on our head, giving ourselves a little massage.

So I'm gonna start by putting my hands on top of my head and I'm gonna tap each of my fingers, starting with my little finger all the way to the thumb.

And I'm actually gonna tap down the side of my head, so moving each of my fingers tapping and it feels great on my head, like a lovely, gentle massage.

Now I'm going to go back up to the top, and this time I'm going to tap down the back of my head.

Oh, this is feeling like a lovely way to begin our handwriting session.

Mm, really nice.

And now it's your turn.

Get your hands ready, place them on top of your head, tapping down the sides of your head.

Doesn't that feel good?

I love this exercise because it sounds good, it feels good on our head, and crucially, it's strengthening our fingers, ready for handwriting, fantastic.

Next, we're going to have a go at the wrist shake.

This is really helpful for our wrists.

So all we're gonna do is just gonna hold our hand down like this and we are going to shake, shake our hand, so shaking our wrist, shaking our hand.

And I'm gonna do the same on the other side, just shaking my wrist and my hand.

Now it's your turn.

Are you ready?

So choose whichever hand you want to begin with and let's just shake that wrist.

Other side, shake your wrist, nice, gentle shake.

Really fun way to do this is we could also shake upwards.

And this is lovely.

Have a go with me because this is like we're saying bye, just for now.

Or we could be saying hello.

Hello.

Well done.

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

We could do patterns that go up and down, zigzagging or looping.

Today we are going to have a go at this pattern, which is going up and then curving back down and a little curve up, down, up and down.

And now it's your turn.

Are you ready to get your finger in position?

We're going to do a line up, curving, and then all the way down, curving up, curving down, curving up and down.

That felt quite nice and relaxing doing that lovely pattern in the air.

What do you notice about these letters that have appeared on the screen, the b and the h?

Pause the video here and tell someone nearby everything you notice about them.

Did you notice that both of these letters have ascenders?

That means part of the letter is reaching up above the x-height line.

Did you notice that they both start on the ascender line, they go down to the baseline, and then they go back up and over in a clockwise direction.

What else do we notice about the b and the h?

Well, we can see that part of these letters are formed between the baseline and the x-height line.

So the main part of each of those letters falls between those two lines.

However, they're not x-height letters because they both have ascenders that are reaching up above the x-height line.

I'm going to have a go at forming the lowercase letter b, and then it will be your turn.

I'm going to start up at the ascender line.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, and then I'm going to go over and around in a clockwise direction down to the baseline, and then joining the other line.

Let me try that again.

I'm going to start at the ascender line all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, and I'm gonna go over and around in a clockwise direction down to the baseline and then join the other line.

Are you ready to have a go?

Let's get, let's all get our fingers ready in the air to make the lowercase letter b, starting at the ascender line, down to the baseline, up to the x-height line, over and around clockwise down to the baseline and join up those lines.

Lovely.

Let's do one more.

Ready?

At the ascender line, down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line over and around clockwise, down to the baseline and join those lines together.

Fantastic.

They look so nice.

Shall we have a go at forming the letter h now?

I'll go first.

I'm going to start up here at the ascender line and I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, over and around, down to the baseline and flick.

Hmm, it's always nice to finish with a flick.

Let me show you one more time.

Start at the ascender line, down to the baseline, back up to the x-height line, over, down to the baseline and flick.

Are you ready for your turn?

Let's start up here at the ascender line.

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

One more, ascender line down to the baseline, up to the x-height line, over, down and flick.

They look fantastic.

Well done.

For your task, I would like you to practice forming the lowercase letter b and h.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

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

Enjoy forming all of those letter bs and all of those letter hs.

Have fun.

Pause the video here.

How did you get on forming the lowercase letter b and lowercase letter h?

Did you start on the ascender line?

And did you go all the way down to the baseline?

Did you go back up and over in a clockwise direction?

Did you enjoy forming every letter?

Circle your best one and celebrate.

For the next part of our lesson, we'll be forming lowercase letters l, d and k in print.

And here they are.

The l, the d, the k, here they come.

What do you notice about these letters?

Pause the video here and tell somebody nearby everything you notice about them.

So what did you notice about these letters, I wonder?

Did you notice that they all have ascenders?

A part of each of this letter is reaching up above the x-height line.

Did you notice that letters l and l start on the ascender line and they go straight down.

And did you notice that they all finish with a lovely flick on the baseline?

It's time to form our letters.

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

I'm going to start with the letter l.

This one is really nice and straightforward.

We just start up here at the ascender line, go all the way down to the baseline and flick.

That's it.

So simple.

Let's try it again.

Start at the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline and flick.

It's your turn.

Get your finger ready to form the letter l.

Let's go.

Ascender, down to baseline, flick.

One more, from the ascender, straight down to the baseline and flick.

Fantastic.

Now I'm going to form the lowercase letter d.

I'll go first.

Then it'll be your turn.

I'm going to start just below the x-height line and then I'm going to go around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline.

And then I'm going to go all the way up to the ascender line back down to the baseline, finish with a lovely flick.

Let me show you again.

So I'm starting just below the x-height line and then I'm going around in an anti-clockwise direction down to the baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline and flick.

Now it's your turn.

Get ready to form the letter d.

Just under the x-height line is where we'll begin.

We're going anti-clockwise, we're going down to the baseline all the way up to the ascender line, all the way down to the baseline and flick.

One more, just below the x-height, round anti-clockwise, baseline, all the way up to the ascender line, down to the baseline and flick.

Fantastic.

Well done.

And now it's time to form the lowercase letter k.

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

I'm going to begin at the ascender line.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, go back up a little and then I'm going to make a loop that touches the x-height line.

And then I'm going to make a little line down to the baseline, finish with a flick.

We love those flicks.

Let me start again.

Up here at the ascender line, down to the baseline, back up just a little bit, make a loop that touches the x-height line, and then a line down to the baseline and flick.

Are you ready to go?

Show me your finger, ready at the ascender line.

Let's go down to the baseline, back up just a little bit.

Let's make a loop that touches the x-height line and then a small line down to the baseline and flick.

One more, ascender line, down to baseline, up a little, loop to touch the x-height line, line down to the baseline and flick, wonderful.

For your task, I would like you to practice forming the lowercase letters, l, d and k.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Next, try using the starting dot.

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

Enjoy forming these three letters.

Pause the video here.

So how did you get on with forming the lowercase letters l, d and k?

Did you start on the ascender line and go down for the l and the k?

Did you finish each of them with a flick on the baseline?

Circle your best and celebrate.

For the final part of our lesson, we'll be forming the lowercase letters f and t in print.

And here they are.

Here's the f and here is the t.

What do you notice about these letters?

Pause the video here and tell somebody nearby.

Did you notice that they both have ascenders that reach up above the x-height line?

Did you notice that they both have starting points between the the ascender line and the x-height line, about halfway in the middle there?

And they both have a cross at the x-height line.

It's time to form the letter f.

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

I'm going to start in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

I'm going to go up a little way, and then I'm gonna come all the way down to the baseline, and I'm going to curl up.

And then I'm gonna take my pen off the page.

And at the x-height line, I'm going to do it across.

Let's try that again.

So I'm starting in between the ascender line and the x-height line, going up a little way, and then all the way down to the baseline.

Curl up, and then take my pen off and make a line across the x-height line.

Are you ready for your turn?

Let's go.

Finger at the ready in between the x-height line and the ascender line, we go up a little way and then all the way down to the baseline.

We curl up, take our pencil off, and we draw a line across the x-height line.

One more time.

Starting in between the x-height and the ascender up, all the way down to the baseline.

Curl up and cross at the x-height.

Fantastic.

Now let's have a go at making the letter t.

I'm going to go first.

I'm going to start at that same position in between the ascender line and the x-height line.

I'm going to go all the way down to the baseline, curl up, pencil off and cross at the x-height line.

One more time.

In between the ascender and the x-height, down to the baseline.

Curl up pencil, off.

Cross my t at the x-height line.

Are you ready?

It's your turn.

Let's go.

Get your pencil in the starting position in between the ascender and the x-height line, down to the baseline, curl up, pencil off and cross our t at the x-height line.

One more.

Get in our starting position.

Down, curl up, pencil off and cross.

Amazing.

It's time for your task.

Practice forming the lowercase letters f and t.

First of all, go over the grey examples.

Remember your starting position, which is in between the x-height line and the ascender line.

Next, try using the starting dots to help you.

And finally, complete two lines for each letter independently on your tramlines.

Enjoy.

Pause the video here.

So how did you get on forming the lowercase letters f and t?

Did you start between the x-height line and the ascender line?

Did you remember to put a cross on each of your letters at the x-height line?

Did you have fun?

Circle your best letter f and your best letter t and give yourself a pat on the back.

It's time to celebrate.

In our lesson practice of letters with ascenders, we have covered the following.

The part of a letter that reaches above the x-height line is called the ascender.

The letters h, b, d, k, l, t and f all have ascenders.

The starting point for the letters h, b, k and l is on the ascender line, and for the letter d is just below the x-height line.

The starting point for the letters f and t is between the x-height line and the ascender line.