Using a ruler

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. In today's lesson, we're going to learn how to use a ruler and all the skills that are involved in that. It's a really essential skill that we use all the time and I hope that this lesson will help you improve how well you use a ruler. Why is it so important that we need to practise using a ruler? Well, it's going to help us put everything that we've learned from the previous lessons all together and in school, we start using rulers from a really young age, for example, just to draw a line in the margin or to underline the date. And as you get older, in school, you're going to have to use it for all sorts of things, such as drawing a box. When we use a ruler, we have to think about knowing a lot of things, such as where we're going to place the ruler, how firmly we're holding it, where we're going to put our pencil or pen for drawing. When we use a ruler, it means that our work can be really neat and tidy, when we draw pictures or when we do schoolwork. This is what you're going to need for today's lesson. You're going to need various items to trace around, such as a cop or small box, you're going to need some paper, a pencil, a pen, and a ruler. When you've got everything ready, restart the video. For our first activity, we're simply going to be tracing. And I want you to remember, I said get a cup or a cube, and also we're going to trace your hand. Let's watch the video. Okay, so there we can see, I've just put my hand down and I've just traced my hand. Now you can trace your hand, your parent's hand. Now, I'm just going to trace the Sellotape. Notice how firmly I'm holding it. And now, I need to change hands, so I'm just swapping it over. And that was just tracing. Pause the video and try that. For our next activity, we're going to be looking at joining the dots. You'll see that we're going to draw some dots about two finger spaces apart, and we're then going to use the ruler to join the dots. You can see here that I'm holding the ruler really quite firmly and I've spread my fingers out and this is why it's so important for all our fingers to be really strong. And you can see that when I move the ruler, the whole page moves and that's how strongly I'm holding the ruler. See, my fingers are spread and I'm really putting a nice amount of pressure force in there so that the ruler doesn't move. Now I'm drawing some dots. As I said, two finger spaces apart, just a small amount. And what you're going to do now is you're going to join the dots up. And then you can do the next one. And you saw that I draw on the ruler by mistake. As you get better at drawing lines in between dots, you can make your dots go further and further apart, and you could also start changing the directions of the dots. So, you could put them all over the page and then try and join those dots. Also important is for us to try and use our rulers in a vertical position. Now, sometimes this can be quite tricky to get the hand strength just right. So first, you can see that I'm using my thumb and my middle finger. And now, I'm putting my whole hand down, so my thumb, my pointer finger, my index finger, and my middle finger and you can see how strongly I was holding it, so that it didn't move. Okay, pause the video now to have a go at joining the dots. So, things that we can do to make this easier is using bigger dots. We can also use little targets, such as stickers to draw in between. There are loads of different rulers that you can use. So you can get a left-hand ruler. Sometimes, you might find that a coloured ruder or a non-see-through ruler will make it easier for you. So it's all just about trying it out and seeing what works best for you. Sometimes, you can get rulers that look like that, so you can hold it. So there are lots of things available. Ask an adult or a carer to search places like Amazon or anywhere online to find a ruler that would work best for you. Remember, do the best for you, have fun practising , see how many different shapes you can create. And as always, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your lovely work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. See you soon.

Using a ruler

Using a ruler

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