Copying shapes

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. Hi, today is all about learning to copy letters, and we're going to start with just being able to copy some shapes, and when we can copy these shapes, it means that we are ready for learning to copy our letters. Why should we practise copying letters? Well, when we're able to write letters, that means that we're able to put together all the skills that we've practised in previous lessons. It means that we're learning how to write, and eventually we'll be able to quickly, and easily put together whole words, and maybe even sentences. When we write neatly, and with letters that we can recognise, it gives us good hand skills, where we can make very small, and careful movements. Pause the video now, to get the items you will need. Some plain paper, pen, or pencil. Restart once you're done. When we think about being able to write letters, we first start by copying some shapes. And this is because letters are made up of various different shapes. So, we first make sure we can do these well. So, the letter A is made up of a circle, and a straight line. And the letter E is made up of one vertical line, and three horizontal straight lines, okay? So, on a plain piece of paper, have an adult draw the shapes in the following slide, one at a time, in order, and then you try to copy them as well as you can. Once you can copy all of these, you are ready for writing letters. So, these are called the pre-writing shapes. A vertical line, a horizontal line, a circle, a cross, a square, two diagonal lines, and then an X. If you find those tricky, ask an adult to just do dots for you, and you can then simply trace over the dots. And once you're comfortable doing that, you can then move on. What you can then do, is ask an adult to draw starting dots for you. So, an adult would do a black dot there, and another one there. And you would then go from that black dot, and draw a line down. Then lift your pencil up, and go from that black dot, and draw a line across. Pause the video now, to try practise the pre-writing shapes. For our next activity we're going to copy letters. And again, on a plain piece of paper, ask an adult to write one letter of the alphabet, and then you try to copy it. What we'll start with, is you'll ask your adult to write these letters in groups, that use very similar movements, and not just alphabetical order. As you get better at the shapes of the letters, try to make them as small as you can. And when you're feeling really confident you can try copying them on lined paper. As you get better at these, you can try writing the whole alphabet, in order. The letter groups we have are the magic C group, one armed robots, long ladder letters, down-up-downs, and the odd ones out. We are going to be learning a lot more of these in our next module, which is all about handwriting. Pause the video now, to try copying letters. If you find it tricky to copy a shape, or letter, as I showed earlier, have an adult write it, and you can then trace over the top of it. You can also have them do dots, so the letter A, made up of dots, and you can then trace it. You could also try drawing the shape of the letter with your finger in the air, okay? You can, to make this much more fun, you can try practising writing your letters in shaving foam, on a tray, or on a mirror, if an adult has said that you can use the mirror, okay? And then, you can feel the movements, as you make the letters, or simply the shapes, okay? If you're really struggling, you can try and use four-lined paper. This shows you exactly where the letters are supposed to go. Some kids find this really helpful, others find it too confusing. So, find what works best for you. Remember, do the best for you. Practise, practise, practise. Try and write in as many different places as you can. In the sand, in the air, on the grass, and just have fun. If you'd like to, please ask your parent, or carer to share pictures of your copying shapes, and copying letters, on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational, and #LearnwithOak. Bye, see you next time.

Copying shapes

Copying shapes

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