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Lady the Lion Learns L

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Rationale:

This emergent literacy lesson will focus on children identifying the phoneme represented for L, /l/. Students will learn to recognize /l/ in spoken language by learning it with a meaningful representation, a loud lion with claws and the finger shape L. They will practice learning /l/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /l/ in phonetic cue reading by answering questions similar to, “Do you hear /l/ in like or bike?” They will figure out which of the two rhyming words start with /l/. 

 

Materials:

Primary Paper, pencil, lion stickers, a print out of the tongue, tickler, chart of “Lady the lion left her little sister’s lime green locket at the library”; Book: Dr. Suess’s ABC, Word cards with LION, LUCK, WET, LEG, LAP, LOG.

 

Procedures:

1. I will say: Our written language is like a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for- the mouth moves in a specific way as we say the words. Today we’re going to focus on how the mouth moves with the letter /l/. We spell /l/ with the letter L. We can remember the L for lion by drawing a lion’s mane on top of the L.        

2. Let’s pretend we have a loud singing lion, lalala /l/, /l/, /l/. Do you notice where your tongue is? (Showing student where the tongue hits the roof of the mouth) When we say /l/, we lift our tongue to the roof of our mouth.

3. Let me show you how to find /l/ in the word hail. I’m going to stretch hail out in super slow motion and listen for that /l/ sound. Hhh-aaa-iii-lll. Slower: hhh-aaa-iii-lll. There it was! I felt my tongue on the roof of my mouth. Did you? I can feel /l/ when I say hail.

4. Let’s try a tongue twister. Lady is a lion in Africa who goes to school. Her sister left something very important to her in the library. “Lady the lion left her little sister’s lime green locket at the library.” Everybody says it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /l/ at the beginning of the words. “Lllllady the lllion lllleft her lllllittle sister’s lllime green lllocket at the lllibrary.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/L/ady the /l/ion /l/eft her /l/ittle sister’s /l/ime green /l/ocket in the /l/ibrary.

5. (Have students take out primary paper and pencil). We use the letter L to spell /l/. Let’s write the lowercase letter l. We start at the at the rooftop and go straight down to the sidewalk. Let me see everyone's l's! Once I stamp your paper with a lion, I want you to make nine more of those l’s.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they know. Do you hear /l/ in luck or tuck? Left or right? Big or little? Lap or tap? Lick or tick? Well or dog? Say: let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /l/ in some words. Lick your lips /l/ if you hear /l/: The, lion, has, a, little, sister, named, Lane, who, likes, lime, green, lollipops.

7. “Say: "Let's look at a book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature called the lorax! The lorax is a creature who is trying to save trees from being cut down. Let’s see what happens and if he can save his home.” Read several pages of The Lorax. Then ask the children if they can invent their own word that starts with the letter L such as loofer or luppen.

8. Show Leg and model how to decide if it is leg or arm. The L tells me to have my tongue at the roof of my mouth, /l/ so this word is llll-eg, leg. You try some: LION: Lion or tiger? LIKE: Bike or like? LIZARD: Lizard or frog? LIGHT: Light or fight? FELT: Make or felt?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with L. 

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Reference:

Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963)

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Assessment worksheet:

https://www.myteachingstation.com/beginning-sound-of-the-letter-l