Emergent Literacy Design
Lots of Little Lions Lapping Lemonade: Teaching L with analogies and application
By Libby Mckee
Rationale: This lesson will provide students with additional help identifying the /l/ phoneme that is found in the letter L. We will start the lesson with the sound analogy (lapping something up with your tongue like a lion), then will practice finding /l/ in words, and ending by applying the phonemes with a tongue tickler and activity. The practices, lesson and activities will enable students to accurately identify the /l/ phoneme.
Materials: Primary paper and pencils; chart with /l/ phoneme examples and pictures of it in action, bottle of lemon juice, bag of sugar, measuring cups (one per group), tablespoon measuring cups (one per group), mixing bowls (one per group), mixing spoons (one per group), cups (one per student), 1 liter pitcher, 1 liter cup of water, color the lemonade stand coloring page, crayons, drawing paper with lion or blank paper.
Procedures: 1. Say: When we learn to read there are lots of letters, these letters make different sounds. Every letter looks different, and so do our mouths when we say these letters. Today we are learning about the sound /l/. We spell /l/ with the letter L. L looks like a ladle that holds lemonade and sounds like little lions lapping it up.
2. Alright little lions, let's lap up some lemonade. Take the cups at your desk and lets quietly pick them up. Without touching our friends next to us we are going to lap up water like lions. (/l/,/l/,/l/). See how when our tongue is at the end of our mouths it makes the /l/ sound?
3. Now friends sometimes /l/ is at the beginning of a word like (use a students name that starts with L or your own if applicable). Other times the /l/ sound comes after other sounds like Schoo-/llllll/ or te/ llllll/. See how at the end of those words my tongue came to the front of my teeth and near my lips like when lions are lapping from ladles?
4.Now I am going to tell you a story and I want you to listen. Leo was a little lion from Libya. Leo loved to play with his friends but Libya, where Leo lives, is very sunny. So when Leo leaves his friends and returns home to his mom she gives him a ladle full of lemonade “Libyan lion Leo laps lemonade from ladles.” Everybody say it three times super fast. Now everyone say it three times suuuuuper slow and give that L a big lion stretch “LLLLLLibyan LLLLLLion LLLLLLeo LLLLLLLaps LLLLLLLLLemonade from LLLLLLadles.”
5. (bring out a table with ingredients and distribute them to students) Now friends what do we thing we will be doing? (if unable to guess give prompts). Write Lemonade on the board and assign group members roles. (keep activity controlled by having one thing happen in groups at a time I.e. stirring all at once, measuring all at once etc.). Allow students to measure, then pour, then stir and then pour the mixture into the pitcher. Serve the lemonade to students to drink and instruct them to remember the steps for a story.
6. Give students coloring page to complete. Instruct students to color the letter “L” in lemonade in order to assess their ability to identify the letter L. After they have finished ask them about how they made the lemonade and make them raise their hands when they use an L word when describing how they made the lemonade.
7. We are going to read a book about a lion named Leo who is different than a lot of the other lions. Leo’s mom says he has to hunt to fit in but Leo likes to love and not hurt, What do we think is going to happen to Leo? (allow guesses). Now when we are done I want to see if any of you noticed any L words in the book and we will write them on the board when we are done.
8. Now I want you guys to have a pet Lion of your own (have students draw lions themselves or give them a sheet with a lion already on it). Now I want you to color or draw your lion and give it a name that starts with an L sound or has an L sound in it but the only rule is it can’t be named Leo since we all already have a lion friend named Leo.
9. Look at drawings and see if students correctly named their lions, then bring the class back to the carpet to test the class on ability to identify L by asking if words have L in it. Show LOG and DOG and ask them to identify which word presents them with a the /l/ sound and look like a ladle. Is this LIKE or BIKE? LAP or SAP?
Book: David Wojtowycz, Giled Andreae, Leo the Lovable Lion, Scholastic, 32.
Internet Site: Ms. Coleby, The Letter L: Let’s Make Lemonade, https://www.education.com/download/lesson-plan/lets-make- lemonade-the-letter-l/lets-make-lemonade-the-letter-l.pdfJournal: Author, year, title, journal, volume, and pages.