About this activity
Ten short phrases with /l/ at the start of more than one word: a little lamb, lick the lollipop, a long ladder, look at the lake, a loud lion, light the lamp, a lucky leaf, listen to the leader, a lazy lizard, load the laundry. Phrase level is the step between single words and sentences, and it is the one most often skipped.
How to use it in a session
Take the two-target phrases first — a little lamb, a long ladder — before the ones with three, like listen to the leader. The point is holding the sound across a boundary between words, which is where single-word accuracy usually starts to slip. Say it, have the student repeat, then have them produce it looking at the picture rather than after your model. Five minutes covers the ten.
What to listen for
Listen for the second target. Almost every student holds the sound on the first /l/ in a phrase and loses it on the second, and that pattern is the whole reason phrase level exists as a step. Watch lick the lollipop, which has three targets in three words and is the hardest here.
Carrying it home
A phrase is short enough to actually use at home. Asking a child to say a little lamb five times is a task a family can complete, unlike a page of sentences.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Kindergarten through third, for students accurate on /l/ in single words.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all ten phrases play with no account.
- Why practise phrases rather than going straight to sentences?
- Because the drop from words to sentences is large. A phrase adds one boundary and one extra target, which is a step most students can take when a full sentence is still out of reach.