Lion, Lion Teacher Resources

Lion, Lion: Idea Starters

Summary: A clever boy searches for Lion. A hungry lion looks for lunch. Suspense builds until…the boy’s mischievous planned-all-along rescue of his good friend.

Visual Literacy: Readers must pay careful attention to both text and illustrations in this tale. Read for the main story arc. Read again to follow the journey of the wordless characters.

Understanding Point of View/ Using Inference:

• Notice body language, expressions, and character movements. What does each individual character think?
  
• Look at the last page. What do you think happens next?

Relating as a Reader:

• Who is the main character? Does he know how to solve his problem? What clues do you have?
  
• Were you surprised at any time during the story? If so, why?
  
• Have you ever had a misunderstanding? How did you solve it?
  
• Have you ever had a pet (or a little sibling!) get in trouble over and over?

Reading as a Writer:

• Discuss descriptive language.
  
• Instead of quotation marks, the text fonts and placement are specific to each character. Why do you think the author made this choice?
  
• The beginning and end of Lion Lion have similarities and differences. What are they?

Activity: Perform Lion, Lion: The Play!

• Props/ set: grass, mushrooms, berry bush, flowers, tree, flashlight, water bowls. For a small audience, supplies needed: poster-board, markers.
• Assign seven single roles: Boy, Lion (kitty), lion, Mew (mouse), Steller’s jay, hummingbird, and crocodile.
• Assign group roles: tortoises, hedgehogs, and skunks. Each group of animals may include many students.
• Ask students: What are the animals thinking during each scene in the book? Write these thoughts in a thought bubble on poster-board.
• Act out the scenes in the book. At each scene, the boy and lion speak, and the other characters hold up their cards.
• For a larger audience, the boy and lion first act out their parts, then fade back while the other characters stage-whisper their thoughts.