Lotis, the Word Factory
Lotis wiht Marco, EC, Raph and Nipper.
Lift Off
Level: Kindergarten/Preschool to Year 2
KLA outcomes:

English
Theme: Narrative Structure
Description:
These activities engage students in the playfulness of the English language. They play with words while learning about word meanings.

Resources:

Video: Any Lotis segment in Lift Off.

Lotis is in every episode of Lift Off. Lotis is the lift in the apartment building and when the Lift Off children, unaccompanied by adults, enter the lift her screen lights up and she communicates with them. She is able to work like a dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus. Her screen illustrates her thinking visually. She is always learning from the children as well as she grapples with concepts like love, metaphors like raining cats and dogs and feelings. She reveals the wit and complexity of words and language.
Also:
Lift Off to language has a selection of Lotis segments.
Lift Off to personal growth contains Learning with Lotis.

See Education Catalogue for video purchasing details and order form.

Other: a large packing box

Lesson plan:

Analyse Lotis

Discuss the various roles that Lotis performs for the Lift Off children, ie: thesaurus, dictionary, encyclopedia, rhyming words, jokes, word families. Imagine what it would be like to have Lotis in the classroom.

Create some jokes

Lotis loves "knock, knock" jokes. Analyse the structure of "knock, knock" jokes and, as a class group, make up your own. This could be done in small groups with students giving feedback and working to develop each other's ideas. If the students find this difficult at first it may be useful to give them some starters, ie: all but the last line of a "knock, knock" joke.

Create a Lotis

Set up a 'Lotis' in the room. A big, strong packing box would be ideal. Peg up a class-made dictionary, thesaurus or use commercial ones. It may be possible to set up a computer so that the screen is visible through the wall. Load some spelling and word games on the computer for the students to use. Add word lists that are developed for activities, eg: words for a science topic. Change the resources regularly. Monitor the use of Lotis.

Students each make a Lotis book and develop word banks, eg: opposites, commonly-used words, family names, action words

Fun with words

Ask the students to think of as many descriptions for an object as possible, eg: when Lotis first sees a spider she describes it as a land octopus, two very small animals.

Individual activity

Students select two objects to illustrate. Display the illustrations on the wall.

Confuse Lotis

List all the phrases that the students know that could confuse Lotis, eg: 'What a cool idea!', 'It's a nice day, not!' Students then explain what the sayings actually mean.