Caroline Goodson's Literacy Designs 

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy, practice finding /h/ in words, apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters, and by listening to the teacher read a decodable book aloud.

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Materials: Images of horses, individual letterboxes, letter tiles: h (2), a, n, d, o, t, m, e, u, g, r, c, and i, coverup critter, primary paper, pencil, chart with tongue tickler, list of spelling words: hand, hot, home, hug, heart, chat, high, hang, the decodable book, Hullabaloo at the Zoo! (Teacher will read this book aloud to students). And lastly, the worksheet we will use for assessment, linked at the bottom of the page!

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The secret, tricky part is figuring out what the letters stand for. Today, we are going to learn the /h/ sound. The letter H makes the /h/ sound. It looks like a horse and it makes the same huffing sound that a horse makes.

2. Say: Let’s all pretend we are happy, hopping horses. Stand up beside your seat, move your body up and down to where you are making little hops, and then, make a h-h-h-huffing sound, just like a horse. When we make the /h/ /h/ /h/ sound like a horse, our teeth do not touch. Every time we make the /h/ sound, we open our mouths and push air out to produce the sound. 

3. Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word chat. I am going to stretch the word hot out in a super slow motion, and I want you to listen for the huffing horse. Hhh-ooo-ttt. Could you hear the horse sound? Slower, Hhhh-oooo-tttt. There it is! I know it is there because I had to push the air out of my mouth, and when I did that I was making the huffing sound!

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). “Harvey the Happy, Hopping, Horse.” There once was a horse named Harvey, and he was a very happy horse! When he was happy, he would huff, huff, huff, and hop, hop, hop. One day, Harvey the happy, hopping, huffing horse huffed and hopped all the way home. Here’s our tickler, “Harvey the Happy, Hopping, Huffing Horse.” Everyone is going to say it three times together. Now, let’s say it again but stretch the /h/ out so we can hear it. “Hhhharvey the hhhhappy, hhhhopping, hhhhuffing hhhhorse.” This time, we are going to break the /h/ off of the word. “/H/arvey the /h/appy, /h/opping /h/uffing /h/orse.”

5. (Have students get out primary paper and pencil.) We use the letter H to spell /h/. Capital H looks a little bit like a standing horse. Let’s write our lowercase h,. We start at tip-top in the sky where the sun is and draw a line down to the ground where the garden is, then starting at the bottom of your line in the garden, draw a curve that goes halfway between the sunny sky, and the garden on the ground, and your curved line will go back straight, and end back in the garden. Now you try! After I put a smiley face on it, I want you to write nine more just like it!

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in hand or toe? High or low? Hope or smile? Hard or soft? Happy or sad?  Say: I am going to hold up some cards with words on them. If you see or hear a /h/ in the word, hop like a horse. (Hold up cards): Harvey, Hop, Hit, Bug, House, Horse

7. Give book talk for Hullabaloo at the Zoo! The zoo is a pretty cool place, but have you ever wondered what the animals do at night when the zoo-keepers go home? In this story, we will meet lots of animals, Drew the Donkey, twin Chimps, a Calf named Cassie, and many more. But what is it that they are up to? What do you think the animals do when they are left alone? Do they throw a party? Sleep? Run around and play? Let's read to find out! While we read this book, I will challenge the students to hop like a horse they hear the /h/ sound. (Students will not read this book individually, rather listen to the teacher read it. Ask questions while reading the book aloud to maintain students focus on the book). 

8. Show the word HAT and model how to decide if it is hat or mat: The H tells me to hop and huff like a horse, /h/. This word is hhh-at, hat. Now you try a few! Heat: heat or seat? House: house or mouse? Hang: hang or rang? Hen: hen or ten?

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color each picture that begins with the letter H. Call on specific students to individually practice the phonetic cue words from step #8. - If the kids seem to be catching on quickly, feel free to have them complete the other worksheets in the PDF, if time permits. 

 

References:

Assessment Worksheet: https://easypeasylearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Letter-H-Worksheet-Set.pdf

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Hullabaloo at the Zoo! Read Aloud Book Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmStnE788qE

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Hullabaloo at the Zoo! Book Link to Order: https://www.amazon.com/Hullabaloo-Zoo-French-Zanna-Davidson/dp/1474958729

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Ellison Brewster's Emergent Literacy Design: https://ellisonbrewster.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/emergent-literacy

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Click *HERE* to return to solutions!

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