Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /h/, the phenome represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a real-world sound analogy (fanning their mouth) and the letter symbol H, practice finding /h/ in words, and apply phenome awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

 

Materials: Primary paper and pencil, word cards with HUG, HEN, HAND, CART, and HASH, worksheet for assessment tracing Hh and identifying pictures with /h/ (URL below), crayons, chart with “Harry had a horrible headache and hated to hear Henry howl”, A Giraffe and A Half by Shel Silverstein.

 

Procedure:

1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. We have to play detective and figure out what the letters stand for. When we say words, our mouth moves and makes different shapes. Today, we’re going to work on spotting what happens to our mouth when we say /h/. We spell /h/ with the letter H. The word hot starts with the letter H and makes the sound /h/. When you eat food that is too hot, you make the sound /h/.

2. Say: Let’s pretend we just got a big spoonful of really hot soup. Make the sound /h/, /h/, /h/, and fan your mouth. When we say /h/, we open our mouth and blow air out.

3. Say: Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word him. I’m going to stretch him out in super slow motion and I want you to listen for the /h/ sound like I ate some hot food. Hh-ii-mm. Slower: Hhh-iii-mmm. I heard it! I felt my lips stretch apart, my mouth was open, and I pushed air out. Now I know how to find the /h/ sound in him.

4. Say: Let’s try a tickler tale. My friend Harry gets Horrible headaches. His little borther Henry is very loud. He was playing outside Harry’s window and howled at the sun. Our tickler tale is this: “Harry had a horrible headache and hated to hear Henry howl.” Let’s all say it together three times. Now, let’s say it again and stretch out the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhhharry hhhad a hhhorrible hhhhheadache and hhhated to hhhear Hhhenry hhhowl.” Try it again, and this time break it off of the word: “/h/arry /h/ad a /h/orrible /h/eadache and /h/ated to /h/ear/ /h/enry /h/owl.”

5. (Have students take out primary paper and a pencil.) We use the letter h to spell the /h/ sound. Capital H looks like a hurdle that a horse would jump over. Let’s practice writing a lowercase h. Start just below the rooftop line and keep a straight line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then at the fence, draw a hump like a camel’s back going up and over, and back down to the sidewalk. Everybody practice writing h and I will come around to look. After I check you off, practice writing nine more h’s.

6. Call out words to sentence and ask them where they hear the /h/. When they get it write, ask them how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in school or home? hop or jump? lose or have? hit or sit? listen or hear? Say: Let’s see if you can spot the mouth movement /h/ in some words. Fan your mouth like you ate hot soup if you hear the /h/: hum, rub, hut, tub, run, hurt, behind, help,

7. Say: “Let’s look at a book for some examples. In A Giraffe and a Half, a little boy and his giraffe friend wear and do all sorts of silly things. Let’s read to see what they get into.” Read the book drawing out /h/. Instruct the students that when the students hear the /h/ sound they should make the fanning mouth for hot food hand gesture. When the book is over, ask them for some words they heard with the /h/ sound.

8. Show the word HUT and model how to decide if it is hut or cut. The H tells me to pretend I ate some hot soup, /h/, so this word is hhh-ut, hut. You try some: HUG: hug or rug? HEN: hen or pen? HAND: sand or hand? CART: cart or heart? HASH: hash or cash? Call on students to answer and ask how they knew what word it was.

9. For assessment, pass out the worksheet. Students are to read the selection of words, circle the correct ending they have in common, and write a short o word shown in the picture. 

 

References:

 

Elizabeth Bennett, Bounce Ball for B https://elizabethbennett79.wixsite.com/lessondesigns17/emergent-literacy

 

Worksheet URL: https://twistynoodle.com/trace-the-words-that-begin-with-the-letter-h-worksheet/  

 

Book: Silverstein, Shel. A Giraffe and A Half. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1964. Print.

 

Graphic: https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-hot-food-illustration-man-eat-image34597845 

 

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