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Emergent Lesson

“Hoping Home with the Letter H”
Emergent Literacy Design | Sara Stewart
Rationale: This lesson will help the student identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn how to recognize the letter and sound /h/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy, finding /h/ in words, and applying phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Harriet Horribly Hops Home”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC; word cards with HOP, HIT, HAT, HELP, and HAND; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /h/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for- the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /h/. We spell /h/ with the letter H. H looks like a house, and /h/ sounds like we’re hopping on a hot day and out of breath. It sounds like /h/.
2. Let’s pretend we are hopping, /h/, /h/, /h/. [Demonstrate puffing chest] It sounds like were out of breath. We make the /h/ sound when out mouth is open, and we are breathing out.
3. Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word help. I’m going to stretch help out in slow motion and listen for the /h/ sound. Hh-e-e-lp. Slower: Hhh-e-e-e-l-p. There it was! I felt my mouth open and air come out.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister [on chart]. “Harriet Horribly Hops Home.” I want everyone to say with three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhharriet Hhhoribly Hhhops Hhhome.” Try it again, and this time break it off the words: “/h/arriet /h/orribly /h/ops /h/ome.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil] We use letter H to spell /h/. Capital H starts at the rooftop and go down for a wall, start again at the rooftop and go down to make another wall, and then cross at the fence. For lowercase h, start at the rooftop, come down, and hump over. I want to see everybody’s h. After I put a smiley face on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in hot or cold? happy or sad? hand or foot? horse or cow? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. Puff your chest if you hear /h/: head, hair, flower, hill, tug, bed, hit.
7. Say: “Let’s look an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a some funny animals. I wonder what funny creatures we will learn about today. Let’s read page 20 and 21 and draw out /h/. Remember, every time you hear /h/ to puff out your chest.” Ask them to make up their own creature with a silly name like “Hilly-Helpy-Handy”. Then have them write out their invented spelling of the creature’s name along with a picture of what the creature would look like.
8. Show HOP and model how to decide if it is hop or pop: The H tells me to open my mouth and breath out, /h/, so this word hhh-op, hop. Now you try some: HIT: hit or fit? HAT: hat or pat? HELP: help or kelp? HAND: hand or land?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students will trace the capital letter H as well as the lowercase letter h. Then they will color each picture that begins with H. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
References:
Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
Online version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmX7I88VQk
Abbigail Willis. Hiking Uphill with H! https://agwillis7.wixsite.com/mysite-3/emergent-literacy
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/insights/
Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-h_WFQTT.pdf
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