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Huffing, Puffing, and Hopping with the Letter H
Emergent Literacy Design
By: Maggie Van Thullenar

Rationale:

This lesson will help children identify /h/ in both spoken and written words. This phoneme is represented by H. Students will use the sound analogy of a heavy breathing (huffing out of breath) to understand and recognize H in spoken words. Children will find /h/ in words by applying phoneme awareness in phonetic cue reading and by connecting rhyming words and differentiating between previously learned beginning letters. This lesson will build upon itself for the teacher to move forward into teaching the phoneme /th/. 

 

Materials:

Primary paper, drawing paper, pencils, and colored markers; clearly defined print with the tongue ticker of “Henry the hare hopped halfway up the hill”; “Hilda Hen’s Scary Night”, by Mary Wormell; stickers; word flashcards with HOP, HAMMER, HOUSE, HAT, LAMP, and CAB. I will also download a worksheet for identifying /h/ → URL at bottom of page. 

 

Procedures

  1. Say: Today we are going to learn all about the letter H and how our mouths move when we see and say H in a word. We spell /h/ with the letter H. H sounds like when you are tired and out of breath after exercising, huffing and puffing.../h/ /h/ /h/. 

  2. Say: Now, we are going to pretend to be a tired hare, hopping, and huffing and puffing out of breath. Imagine that you are a little hare being chased by a big tiger. We have to hop away very fast and we’re very tired (pant heavily and put hand on chest). We would make the sound: /h/,/h/,/h/. (Pantomime is putting hands up near the chest while breathing heavily).
    Now, I’m going to show you what your mouth looks like while saying H. Put your hand on your chest and exhale really heavily. Your mouth should be slightly open, pushing air from your lungs out past your lips. Feel how your chest pushes out and the air comes out. 

  3. Say: Now we are going to look for H in the next couple of words. Listen to see if you can try to hear /h/ in hop. I am going to sound it out slowly and listen if you can hear if I sound out of breath in hop. H-h-h-h-h-h-ooooooo-ppppppp. Wow! I was huffing and puffing out of breath. Did you hear that?

  4. Say: I have a silly sentence for us to hear /h/ and practice saying H (show clear visual of the chart with printed tongue tickler). Tommy Tortoise and Henry Hare were going to have a race up the hill. Henry Hare took off right after the start whistle blew but he didn’t train for the race so he quickly ran out of energy. Henry Hare only made it halfway to the finish line. Henry Hare hopped halfway up the hill. Now I want everyone to repeat after me! Now, we are going to say it all together but huff and puff to hear the H in the words. We are going to huff three times every time you hear /h/. Okay, ready? /H/ /h/ /h/enry /h/ /h/ /h/are /h/ /h/ /h/opped /h/ /h/ /h/alfway up the /h/ /h/ /h/ill. Awesome job! There are lots of Hs and huffing and puffing in that sentence. Let’s say the sentence one more time but break the H off of the rest of the word. /H/ enry /h/ are /h/ opped /h/ alfway up the /h/ ill. So proud of you guys! 

  5. (Students will then take out primary paper and pencils) Say: Okay guys! We know what H sounds like, but now we are going to work on writing it together! A lowercase H looks like a chair while an uppercase H looks like the top of a ladder! Let me show you how to write an H and then we’ll write it together. A lowercase H (teacher draws on large primary paper for all students to see) starts on the top line, drops all the way to the bottom like we ran out of energy, then take a deep breath as our line goes halfway up and exhale as it loops around and back down to the bottom line. We drop, huff halfway up and puff back down to the bottom. To make an uppercase H we draw two lines from the top all the way down and connect them in the middle. Drop, drop, across. I want you to try to write one uppercase H and one lowercase h, then raise your hand so I can check to make sure they look good! When I say that your two Hs look good, I want you to try to write 5 of each. Five uppercase and five lowercase Hs. 

  6. A quick little check is presented where I will call on the students to tell me if they hear /h/ in the words presented and how they know. Say: Now I am going to read you some words, if you hear the letter H in any of these words I want you to raise your hand and hop like a hare when I call on you and tell me what word has H in it? Do you hear /h/ in hammer or screw? Dorm or house? Lock or lamp? Cab or hat? As a class we are going to do this next activity together. Hop every time you hear an H in this sentence okay? I went to the hotel and said “hello” to the hungry hippos.

  7. Now we are going to read a book called “Hilda Hen’s Scary Night”, by Mary Wormell. This is one of my favorite books! In this book, Hilda Hen falls asleep under a bush and has to make it home, encountering many challenges and scary predators along the way. To find out if Hilda Hen makes it home safe, we have to read the book all together! (Reading the book out loud, we will go through and look specifically for words with H). https://youtu.be/M4lvHjqx7kc → read aloud Hilda Hen. I will then ask my students to draw one more thing that Hilda Hen encountered in the night and how she got away! This is just a fun break activity and will work on their invented spellings. 

  8. Using large word cards and letter tiles, on the board, write out HOT. Have the students determine if it is HOT or DOT. Raising their hand, have them justify why it is HOT. Say: /h/ /o/ /t/ spells hot. We know this because I huff and puff and my lungs blow out hot air and my chest rises (hand on chest) when I say /h/ in hot. Now you guys try! HAND: Hand or sand? HORN: Torn or horn? HEAT: Meat or heat?

  9. Assessment: Distribute the worksheet below. Students will fill in the first letter and color the picture if it begins with H. Make sure that the students are not writing H for all of the answers and check on their progress by walking around. Reward with stickers when the worksheet is done correctly and completely. 

 

References: 

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