Emergent Literacy | delightful-reading

Henry Hops His Hurdle

Emergent Literacy Design

Rationale: This lesson is made to help students learn /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will become familiar with this sound by picking out words with /h/, [apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters] and pretending to hold the reigns and help Henry hop his hurdle!

Materials: Picture of a horse jumping a hurdle and a person running. Dry erase board and markers or SmartBoard with pens. Primary paper and pencils. The book Hungry Hen, by Richard Waring. Construction paper and crayons. Notecards with hope, dream, horse, goat, help, hall, felt, hand, hair, book, haze, and pocket written on them.

Procedures:

“Today we are going to explore how to recognize /h/ in words that start with h. Notice our horse, Henry, standing at the H like a hurdle for him to hop over. Our next picture is a runner. She has been running a long time and is really tired. She makes the /h/ sound. Make sure to pay close attention to the shape of your mouth when we say a word with h in it.”
“Pretend you have been running and are out of breath. What sound do you make? /h/, /h/, /h/. Notice that your mouth is round and you are blowing out air with your chest. Now hold the reins on your horse and help him huff his way over the hurdle.” (Bring wrists up and down while demonstrating /h/.)
“Let’s find the /h/ in hot. Stretch it out. Hh-o-t. We found it at the beginning when our mouth is round and we make the panting noise.”
“Let’s try a tongue tickler! Hannah’s horse hopped the high fence. Say it with me, Hannah’s horse hopped the high fence. Let’s stretch out our /h/, and remember to use your reins!” (Hold hands out front to remind them.) “Hhhannah’s hhhorse hhhopped the hhhigh fence. Do you feel the air pushing out? Try it this way, too. ‘/h/ annah’s /h/ orse /h/ opped the /h/ igh fence.’”
Have students take out primary paper. Explain H and h represent /h/. “Let’s practice writing our hs.” Teacher demonstrates at the board while telling students, “Start at the rooftop and draw a line straight down to your sidewalk, and then curve it back up to the fence, make your arch to bring it back down to the sidewalk. Keep practicing while I walk around to see everyone’s hs.”
“Now that we know what h sounds like and what /h/ looks like, let’s figure out which words have h and /h/.” Use list: hot or rock, hat or wrap, hen or lit, hairy or berry, high or low.
Introduce Hungry Hen by Richard Waring to students.

“This story tells about a fox that watches a hen every morning. He has a plan to eat the hen once she gets really big and juicy. The fox goes a long time without eating a lot, so when he finally decides to attack … what do you think happens?” Have students illustrate what they think will happen and write their conclusion. If time allows, have students present their version to the class.

Have word cards to further phoneme awareness practice. Most cards should have /h/, but have a few that do not. “Alright friends, I am going to read the word on the notecard and you are going to help Henry hop his hurdle if the word has /h/. Let’s get our arms out ready to go. Our first word is hall. [Students whip their imaginary reigns.] Wonderful job hearing that h! ” Words for students to decode: horse, goat, help, hall, felt, hand, hair, book, haze, hope, dream and pocket.
Students will complete the worksheet by identifying the objects that start with h as a class. Teacher will call on students to identify an object and the teacher will write the object's name on the board. Students will color the identified objects.
Students may also study in small groups with flashcards. While students are working teacher can take time to assess individuals and update the class record with provided resources 2 and 3.

References:

https://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Phonic-Assessment-Flashcards-6018211

https://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Letters-and-Sounds-Assessment-Sheets-3007223/

https://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Phonic-Assessment--class-record-6033096

Waring, Richard. Hungry Hen. Harper Collins. Pub 18 Dec 2001.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/hungry-hen#cart/cleanup.

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/alphabet/picturealphabet-h.pdf

Courtney Macurdy, "Bbbb-eautiful Butterfly"