Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (panting dog) and the letter symbol H, practice finding /h/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

​

Materials:

1. Primary paper (rooftop, fence, sidewalk, ditch)

2. Pencil

3. Chart with Hank’s hairy dog Harvy howls

4. Drawing paper

5. Crayons

6. Alphabet Song - Alphabet ‘H’ Song - English song for Kids

7. Handwriting Practice- Letter H Worksheet

8. Word card list with: HORSE, COURSE, HOME, COMB, HOT, NOT

​

Procedures:

1.  Say “Our language is like a secret code. The tricky part is how our mouths move as we say different words and letters. Today we are going to talk about how our mouths move to make the sound of the letter H. We spell /h/ with the letter H and we do this by opening our mouths and huffing like a tired dog.”

2. Say “Let’s pretend we are a tired dog who really needs some water /h/ /h/ /h/. Now let’s try to find /h/ in the word horse. I’m going to stretch it out in slow motion, and you listen for the huffing dog. h-h-h-ow-ow-s-s-s. I felt my mouth open, and my lungs breathe out like a huffing dog, did you?”

3. Say: “Let’s try a tongue tickler. Hank has a dog who barks anytime he sees a person he doesn’t know. Every new face he sees (here comes the tongue tickler) Hank’s hairy dog Harvy howls. Now let’s say it again, and this time, stretch the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhhank’s hhhairy dog Hhharvy hhhowls. Try it again, and this time break it off the word. /H/ anks /h/ airy dog /H/ arvy /h/ owls.”

4. (Have students get out primary paper) Say: “Now let’s write the letter H. To write the capital letter H we make two lines all the way from the rooftop to the sidewalk and then connect them with a line connecting them using the fence. Now let’s write the lowercase h. Start with a line at the rooftop and bring it down to the sidewalk. Then, make a curved line from the fence of that line to the sidewalk to complete the lowercase h.”

5. Now let’s see if the students can hear the letter h when I say it. Say: “Do you hear /h/ in horse or course? Home or comb? Hot or not? Now let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. Huff when you hear /h/: home, pea, torch, hose, mouse, hate, heal.”

6. Let’s learn about the letter H from a video. (Link below)

7. Say: “Let’s look at a book that will help us learn the letter H. In this book, the author tells us about a boy named Little H. Little H has a box that he fills with all his favorite things. Let’s read to find out what Little H puts in his box.” Ask them to make up a silly name starting with the letter H. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture about their silly name. Display their work.

8. Show HAIR model displaying how to decide if it is hair or fair. The H tells me to huff so it’s h-h-hair. Now I am going to let you try some. HOG: hog or log? HALL: back or hall? HALF: half or scat?

9. For Assessment hand out worksheet on how to write the letter H. (Link below)

​

​

• Reference: Jase Phillips, Vacuum the Letter /V/  https://jasep18.wixsite.com/my-site/emergent-literacy

• Alphabet Song - Alphabet ‘H’ Song - English song for Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4LA1VtPPUQ

• Handwriting Practice- Letter H Worksheet:

https://www.kindergartenworksheets.net/handwriting-practice-worksheets/letter-h-writing-practice-worksheet.html

• My H Book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llt8MafQaV8