Sarah Hassett
Say Hello to Harry the Hawk!
Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words through the meaningful representation of holding their hands up to their mouth, as if they are warming up their hands when it is cold out, and the letter symbol H, practice finding /h/ in words; they will learn to apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
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Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; "Harry the hawk has a hat" written in a large format (smartboard, whiteboard, etc.); drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); PowerPoint slides with HOG, HIT, MEET, FIND, HOME, and HATE; assessment worksheet practice writing H and h, as well as identifying pictures that start with /h/ (URL below); Horton Hears a Who (Random House, 1954).
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Procedures:
1. Our written language is like a secret code, and the letters of the alphabet tell us what the letters stand for; they way our mouth moves is the way we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /h/. We spell /h/ with letter H. H looks like you're holding up your hands in front of your face, and you cup your hands together to cover your mouth to warm them up. When we do this we make the sound /h/.
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2. Let's pretend that we are really cold and we want to warm our hands up. We bring our hands towards our mouth to warm them up by making the /h/ sound; now do it with me: /h/, /h/, /h/. Do you feel how your tongue is spread out at the bottom of your mouth and the tip of your tongue is touching the back of your bottom teeth? (Point to lower teeth where tongue should be). Now, when we say /h/, we blow air out of our mouth over the top of our tongue; /h/, /h/, /h/.
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3. Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word have. I'm going to stretch have out in super slow motion so we can listen for the sound of warming up my hands. Hh-a-a-vve. Slower: Hhh-a-a-a-vvv-ve. There it was! I felt my tongue touch the back of my bottom teeth as I blew air over it. I can feel my hands warming up with /h/ in have.
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4. Let's try our tongue twister [on chart]. " Harry the hawk has his hat." Everybody say it with me three times. Okay! Now say it again, but this time we are going to stretch the /h/ at the beginning of the words with /h/. "Hhhhharry the hhhhawk hhhhas hhhis hhhhat." Let’s try it again, but this time break it off the word: "/h/arry the /h/awk /h/as /h/is /h/at.
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5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter H to spell /h/. Capital H looks like when you bring your hands together and towards your mouth to warm them up. Now we are going to write the lowercase letter h. Start just at the rooftop and go straight down to the ground. Then come back up just before the fence and then curve it over so it hits the fence, then bring it straight back down. I want to see everybody's h. After I put a star sticker on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
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6. Call on students to answer and ask them how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in hog or dog? hat or bat? down or happy? when or said? when or cat? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. Hold your hands to your mouth like we’ve been doing if you hear /h/: The, happy, hungry, puppy, had, a, ham, for, dinner.
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7. Now we are going to read the Alphabet book by Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss tells us all about funny creatures beginning with /h/! [Read page about the letter H, drawing out the /h/.] Can you think of words that start with /h/? [call on children to answer].
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8. Remember our friend Harry the hawk? Now we are going to draw Harry the hawk in his hat! [Children should be given their drawing paper and take out their crayons]
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9. Pull up PowerPoint slide (make sure it’s colorful!) and start with HOG and model how to decide if it is hog or dog: The H tells me to put my hands towards my mouth to warm them up, /h/, so this word is hhh-og, hog. You try some: HIT: hit or fit? MEET: feet or meet? FIND: find or mind? HOME: storm or home? HATE: hate or ate?
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10. For the assessment, distribute the worksheet (link below). Students should write H and h two to three more times (at your digression). Students will then circle the pictures that start with /h/. If there is extra time, students should color in the pictures that begin with /h/. Once all students have completed the worksheet, use the PowerPoint and call on children individually and ask them what each word is.
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11. (Optional) Read Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss.
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References:
Internet site: Sarah Jane Brock, Fishing Frenzy
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html
Resources:
http://www.sightwordsgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Letter-H-Worksheet-6.pdf
