READING FLUENTLY WITH MS. FIELDS
Running H-H-Hard!
Emergent Literacy Design
Rationale:
Before children can to learn to read and spell words, they must be able to identity letters and the phoneme they represent. This lesson will help children identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation (panting when running hard while using running arm movements) and the letter symbol H, practice finding /h/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with/h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing from beginning letters.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencils;
Chart with the tongue tickler, “Henry the Hippo had a happy holiday”;
1 pack of smiley stickers;
Eric Carle’s A House for Hermit Crab (Simon Spotlight, 1987);
Letter wand for each student (made with a wooden dowel with a star on top);
Word cards with HOT, LEDGE, HAM, DEN, HUSH
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language can be very confusing! It’s like a secret code and we have to figure out how to break the code. We do this by learning what letters stand for. Letters stand for how our mouth moves when we say words. Today we’re going to learn how to move our mouth and say /h/. We spell /h/ with the letter H. When we say H it looks like we’re outside running on a hot day! When we breath really quickly because we are out of breath, it sounds like /h/.
2. Let’s pretend we’re outside running on a hot day, /h/, /h/, /h/. [Pantomime pumping running arms]. When we say /h/, our mouth is fully open and we breathe out.
3. Now let me show you how to find /h/ in the word hand. I’m going to stretch hand out in super slow motion and I want you to listen for my running breathing. H-h-a-a-and. Now I’ll say it even slower: H-h-h-a-a-a-nnn-d-d-d. There it was! I felt my mouth fully open as air came out of my mouth, /h/, like someone running hard.
4. Let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]! “Henry the hippo had a happy holiday.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, but this time, stretch out the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhhhenry the hhhhippo hhhhad a hhhhappy hhhholiday.” Good! Now try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/h/enry the /h/ippo /h/ad a /h/appy /h/oliday.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter H to spell /h/. For capital H, start at the rooftop and go down for a wall, down for 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 sticker on your work, I want you to make 9 more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in heavy or light? House or street? Pig or horse? Hot or cold? Low or high? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. Pump your running arms if you hear /h/: home, hair, bug, hotdog, helmet, pink, bike, horn, fly, hawk.
7. Say: “Alright! Now let's all gather around so that we can read a book. The title of our book is called A House for Hermit Crab and the author is Eric Carle. What /h/ sounds do you hear in the title of this book? I hear that house and hermit both have the /h/ sound. Poor Hermit Crab! He's outgrown his snug little shell, so he finds himself a larger one – and he also finds many new friends to decorate and protect his new house. But what will happen when he outgrows this shell, and has to say goodbye to all the sea creatures who have made Hermit Crab's house a home? As we read the book, I want you to remember earlier when we talked about blowing /h/ sound like when you are running hard. Every time you hear the /h/ sound, I want you to silently raise your letter wand and then put it down. (Read the book together).
8. Show HOT and model how to decide if it is hot or lot. “Let’s see, the H tells me to pant like I’m running hard, /h/, so this word is hhh-ot, hot. Now you try some! LEDGE: ledge or hedge? HAM: ham or bam? DEN: hen or den? HUSH: mush or hush? HEAR: hear or clear?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Have students complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with H. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
Reference:
Anna Kyser, Panting in the hhhot sun
http://annakyserlessondesigns.weebly.com/emergent-literacy.html
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/h-begins2.htm
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