Huffing Hounds with H

Emergent Literacy Design

Emma Pincheon

 

Rationale: This lesson will help students identify /h/, the phoneme represented by h. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (huffing, out of breath 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: primary paper and pencil, chart with “Harry had a horrible headache and hated to hear Henry howl.”, drawing paper and crayons/markers, Old Hat, New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain (Random House, 1970), word cards with home, hot, hat, hug, husk, tall, hump, sand, assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /h/.

 

Procedures:

 

1. Today we are going to learn about the letter h. We’re going to work on spotting the mouth move /h/. We spell /h/ with the letter H. H sounds like a panting dog that was running really fast and is huffing because he is tired with his mouth open which sounds like /h/.

 

2. Let me show how to sound like a huffing dog that is breathing really heavy, /h/, /h/, /h/. Open your mouth and push air out from your stomach and try to keep your tongue in your mouth. It should sound like you are panting and breathing out air.

 

3. Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word hen. I’m going to stretch hen out in super slow motion and listen for the huffing dog sound. Hhh- e-e- n. Slower: Hhh- e-e-e-n. There it was! I kept my mouth open and pushed air from my stomach out and sounded like a huffing dog. Huffing hound /h/ is in hen.

 

4. Let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). Henry was pretending to be a coyote howling at the moon, but Harry wasn’t feeling very well so he was getting very upset when Henry was yelling really loud. Here is out tickler: “Harry had a horrible headache and hated to hear Henry howl.” Let’s repeat it together. Everyone say that two more times. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhharry hhhad a hhhorrible hhheadache and hhhated to hhhear Hhhenry hhhowl”. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/h/ arry /h/ ad a /h/ orrible /h/ eadache and /h/ ated to /h/ ear /h/ enry /h/owl”.

 

5. (Have students take out primary paper and a pencil). We use letter H to spell /h/. First, we will write uppercase H. Start at the rooftop and bring a straight line down to the sidewalk. Do the same thing with another line with a small space in between. Then, connect the two lines with a line in the middle going across the fence space. Let’s write lowercase h which looks like a tongue of the huffing dog. Start with a line at the rooftop and bring it to the sidewalk. Then, make a curved line from the fence of that line to the sidewalk which makes lowercase h. After I come check everyone’s letter, I want you to make nine more just like it.

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in hat or purse? cold or hot? happy or sad? home or park? kiss or hug? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words: Hank, went, hunting, for, some, heavy, hares, in, the, haunted, forest.

 

7. Let’s look at this book that helps us practice the letter /h/. We are going to read Old Hat New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain. A bear is looking for the perfect hat because his hat now is too old. Will he be able to find a perfect new hat with the help of his bear friends? Read aloud and show pictures. Then have each student on a sheet of paper write about what their perfect hat would look like and draw a picture of it. Display their work.

 

8. Use word cards and show HUG and model how to decide if it’s bug or hug: The H tells me to breath out heavy like a dog, /h/, so this word is hhh-ug, hug. You try some: HOME: home or dome? HOT: lot or hot? HAT: cat or hat? HUSK: husk or tusk? TALL: tall or hall? HUMP: bump or hump? SAND: hand or sand?

 

9. For assessment, distribute worksheet. Students circle the pictures that begin with H. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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​References:

 

• Murray, Bruce. "Brush Your Teeth with F." 

• McCarley, Autumn, “Huffing H” https://afs0024.wixsite.com/mrsmccarley/emergent-literacy

•  Berenstain, S., & Berenstain, J. (1970). Old Hat, New Hat. New York: Random House. 

• Assessment Worksheet: https://twistynoodle.com/circle-the-words-that-begin-with-h-worksheet/

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