Pant like a Dog with Letter H
Emergent Literacy
Chelsea Hall
Rationale: This lesson will help students recognize the phoneme /h/ represented by H. Students will learn to recognize the phoneme /h/ by the representation of a tired dog “huffing and puffing for breath” and they will learn the letter symbol H. They will practice finding /h/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading.
Materials:
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Primary paper
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Pencil
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Poster with the tongue tickler “Hilda Hippo hates to hear Harry the hyena heckle”
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Book- Harry the Dirty Dog by: Gene Zion
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Crayons
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Activity- Color the Picture that Starts with the Letter H (Link Below)
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Word cards (cardstock) with the words HEART, BIRD, HAND, HAT, WELD
Procedures:
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It is tricky trying to learn what letters stand for, it is like a secret code. Today we are going to learn about the letter H. Today we are going to focus on the way our mouth moves when we pronounce the letter H, /h/. Imagine a dog after they go running and they are tired and out of breath. The sound that dogs make when they are panting for air makes the /h/ sound.
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“Let’s pretend to be a tired dog, /h/, /h/, /h/ (mouth opened wide, breathing heavily). Notice that while you are doing this your mouth is opened and when you breathe out the /h/ sound forms.
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Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word hop. I’m going to stretch out the word hop very slowly and I want you to listen for the panting dog. Hhh- ooo- ppp. Slower: hhhhhh- oooooo- pppppp. Did you feel the air leaving my mouth at the beginning of the word?
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Now I want you to listen carefully to the following words and pick the word that has /h/. Ready? Do you hear /h/ in hot or cold? Sad or happy? Hit or kick? Jump or hop? Great Job everyone!
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Now let’s try a tongue tickler to listen for the /h/ sound. “Hilda Hippo hates to hear Harry the hyena hackle.” We are all going to say it together three times. Now say it again, and exaggerate the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhhhilda hhhhippo hhhhates to hhhhear Hhhharry the hhhhyena hhhhackle.” Great job. This time when you say it break the /h/ off the word “/h/ilda /h/ippo /h/ates to /h/ear /h/arry the /h/yena /h/ackle.”
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(Take out primary paper and pencil) To write the /h/ sound we use the letter H. Start at the rooftop and move down to the sidewalk in a straight line. Then move over a little and draw another line from the rooftop to the sidewalk. Now we are going to connect these two lines by drawing a line through the fence. Now let’s write the lowercase letter h. Make a line from the rooftop to the sidewalk like we did in the capital H. Now on that line we are going to start at the fence and make a hump down to the sidewalk.
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Today we are going to read the book Harry the Dirty Dog. While I am reading, whenever you hear the /h/ sound, I want you to pant like a dog would. Harry absolutely hates bath time. One day he hears the tub running and he buries the scrub brush in the back yard. After he buries the scrub brush in the backyard he goes on an adventure. He gets so dirty on his adventure that his family doesn’t recognize who he is anymore. Let’s read to find out what happens to Harry. Have the students use invented spelling to write a sentence about a place that he went on his adventure.
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Show HAT and model how to decide whether it is HAT or CAT. The H at the beginning reminds me of a tired dog panting, /h/, /h/, /h/. Hhhhat, so this must be hat not cat. You try some, HEART: is this heart or tart, BIRD: is this bird or heard, HAND: is this hand or land, WELD: is this weld or held.
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For assessment, distribute worksheet. Have the students color all the pictures that begin with the letter H. Go over the worksheet with the class, calling on students to say what they colored and how they knew to color it.
Sources:
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Book – Zion, G., & Graham, M. (1956). Harry, the dirty dog. New York: Harper & Bros
