Emergent Literacy

The hot hippo hops in the water

Lindsay Laycock, Emergent Literacy

Rationale:

This lesson will help students identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. The students will learn how to recognize /h/ in spoken words through the analogy of hopping. Students will also learn the letter recognition of H by finding /h/ in words. Students will use phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading through rhyming words and beginning letters.

Materials:

1. Primary paper

2. Pencils

3. Laptop with projector

4. Book - https://www.olivehackney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Year-1-Reading-The-Little-Red-Hen-ebook.pdf

5. Activity sheets for each student: https://www.kidzone.ws/Kindergarten/h-begins-mm.htm

Procedure:

1. Say: Have you ever seen the hippos at the zoo? It is so cool to watch what they do throughout the day; they will sometimes even hop in the water if they get hot! Today, we will work on how our mouth moves when we say the letter h. First, let’s learn how write the letter ‘h’. [Have your students pull out their pencils and paper]. We will start by putting the lead of our pencils on the top line and making a line straight down to the bottom line. You will then make a hump over towards the right!

2. Say: Let’s try and make the sound of /h/ by saying ‘hop, hop, hop’ (/h/, /h/, /h/). To make this sound, we use air from the back of our throat.

a. Now say: How many times do you hear the /h/ sound in The hot hippo hops in the water? If you hear it three times, you are right. If you did not get three, that is okay. Today, we are going to focus on the letter H that makes the sound /h/.

3. Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word hippo. To do this, we can stretch the word out to find the sound, hhh-ii-ppp-oo. Do you hear the /h/ in the beginning of the word? I could feel the air coming from the back of my throat to make this sound!

4. Now, we are going to try a tongue tickler! Two hippos, named Henry and Harley are very hungry and hot. In order to cool off, they decide they want to go for a swim to hangout. Here is the tongue tickler: The hot hippos, Henry and Harley, hop in the water hole. I want everybody to say it three times together. Now, let’s do it one more time, but this time I want you to break /h/ of from each word: The /h/ot /h/ippos, /H/enry and /H/arley /h/op in the water /h/ole.

5. Next, I will provide two words and will ask the students to tell me which word they hear /h/ in. Say: Do you hear /h/ in hail or bail? Hard or card? Hoot or foot?

6. Now, we will practice writing uppercase and lowercase H. Handout a piece of primary paper and a pencil to each student. Before starting, model for the students how the uppercase and lowercase H should be written. It is now their turn to try on their primary paper.

7. Now, we will read a fun book! This book is about a little red hen who lives on a farm with other animals. The hen needs help to make bread. Let’s read to see who helps her out! Whenever you hear /h/, I want you to say it outloud with me.

8. To end this lesson, we will hand out an acitivty sheet to each student. For this activity, students will use their pencil to trace over words that begin with H.

Reference: Anna Bolton’s Emergent Literacy Design https://abolt833.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/emergent-literacy

Book: https://www.olivehackney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Year-1-Reading-The-Little-Red-Hen-ebook.pdf

Activity Worksheet: https://www.kidzone.ws/Kindergarten/h-begins-mm.htm

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