Horton Hears A Who?

Allison Pendleton

Emergent Literacy

Rational: This lesson will help children identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. The children will learn to recognize spoken words by learning a representation (jogger out of breath), using a picture, learning the letter symbol H, and practice finding /h/ in words.

Materials:

            Picture of a person jogging

            Tongue twister: “Horton had a horrible headache and hated to hear         himself howl.”

            Cards with words her, him, hat, help, hint

            Pencil

            Assessment worksheet

Procedure:

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn about the /h/ sound. The /h/ sound is found in many different words, and by the end of this lesson you will be able to see and hear the /h/ sound in those words.”

2. Say: “Have you ever heard this sound? /h/.  Can anyone tell me what makes a /h/ sound? (home) Great! What about another one? (happy) Awesome! Well, we are going to look for the /h/ sound in words. Have you ever heard a jogger out of breath? What sound does it sound like? (hhhhhhhh) That’s right! That is the sound the letter H makes. Everyone try to make that sound with your mouth—h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-. Great!”

Let’s try this tongue twister (on chart). “Horton had a horrible headache and hated to hear himself howl.” Say: “Now you say it with me three times.” 3. Now let’s say it again, only this time stretch out the /h/ sound at the beginning of the words and let’s make our “out of breath jogger” sound. “Hhhhhorton hhhhhad a hhhhhorrible hhhhheadache and hhhhhated to hhhhhear hhhhhimself hhhhhowl.”

4. Say: “Now I am going to see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. I will say the word and if you hear /h/ in that word raise your hand. (Give words one by one. Her, him, hat, help, hint).

5. Read the book Horton Hears A Who? Say: “Be listening for the /h/ sound in the story!” After reading the text, read it again and have the students raise their hands when they hear the /p/ sound in words.

6. Assess the students’ knowledge of h=/h/ by giving them the picture worksheet. Some of the pictures will have the hhhhh sound and other will not, so help them name each picture before starting. The students will be asked to color in the pictures that have the hhhhh sound and leave the others blank.

References:

Dr. Seuss. Horton Hears a Who! Random House Book for Young Readers, 1954. 72.