Emergent Literacy
Amy Berger
Hurry Hurry!
Emergent Literacy
Amy Berger
Rationale: In
order for children to learn to read and spell words, children must
understand
phonemes and possess the ability to identify letters and the phonemes
they
represent in spoken words. Phonemes can
be short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, and even simply consonants. This lesson will help children identify
/h/. They will learn to recognize /h/ in
spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and a letter
symbol,
followed up by practice in finding /h/ in words.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil, chart with “Henry
helped Harry with his hamster,” picture page with runner, drawing paper
and
crayons, picture page with hat, head,
bed, hut, apple, bug, hill, ham, pig, and house, A House for
Hermit Crab.
Little Simon, 2004 by Eric Carle (or another book containing the h)
Procedures:
1. Explain to
the students that written language
is our own secret code that we must “crack.”
Then introduce the lesson by explaining that letters represent
phonemes
and that each phoneme is spoken with various mouth movements with each
having
its own distinct spoken utterance. Then
introduce the letter h and explain
that it is the mouth movement that we’ll be working on today. The /h/ sound is very soft, but it is very
important
to be able to identify its presence. As
the lesson continues, you will get plenty of practice hearing the /h/
in words
and be able to identify it with no problem.
2. Have you ever
ran over to your friends house
to play and been out of breath? I’m sure
you started breathing heavy like this: huuuuuuh, huuuuuuh (draw out the
/h/ as
if out of breath to demonstrate to children).
Well that’s the mouth movement we’re going to be looking for in
words. [Hold up the picture of the
runner]. Let’s pretend like we’re
running over to our best friend’s house and we’re out of breath. We’re going to pump our arms and breath
heavy. Notice how your mouth feels when
you breathe out. That is what it is
going to feel like when we say words with /h/ in them.
3. Let’s try a
tongue twister [displayed on
chart]. “Henry helped Harry with his
hamster.” Now everyone say it with
me. This time when we say it, we’re
going to stretch is out and pump our arms and breathe heavy every time
we hear
/h/. “Hhhhenry hhhelped Hhhharry with
hhhhis hhhampster.”
4. [Pass out
primary paper and have students pull
out a pencil] We can use the letter “h”
to spell the sound /h/. Let’s write it
together. First start at the rooftop and
come all the way down and hump over. I
am going to walk around and look at everyone’s h. After I place a stamp on
your paper, I want you to write two lines of h’s. As you write the letter
h I want you to quietly say the /h/
sound.
5. Let’s all
turn on our listening ears and
listen for [pump arms like run and sound the /h/ as if out of breath]
/h/ sound
in hot. Stretch it out very slowly so
we can listen to each sound in the word.
H-h-h-h-o-o-o-t-t. Do you hear
the /h/ in hot?
6. Call on
students to answer and have them
explain how they knew. Do you hear /h/
in hear or ear? Cap or hat?
Hand or finger? Hard or soft?
7. Do a book
talk for A House for Hermit Crab
by Eric Carle. One day, hermit crab
realizes that he has outgrown his shell.
He sets out on an adventure to find a shell that hits him JUST
right. Let’s read the rest of the book to
see if he
finds the perfect shell. While reading
the book, ask the students to pinch their claws when they hear the /h/.
8. For
assessment,
distribute the picture page and help students in naming the pictures. Ask the students to circle the pictures whose
names have /h/.
Reference: