State the Objective

Tell the children that they will recognize and write the letter H and associate it with the /h/ sound while they help heal a heart and make it happy.  

Literacy Activities 

Write the letter H 

• Write the letter H and tell the children its name and sound.
• Have the children write the letter H in the air while saying the /h/ sound.

Make a happy heart 

• Make a heart with your hands as shown in the picture below.
• Tell the children, “My hands make a happy heart. Heart starts with H.”
• Help the children make hearts with their hands or hold paper hearts. Comment: 
  
  • I have a /h/, /h/, happy /h/, /h/, heart.
  • You made a heart with your hands!
  • You have a heart in your hand!
  • Is his/her heart happy? 

Heal a heart

• Break the heart by pulling your hands apart and say, “Oh, no! The heart is hurt!”
• Have the children pull their hands apart or tear their paper hearts. Comment:
  
  • Is your /h/, /h/, heart /h/, /h/, hurt?
  • A hurt heart is not happy.
  • Is his/her heart not /h/, /h/, happy?
• Put the hearts back together as the children repeat the /h/ sound. Comment:
  
  • The hands make a heart again!
  • The happy heart is healed!
  • You healed the hurt heart!
  • We have happy hearts.

Write H and make H words 

• Write words that start with H (e.g., hat, heart, hand, happy, hurt). 
• Have the children point to the H in each word and say its sound.
• Whisper an /h/ word to a child; let them act it out while the others guess the word.
• Write the ending of the word hand with a space at the beginning (“__and”).
• Let the children add the H at the beginning and say the word together (hand).
• Repeat with the other /h/ words (e.g., happy, hat, heart, hurt, heal).