Shaving Your Face with V
Emergent Literacy
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /v/, the phoneme represented
by V. Students will learn to recognize /v/ in spoken words by learning a
meaningful representation (electric shaver) and the letter symbol V, practice
finding /v/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /v/ in phonetic cure
reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
-Primary paper and pencil (one for each student)
-Chart with "Virginia visited Vicky and gave her vegetables with vitamins" (one
per student)
-Drawing paper (one piece per student) and crayons (one pack per student)
-Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963) (one copy)
-Word cards with VAN, VOW, VAIL, VILE, VADE, VAIN, VANT, VOTE (one per student)
-Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /v/ (one per student)
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what
letters stand for- the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to
work on spotting the mouth move for /v/. We spell /v/ with the letter V. V looks
like a flock of geese flying south for the winter, and /v/ sounds like an
electric razor.
2. Let's pretend to shave with an electric razor. /v/, /v/, /v/, [pantomime
shaving face]. Notice where your top teeth are with you say /v/. When we say /v/
our top teeth rest against our bottom lips and we blow air through our teeth.
3. Let me show you how to find /v/ in the leave. I'm going to stretch out leave
in super slow motion and listen for my razor. LlllEEEvv. Slower: Lll-E-E-E-vvv.
There it was! I felt my teeth touch my lip and blow air. I can feel the electric
razor /v/ in leave.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. "Virginia visited Vicky and gave her
vegetables with vitamins." Everyone say it three times together. Now say it
again, and this time, stretch the /v/ at the beginning of the words. "Vvvvvirginia
vvvisited Vvvvicky and gavvvve her vvvvegetables with vvvitamins." Try it again,
and this time break it off the word: "/v/ irginia /v/ isited /v/ icky and gave
her /v/ egetables with /v/ itamins."
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter V to
spell /v/. Capital V looks like a flock of geese flying south for the winter.
Let's write the lowercase letter v. Start at the middle line, diagonal left down
to the floor, and then go back up diagonal left back towards the middle line
making a point at the floor. I want to see everybody's v. After I make my flock
of geese I want to see you make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /v/ in have or
had? Vase or lamp? Brave or heroic? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth
move /v/ in some words. Use your electric shaver if you hear/v/:
The, very, brave, otter, moved, over, the
log, to, see, the, grave, of, the, vulture.
7. Say: Let's look at the alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny
creature whose name starts with V. Can you guess? Read page ___, drawing out
/v/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /v/. Ask them to make up
a silly creature name like Viffer-veffer-veff. Then have each student write
their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their sill
creature. Display their work.
8. Show VAN and model how to decide if it is van or man: the V tells me to use
my electric shaver, /v/, so this word is vvvv-an, van. You try some: VOW, is
this cow or vow? VAIN, is this vain or main? VILE, is this pile or vile?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to complete the
partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with V. Call students
individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
Return to the Awakenings Index