Flying High with the Letter 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 (airplane engine) and the letter
V symbol. They will practice finding
/v/ in words and apply phoneme awareness with /v/ in phonetic cue reading by
distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: primary paper, pencils, "Vinny's violin vexed
Virginia" chart, cards with VENT, VERY, VERB, HEX, SAVE, and HIVE written on
them, Vera Viper's Valentine by
Maxwell Higgins published by Scholastic, worksheet
Procedures:
1. Say: Sometimes our written
language is tough to learn. The tricky part is learning the sounds that letters
stand for. Our mouth moves differently for each letter we say. Today we are
going to be working on spotting the mouth move /v/.
We spell /v/ with the letter
V.
V looks like the nose of an airplane,
and /v/ sounds like the sound that the propeller on an airplane makes.
2. Let's all pretend that we are
airplanes with big propellers. Hold your arms out for the wings and make our
propeller /v/ sound [Pantomime airplane movement]. Notice where your teeth are
when you say /v/. They are touching your bottom lip. Your lips are almost
together, and kind of look like you are about to give someone a kiss. Our voice
box in our neck vibrates, and we blow the air out of our mouth between our top
teeth and our bottom lip.
3. Let me show you how to find
/v/ in the word five. I'm going to
stretch out five in super slow motion
and listen for my airplane. Fff-i-i-i-ive. Slower: Fffff-i-i-i-i-vvv-e. There it
was! I felt my top teeth touch my bottom lip and I turned on my voice box. I can
feel the airplane in five.
4. Let's try a tongue twister
[on chart]. Say "Vinny's violin vexed Virginia" one time so students can hear
how it sounds. Everyone say it three times together. Now say it again, and
stretch out the /v/ at the beginning of the words. "Vvvinny's vvviolin vvvexed
Vvvirginia." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/v/ inny's /v/
iolin /v/ exed /v/ irginia."
5. Have students take out
primary paper and pencil. We use the letter
V to spell /v/. The capitol letter
V looks like the nose of a big
airplane landing on your paper. The lowercase
v looks like the nose of a little
plane. Let's write the lowercase v.
Start at the fence. Make a slanted line down to the sidewalk. Then, make another
slanted line back up to the fence in the other direction. I want to see
everyone's v's. After I give you a
smiley face on your paper, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Say: I'm going to see if I
can hear the letter v in some words.
I wonder if I can hear the letter v
in the words move or
stay? Ssss-ttt-aaayyy. I don't hear
it I that word. Let me see if I can hear it in
move. Mmm-ooo-vvvvv. Oh! There it is!
Now you try a few! Call on students
to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /v/ in
seven or
eight? Give or
take?
Leave or
stay?
Save or
spend?
Over or
under? Say: let's see if you can spot
the mouth move /v/ in some words. Fly your plane if you hear /v/: Vicky heard
velvety violin music coming from Virginia's van.
7. Read
Vera Viper's Valentine. Say: I'm
going to read you a book. It's about two vipers who are best friends and they
play together every day. When Vinny viper stops coming to play with Vera viper,
she becomes sad. To find out what has happened to Vinny we will have to read! As
I'm reading, I want you to listen for the letter
V. When you hear it, I want to you to
move your arms like an airplane. [Read text] After reading each sentence have
students repeat it.
8. Show VENT and model how to
decide if it is vent or
rent: The
V tells me to fly my airplane, /v/,
so this word is vvvv-ent, vent. Now
you try a few. VERY: very or
scary? VERB:
verb or
herb? HEX:
hex or
vex? SAVE:
save or
gave? HIVE:
five or
hive?
9. For assessment, distribute
worksheet. Students should color the pictures of the words that contain the /v/
sound, and then write the letter at the beginning of each corresponding word.
Call on students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.
Reference: Flying with V, Ashley Farrow http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/caravans/farrowel.htm
Assessment Worksheet:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/v-begins2.htm