Flying High with V

Ashley Heavener

Rationale:  This lesson will aim to teach students to identify the grapheme V as well as the phoneme that it represents, /v/.  Students will learn to recognize the letter symbol V, locate /v/ in spoken words, and practice finding /v/ in various written words.  Ultimately, this lesson is designed to increase children's phonemic awareness, the greatest predictor of future reading success, by acquainting them with the grapheme and phoneme correspondence of V.

Materials: 
Chart with "Vicky's violet vulture gets violent at the vet," Primary paper and pencils, Whiteboard and makers, Vin and Val decodable book, Worksheet with pictures of objects that begin with V, paper and markers

Procedures:

1.  Say:  "Today we're important explorers.  When we write language, it's like a secret code.  Every letter has its own special sound.  We move our mouths in different ways to make these sounds.  Today we're going to explore the mouth movement /v/.  This letter is spelled with the written V.  The letter looks a kind of like the wings of an airplane and makes the same /v/ sound that an airplane makes as it flies through the air!"

2.  "Let's all try to fly like airplanes--/v/, /v/, /v/." (Pretend to fly like an airplane emphasizing the /v/ sound and have students do the same) "Notice the way that your mouth moves as you make the sound.  Your top teeth are against your bottom lip and as the air blows out between your teeth and lip, you feel a /v/ibration!"

3.  "Let me show you how to find the /v/ in the word hive.  I'm going to stretch it out h-i-v-e.  Hmm . . . maybe, I should try it a little slower.  Hhhh--iiiii--vvvvee.  Yep, right at the end, I could hear my airplane flying through the clouds!"

4.  "Now let's try a tongue twister so we can practice listening for our airplanes.  (Refer to chart) 'Vicky's violet vulture gets violent at the vet.'  Now let's try it again stretching out the /v/ sounds and flying our airplanes when we hear them.  Let's try it one last time breaking off the sound as you hear it, '/V/icky's /v/iolet /v/ulture gets /v/iolent at the /v/et.'"

5.  (Distribute primary paper and pencils to students)  "The letter V spells the sound /v/ that our airplanes make.  Capital V looks like this. (Demonstrate a V on the whiteboard)  To draw your own, you're going to put your pencil on the rooftop, then draw a slanting line from the rooftop to the sidewalk and then back up to the rooftop.  After you have finished one, raise your hand so that I can check it.  (Check each student's V and instruct each child to draw nine more.  Allow students to finish, reminding them of the /v/ the letter makes.)  Okay, now we're going to try lowercase V letters.  They look just like the capital letters, only smaller.  So this time, I want you to start each letter at the fence, slope down to the sidewalk and then back up to the fence.  When you're finished one, raise your hand so that I can check it.  (Check each student's v and instruct each child to draw nine more.)

6.  "Now we're going to practice listening for our airplanes in some different words.  You're going to listen to two different words and only one has the /v/ sound.  If you hear it, raise your hand and tell me where your heard it.  Do you hear /v/ in vest or shoe?  violin or drum?  car or van?  vegetable or meat?  city or village?  Let's see if you can spot the mouth movement for /v/ in some words.  I want you to put your airplane wings out if you hear /v/:  My, very, silly, Valentine, is, afraid, of, vacuums.

7.  "We're going to read a story with a lot of /v/ sounds.  This story is about Vin and Val.  They are going on a trip in their van to get a vat of sap.  They're having a great time on their journey until the van gets stuck in a bunch of mud!  We're going to have to read the story to see what happens and whether they can escape the mud!  As I read, listen for the /v/ sound.  Make your airplane wings whenever you hear it! (Read the story to the students).  Okay, who can remember some of the words with /v/ sounds that we heard?  (Write these on the whiteboard.)  Great!  Now, can anyone think of some other ones?  (Write these on the whiteboard as well.)  Wonderful!  On your paper with the V letters, I want you to write a short story, only a sentence or two, and make sure that you have at least one word that begins with the letter V.  Raise your hand when you're finished so I can check your work."  (Check the student's sentences.)  Once every student's short story has been approved, have each student re-write the story neatly on a new sheet of paper and illustrate.  Display the work in the classroom.

8.  "We're going to be explorers again and see if we can find the /v/ sound in some written words.  I'm going to write down a word.  Then I'm going to say two words that it may be and I want you to tell me which one the word is and how you knew.  Let's see how it works.  (Write VAN on the whiteboard and model how to decide whether the word is van or man.)  "Hmm..I see the V, so that tells me to fly my airplane through the sky.  /v/ . . . /v/ . . . so, this word is vvv-an.  Now, I'm going to let you try a few words of your own.  VENT:  vent or rent?  VINE:  vine or line?  VASE:  vase or case?  VOTE:  vote or mote?  VICE:  vice or rice?

9.  "Okay, we're going to see just how much you've learned about V and it's airplane sound /v/. I'm going to give you a worksheet with some pictures on it.  Some of the words start with V, but that not all of them.  I want you to look at each picture and name to yourself what you see in it.  If you hear the airplane sound as you say it, then it starts with a /v/.  If you don't hear the airplane sound, then it probably doesn't.  On the lines for the pictures of things that start with V, I want you to write a V on the lines just like we practiced earlier.  If it doesn't start with a V, you may either draw the letter that fits or, if you don't know, just leave it blank."  (Walk around and assist only with the directions where necessary.)

Reference(s): 

Moors, Vic.  "Vin and Val" http://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=29

Murray, Bruce.  "Brush Your Teeth With F:  Emergent Literacy."  http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html

Assessment:

http://bogglesworldesl.com/alphabet_worksheets/letterV.htm

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