Vacuum with V
By: Caroline Vinson
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /v/, which is created by the phoneme V. Students will be able to hear and identify /v/ in spoken words by learning the hand sign and sound of a vacuum and the letter V to represent the phoneme. Then, they will practice identifying /v/ in written words, and implement phoneme awareness with /v/ in phonetic cue reading by hearing and recognizing words that rhyme from beginning letters.
Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with "Vince’s venomous vipers are very valuable.”; drawing paper and colored pencils; Dr. Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with VET, SAVE, TEST, STOVE, SAT, and BRAVE; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /v/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: Reading English can be very tricky until you can figure out the code. The hard part is figuring out what the letters that you draw mean-like the way we move our whole mouth as we say words. I want us to work on picking out the mouth move /v/ from words today. We spell /v/ with letter V. V looks like your arms when you are holding a vacuum, and /v/ sounds like the vacuum cleaner.
2. Let's pretend to vacuum, /v/, /v/, /v/. [Act out vacuuming] Notice where your top teeth are? (Touching lower lip). When we say /v/, we blow air out of the sides of our mouth and it buzzes your bottom lip.
3. Let me show you how to find /v/ in the word save. I'm going to stretch save out in super slow motion and listen for the vacuum cleaner. Sss-a-a-ave. Slower: Sss-a-a-a-vvv(e) There it was! I felt my teeth touch my lip and make my lip buzz. I can feel the vacuum cleaner /v/ in save.
4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. " Vince’s venomous vipers are very valuable." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /v/ at the beginning of the words. "Vvvince's vvvenomous vvvipers are vvvery vvvaluable." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/v/ ince's /v/ enomous /v/ ipers are /v/ ery /v/ aluable.
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter V to spell /v/. Capital V looks like your arms when you hold a vacuum cleaner. Let's write the lowercase letter v. Start just below the fence. Then, make it cross the yard down to the sidewalk. After, cross back to the neighbor’s fence. I want to see everybody's v. After I put a checkmark on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /v/ in hill or cave? van or car? cup or vase? vine or branch? voice or sing? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /v/ in some words. Hold the vacuum if you hear /v/ and put your hands behind your head like you are relaxing if you do not hear /v/ in the word: The, van, vibrated, as, it, drove, past, the, vibrant, village.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a girl and her instrument whose names start with V. Can you guess?" Ask children if they can think of other words with /v/. Ask them to create other silly names like Vitter-vip-vido, or Veffer-Ven-Vere. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of that person. Display their work.
8. Show VET and model how to decide if it is vet or pet: The V tells me to hold my vacuum, /v/, so this word is vvv-et, vet. You try some: SAVE: save or place? TEST: vest or test? STOVE: stove or code? SAT: vat or sat? BRAVE: brave or crate?
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.
Reference: McFarland, Kiri. Emergent Literacy Design: Blowing Bubbles, http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/chall/mcfarlandel.html.
Geisel, Theodore Seuss. Dr. Seuss's ABC. New York City: Random House, 1963. 17. Print.
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/v-begins2.htm