Vicky's Very Violet
Vacuum
Materials:
primary paper and pencil; chart with "Vicky's very violet vacuum"; picture of a
vacuum; drawing paper; crayons; Dr.
Seuss's ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with
VOW, VEST, CAN, VASE,
TAKE, and
FIVE; assessment worksheet
identifying pictures with /v/ (URL below).
Procedure: 1.
Say: Our written language is tough to learn, but the tricky part is learning
what the letters stand for. Each letter makes our mouth move in a different way.
Today, we are going to work on moving our mouths to say /v/. We spell /v/ with
the letter V.
V looks like holding up two fingers
and sounds like a vacuum when it is turned on.
2. Let's pretend to vacuum the floor, /v/. (hold out the
sound and pantomime vacuuming) Pay attention to where your lips and teeth are.
Your teeth are lightly touching your bottom lip. When we say /v/, our voice box
vibrates and we blow air through our bottom lip and our top teeth.
3. Let me show you how to find /v/ in the word
save. I'm going to stretch the word
out by saying it in slow motion and listen for my vacuum. Sss-a-a-ave. Slower:
Sss-a-a-a-vvv-e. I heard it! I felt my teeth touch my bottom lip and my voice
box vibrate. I can feel the vacuum /v/ in
save.
4. Let's try a tongue twister (on chart). "Vicky's very
violet vacuum." Let's all say it three times together. Now say it again, and
this time, stretch the /v/ at the beginning of the words: "Vvvvicky's vvvviolet
vvvvacuum is vvvvery loud." Try it again, and this time break it off the word:
"/v/ icky's /v/ ery /v/ iolet /v/ acuum"
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We
use letter V to spell /v/. Capital
V and lower case
v look like you are holding up two
fingers, like this (hold up two fingers/the peace sign). Let's write the lower
case letter v. Start at the belt line
(top line=head, bottom line=foot, and middle line=belt), make a diagonal line
down to the foot line. Without lifting your pencil, make a diagonal line back up
to the belt line. I want to see everybody's
v. After I give you a smiley face on
your paper, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Let's practice finding /v/ in words. [Call on students
to answer and tell how they know] Do you hear /v/ in
work or
vine?
Hive or
look?
Vex or trip?
Fake or
verb?
Ivy or
man? Let's see if you can spot the
mouth movement /v/ in some words. Use your vacuum when you hear /v/:
the, velvet, have, bug, love, vent,
silly, veil, pink, very.
7. Say: "Let's look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells
about a girl who isn't good at playing her instrument. Her name and her
instrument start with V. Can you
guess what instrument? Can you guess her name?" Read the
V page, "Big V little v Vera Violet
Vinn is very very very awful at her violin." Say: "Can you think of other words
with /v/?" Have students make up their own silly instrument that they wish they
could have that starts with V like
violalin or vizzulo. Then have each student write their silly name with invented
spelling and draw a picture of what their instrument would look like. Display
their work. Students will be given the opportunity to show their picture and
explain how you would play the instrument.
8. Show card with
VOW and model how to decide if it is
vow or how: The
V tells me to use my vacuum, /v/, so
this word is vvv-ow, vow. You try
some: VEST: vest or best?
CAN: van or can? VASE: vase or
base? TAKE: make or take?
FIVE: five or hive?
9. To assess the students, pass out the worksheet. Have
students finish the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with
V. Call students individually to read
the phonetic cue words from step #8.
Reference: Flying High with the Letter V, Maegan Dennis
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/dennisel.htm
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/v-begins2.htm
Animation source: http://animationsa2z.com/housework.php