About this activity
Twelve words ending in /v/: five, dive, cave, give, love, hive, wave, save, move, olive, glove, stove. Every one is spelled with a final e that does no work for the sound — English does not end a word in v — which makes this a set where the spelling and the speech are cleanly separate.
How to use it in a session
Show the lip and tooth contact, which is visible. /v/ puts the top teeth on the bottom lip with the voice on, and a mirror plus a hand on the throat covers both halves of it. Hold the final sound in your model, since a word-final /v/ is very quiet in ordinary speech. Six minutes covers the twelve.
What to listen for
Listen for /f/ replacing it, which is a voicing error with the placement correct — the child has the lip and teeth right and the voice off. That is a small and workable gap. Watch olive and glove, where an unstressed syllable or a preceding cluster makes the final target quieter still.
Carrying it home
Five, love, glove and stove are ordinary words. /v/ is visible enough that a family can see whether the teeth touched the lip, which makes it one of the easier sounds for them to notice.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth grade.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all twelve cards play with no login.
- My child says 'fife' for 'five'. What is that?
- A voicing error — the lips and teeth are in the right place and the voice is off. A hand on the throat usually shows the difference faster than listening does.