Words That Start With V For Kids

For such a rare letter, V provides plenty of simple monosyllables suited to your youngest learners. At this level, the priority is to help students make the connection between a sound they hear and a shape on a page.

• valley: lowland between hills or mountains
  
• van: large vehicle for carrying cargo or lots of people
  
• vast: very big or immense
• vat: large open jar or basin
• vault: to jump over
• veer: to turn sharply
• vent: hole to let air in or out
• very: to a high degree or extreme level
• vest: a piece of clothing like a shirt without sleeves
• vet: short for "veterinarian," a doctor for animals
• video: visual part of a recorded program
• view: to look at, or a way of looking at something
• vine: a plant with long stems that grow around objects or up walls
• virus: disease-causing microbe
• vote: to take part in an election
  
• vow: serious and formal promise
• vowel: the letters A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y in the English alphabet

The connection between the spoken sound and the written symbol is the cornerstone of linguistic development. The trace-the-letter activity is designed to help your little learners make that all-important connection.

With this worksheet, pre-k and kindergarten students will be able to practice their sight word skills by connecting pictures and words. The pictures are line drawings, so they'll also be able to color the images.

As first and second graders get comfortable with reading, it's time to help them start building a really strong vocabulary. This list of easily recognizable V words for kids will help support their growing literacy.

• veil: lacy or wispy cloth to cover the face, like that of a bride at a wedding
  
• vein: tube-shaped tissue that carries blood through the body
• vegetable: edible parts of a plant
• verge: edge, limit
  
• vary: to change or cause something to differ
• voice: sound made with the mouth
  
• vole: small furry field mouse
• vacant: empty, containing nothing
• venom: poison inflicted by an animal's bite or sting
• village: small town
• villain: bad guy, antagonist
• vision: sense of sight
• vital: important, crucial
  
• vixen: female fox
• vocal: of or having to do with the voice
• volume: area filled by something, especially sound

Simple V words like these support literacy. To help your students with the word-concept connection, focus on visual or hands-on activities. Creative play helps make abstract concepts, like new vocabulary, real to young minds. Pass around pictures of vegetables, veils and other things that start with V. Ask them to point out which V words they see. For other terms, encourage learners to draw or build to express their ideas of these words.

At this point in a child's education, familiarity supports understanding. Third through fifth graders are ready to understand the significance of the words they're learning. They have matured enough to understand that words build sentences and sentences build stories.

• vacate: to empty out, to leave
• value: worth, fair price
• velvet: soft fuzzy fabric
  
• vestige: remnant, leftover
• vial: small glass container for liquids, especially in chemistry
• vile: bad, wrong, disgusting
• voyage: long trip
  
• vulture: bald-headed bird that eats rotting meat
• venture: attempt, especially of something demanding or dangerous
• version: one variation of a particular thing
• vessel: a container for something; a boat
• via: by way of
• victor: winner
• villa: a luxurious home
• vintage: age of something, especially wine
• virtue: a good thing about something, positive quality
• volley: extended exchange of shots in sports such as tennis or in warfare
• volt: measurement of electricity

With students in grades three through five, you can discuss the real-world connections between vocabulary and experience. These words were specifically chosen because they are rich in contextual meaning. Lead discussions focused on the unique nature and etymology and multiple meanings of these terms.

• For instance, you can talk about vacate in the context of vacations and how they represent leaving one place to go to another.
• Via comes directly from Latin and can be used to start a conversation about the importance of Latin roots in English.
• Vessel can be used to illustrate the evolution of a word's meaning, from an empty container to the necessarily empty nature of a sailing ship.
• Volley is an example of a word having an identical meaning in two radically different contexts: sports and combat.

V's comparative rarity makes every word that starts with it special. For a visual and viable vocabulary option, try out WordFinder's handy advanced search feature. It allows you to search through a list of words that start with V by word length and letters included. A valiant way to vary your vocabulary! If you can inspire your students to see words that way, you'll have helped them to become lifelong language learners.

Once you've finished with V words for kids, don't stop there. Keep going to the next letter, as you're getting so very close to the end of the alphabet. Move next to words that start with W for kids. Then, you'll be ready to finish up with age-appropriate words that begin with X, Y and Z.