Rhyming prepares children for beginning reading by “playing” with the letter sounds. In order to rhyme, children need to be able to hear the different letter sounds in words and be able to change the beginning sound to make a new word. Poems, nursery rhymes, jump rope jingles… all help make rhyming fun when playing with words.
Rhyming
- Rhyming is finding two or more words that have the same ending sound. The words do not necessarily have to end with the same letters. For example, do, you and two rhyme, but have different letter endings.
- Read stories with rhyming words and enjoy the fun of the rhythms together. Reading to your son or daughter is the single most important thing you can do with your child. Rhyming in stories help children learn to listen to the sounds in words.
Here is a list of some of the new and old classics:
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself)
The Cat in the Hat
Rhyming Dust Bunnies
Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs
A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee
Your Personal Penguin (Boynton on Board) - Books that have patterns that children can anticipate and chime in on are great fun to read and your daughter will ask for them over and over again.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Classic Books)
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Board Book) - Read through the story first and then go back and say something like, “I like how this sentence rhymes – town rhymes with down. Let’s see if anything else rhymes.” Continue through the story looking for words that rhyme. The next time you come up with a sentence that rhymes you can say, “The brown cat sat on the…pause” see if your daughter tells you a word that rhymes that would fit. If she says batand the story has hat, praise her. She found a rhyming word, even if it wasn’t the one the author chose.
- Singing songs like The Name Game
sung by Shirley Ellis or “Down by the Bay” by Raffi from The Singable Songs Collection
will help your daughter hear the rhythm and rhyme and have fun playing with the words.
Rhyming Activities
Rhyming Word Picture Cards
Materials:
rhyming cards PDF
1. Start with two pictures of objects that rhyme and one that doesn’t for your daughter to pick from.
three cards - figure out which two rhyme
2. Lay the pictures on the table.
3. Say the name of each object.
So for our example, say: zip mop lip
- Sometimes the picture of an object may seem obvious to you but may not be to your child. For example, the picture of the zipper, we want to use the word zip to rhyme with lip.
- Sometimes children need more help. If you notice your child looking for more information, you can model what to do by saying two of the words together. So for our example, say:
| zip | mop | then pause |
| zip | lip | pause |
| mop | lip | pause |
This gives her more time to process the information.
As she gets more comfortable with the skill, you can add more cards. Check out this game too! Rhyming Pairs Learning Cards by Carson-Dellosa
Jump Rope Chants
Combining movement and chanting a rhyming verse is not only great fun, but is also a great brain exercise. There are numerous chants online, great books available or for the fun of it you can write one with your daughter! All you need is a willingness to be silly. It can be about any topic and it doesn’t even have to make sense, it just has to rhyme! Easy peasy!
Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes
Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes
Puzzle Cards
Materials:
rhyming puzzle cards PDF
- Make puzzles with pictures of objects that rhyme (pig/wig) on each side of a 3×5 card.
rhyming puzzle cards
- Then make cuts between the pictures that are unique for each card or download our cards PDF.
- Start with only a few cards to start (3-5) so she won’t be overwhelmed.
match the two halves of the puzzle
- Have her match the pictures that rhyme. If the pieces fit together, it’s a match!
- These are some fun rhyming games to give your daughter some additional practice.
Rhyming Words Puzzles
Simple Puzzle Pairs – Rhyming Words
Re-enforcement Activities
- Concentration Game
Using our cards PDF or your own, put the cards face down. She can turn over 2 cards, if they rhyme she can keep them. If they don’t rhyme, she must put them back in the same place. Game rules. - Bingo
Make up Bingo cards PDF with rhyming pictures. A way to mix them up so your daughter doesn’t memorize the words on the Bingo card is to tape copies of the rhyming picture cards onto the bingo card, using different picture cards each time you play. Rhyming Bingo - Crossword puzzles
If your daughter is reading, you can make a simple crossword puzzle using graph paper PDF. The clues can be: you wear it and it rhymes with cat. - Own Rhyming Books
Make a book for things that rhyme with color words. Each color has a page where she can draw or cut out pictures from magazines of things that rhyme. Or your daughter can make her own book of her favorite rhymes. - Make your own games using books you have read together.
Make any of the above games using words and pictures from a favorite book or character. - Rhyming Games:
Kids’ Magnetic Rhyme Maker Word Kit
Rhyming Sounds Game
Educational Insights Chime with Rhyme
Rhyming Pictures Listening Lotto Game by Carson-Dellosa®
University Games Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game
Assessment
When children begin to rhyme they may say words that are not real words. That’s ok, it’s not about the words it’s about learning to rhyme (saying 2 or more words that have the same ending sound). There was a famous writer that created lots of words that rhymed and weren’t real words. Dr. Suess was his name.
