Phonological Awareness - Rhyming

1. Matching Pictures
Find pairs of pictures that rhyme. Place one set of pictures in a container
and all of the rhyming pairs in another container. Have the children draw out
two pictures (one from each container) and ask them if the two words rhyme.
If they dont, continue pulling out pictures from the second container until
the child finds a matching rhyme. Continue with all remaining cards.
- Materials

2. Which One Does Not Belong?
Show three consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pictures/words (e.g., cat, log,
dog). Tell the children, Two of these words rhyme, one does not rhyme. Can
you tell me which one does not rhyme with the others?
- Materials

3. Hopscotch
Draw a hopscotch board on the floor with masking tape, or with chalk if
youre outdoors. Tape or place pictures in each square. Have the child toss a
beanbag on a square, hop to that square and then say whats in the picture.
You read another word (sometimes a rhyming word, sometimes not) and ask the
child if it rhymes or not. If they answer correctly, they get another turn.
If you have a group of children, have them take turns.
- Materials

4. Mark the Match
Using the worksheet provided, have the child focus on one row of pictures.
Using the KEY, say a word that rhymes with one of the pictures and ask the
child to mark the one that it rhymes with (e.g. pictures of pen, bell, and
cat. Say the word hat and the child correctly puts a marker chip on the
cat).
- Materials

5. Rhyming Word Sit Down
Have the children walk around in a big circle taking one step at a time while
a rhyming word is said by the teacher. When the teacher says a word that
doesnt rhyme, the children sit down.
- Materials


6. Sing A-Hunting We Will Go
~ A-Hunting We Will Go
~ A-Hunting We Will Go
~ Well catch a fox
~ And put him in a box
~ A-hunting we will go
After the rhyme has been learned, ask the children to pick out the rhyming
words. Encourage them to think of other animal names that they could use in
their rhymes. Some examples might be frog-log, pig-dig, cat-mat, goat-boat,
fish-dish, snake-lake, whale-sale, bear-chair. For each new animal, create a
new verse:
~ Well catch a whale
~ And put him up for sale
~ Well catch a bear
~ And put him in a chair

7. Willaby Wallaby
In this game, the teacher sings and uses the students names to complete the
rhyme:
~ Willaby Wallaby Wusan,
~ An elephant sat on Susan.
~ Willaby Wallaby Wark
~ An elephant sat on Mark.
-Tip: As the children catch on to the rhyming pattern, they can generate the
rhyme using other names.

8. Squirrel in a Tree
One child is it and wears a picture of a fox. Her job is to catch a
squirrel that is not in its tree. The rest of the children are divided into
two groups. Half of the group are trees and are given pictures of things that
rhyme with another picture that is worn by the other half of the group, the
squirrels. The trees are stay put in various parts of the room and the
squirrels must find their matching tree before the fox catches them. The
leader starts the game by saying, The fox is coming, you should go to your
tree! The squirrels begin to run and then the leader says, The fox is
here! The fox then runs to catch any squirrel not in a tree. If she catches
one, that squirrel is the fox for the next game. Trees become squirrels and
vice-versa and the game is played again.
- Tip: Use clothespins to attach pictures to shirts.

9. Couplet Rhymes
Select songs that use couplets, such as the traditional song This Old Man,
to make the rhymes more obvious to the children. After singing two lines,
have the children identify the rhyming pair of words. As an extension of this
activity, these words can be printed on index cards (1-10) with corresponding
pictures from the song. Have the children match the rhyming pairs of cards.
~ This old man, he played one,
~ He played knick-knack on my thumb.
Chorus:
~ With a knick-knack paddy-whack,
~ Give a dog a bone.
~ This old man came rolling home.
Additional Verses:
~ Two, shoe ~ Seven, til eleven
~ Three, knee ~ Eight, gate
~ Four, door ~ Nine, spine
~ Five, hive ~ Ten, once again
~ Six, sticks



















Rhyming Awareness

1. Nursery Rhyme Time
Have the children listen to and recite nursery rhymes. Talk about the rhyming
words and how they sound the same. Mention that they rhyme because the ends
of the words sound the same. After the children are familiar with a
particular nursery rhyme, recite the rhyme but leave off the rhyming word.
Have the children fill in the missing word.
- For words to common nursery rhymes, go to:
http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery

2. Active Reading
Read stories with rhymes. Talk about the rhyming words and how they sound the
same. Mention that they rhyme because the ends of the words sound the same.
Recite the rhymes yourself, leaving off the rhyming word. Have the children
fill in the missing word.
- For a list of books, go to:
http://www.literatureforliterature.ecsd.net/rhyming_books.htm

3. Engine and Caboose
Introduce the concept of producing rhyming words with train engines and
caboose pictures or objects. Explain that when you make rhyming words, the
caboose will always stay the same but the engines will be different. Pick a
sound for the caboose (e.g., at) and place many different engines in front
to make rhyming words (e.g., h-, m-, c-).

4. I Spy
Start the activity by sitting with the children in a large circle. Provide
the children with a sentence containing two rhyming words, e.g. I spy a
chair and a bear. The first object name is something in the room and the
second object name doesnt have to be visible in the room. Have the child on
your right create her own I Spy sentence. You may want to place objects
around the room that are easy to rhyme so you can point them out to the
children if they need suggestions.

5. Mystery Objects
Place several small objects in a covered basket. The teacher reaches into
the basket and says, It starts with /f/ and rhymes with dish. The children
raise their hands when they know what the mystery object is. The teacher
continues to pull mystery objects out and give rhyming clues. As the children
become more experienced, they may be able to give the clues to their peers.
- hat (cat) - bear (hair)
- mug (rug) - soap (rope)
- key (bee) - candle (handle)
- pen (hen) - frog (dog)

6. Fill in the Blank
Choose a book that contains many rhyming words in it and read it to the
children. When you get to the end of the sentence, pause and have the
children raise their hands and give the correct rhyming word to complete the
sentence. Offer opportunities for the children to make up silly sentences
using other words that rhyme but dont make sense. Continue with the rest of
the book until all the children have had opportunities to rhyme.

7. Rhyming Musical Chairs
Playing child-oriented music, play a variation of Musical Chairs. Line up
chairs for all of the children except one. Start the music and instruct the
children to walk around the chairs in a single file line for a few seconds.
When the music is paused, all the children scramble to sit in a chair.
Whoever is left without a chair draws a picture card from a container and
says it aloud. She then makes up a word that rhymes with that word and gets
to restart the music.
- Materials

8. Sing Along
~ I know two words that rhyme,
~ I can say them all the time,
~ _________ and ___________
~ I know two words that rhyme.

9. Sing Along II
Sing We Can Rhyme to the tune of Three Blind Mice.
~ We can rhyme. We can rhyme.
~ Listen to the words. Listen to the words.
~ ______ rhymes with ______ and ______
~ ______ rhymes with ______ and ______
~ ______ rhymes with ______ and ______
~ We can rhyme. We can rhyme.
Choose your own words to fill in the spaces. Students may choose rhyming
words (pictures) that you provide or, when they are more experienced, provide
their own words.
- Materials

10. Beanbag Toss
Lay picture cards out on the floor. Have each child throw a beanbag onto one
of the cards. Generate, or come up with as many rhyming words (or non-sense
words) as you can for each picture.
- Materials

11. Did You Ever See?
Sing the following lyrics to the tune If Youre Happy and You Know It.
~ Did you ever see a (cat) in a (hat)?
~ Did you ever see a (cat) in a (hat)?
~ No, I never, no, I never, no, I never, no I never,
~ No, I never saw a (cat) in a (hat).
Repeat with duck/truck, dog/log, ring/swing, rake/cake, or any other rhyming
pairs. After singing these verses, challenge the children to come up with
their own rhyming pairs to create new verses.