Early Childhood Round Table

Lending Library Highlight “Rhyme Time!”

According to the Kansas Early Learning Standards, by the time children turn four, they should be able to distinguish whether two words rhyme or not and by the end of their fourth year, they should be able to take the next step to recognize and produce rhyming words. Rhyming teaches children how language works and helps them notice and work with the sounds within words.

There are many ways early educators and parents can support children’s learning of this concept – below is a list of ideas:

• Read books that rhyme and play with language, such as Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss
• Recite tongue twisters.
• Point to a picture in a book. Ask the children, what words rhyme with “goat”?
• Sing rhyming songs, such as, "Willowby Walloby Woo, an elephant sat on you. Willowby Walloby Wake, an elephant sat on Jake."
• Use silly words or saying that sound alike when transitioning children, such as, “Michael Michael Motorcycle, it’s your turn to go wash your hands.”
• Play word games that change the first sounds in words. “What word would ‘book’ be if we took off the ‘buh‘ sound and made it a ‘L’ sound? Look!”
• Play games with word that have matching endings to create rhymes: _ed (red, bed, fed) _at (bat, cat, mat) _ing (bring, sing, ring) _ight (sight, light, fight) 

In our lending library we have a variety of totes available for check out on this topic, including the Preschool Literacy Tote, “Rhyme Time!” It features one of our favorite books, “Rhyming Dust Bunnies” by Jan Thomas. 

In this hysterical book, three dust bunnies – Ed, Ned and Ted try to teach the fourth dust bunny, Bob, how to rhyme. 

It isn’t until several attempts that they finally figure out Bob is trying to warn them about the broom coming their way. 

After running for cover and escaping near peril, they resume their rhyming game only to discover there is another danger on the move . . .

For extra fun, make some dust bunnies for the children to help tell the story.  All you need to make these are large popsicle sticks, bath poufs, felt and glue.

Also included in the tote is a game, “Pin the Rhyme Cards,” which is available free from The Measured Mom. All you need is a printer and some clothes pins to create this fun activity.

For a simpler matching game, you can just use pictures from Google Images to create a set of rhyming words that are familiar to your students, like this one:

Transitions can also be a great time to play with rhymes.  You can go to Teachers Pay Teachers to download your free set of Goodbye Rhymes.    

For a great selection of rhyming fingerplays, check out this compilation from the Ooey Gooey Lady. 

Click here to download a lesson plan for the Rhyming Dust Bunnies book and fun activities. 

What are some of your favorite rhyming games?