5 Ways to Teach Rhyming
Did you know that rhyming is one of the best predictors of how easily a child will learn to read? That’s because good rhymers are better equipped to notice that rhyming words often have shared letter sequences, such as –all in tall, ball, and small, which in turn gives them a considerable head start in learning to read.
Most children enjoy hearing and participating in rhyming activities, and when they are exposed to rhyming, they usually pick it up naturally.
But if your child isn’t good at rhyming yet, don’t worry! There are many things you can do to help. Read on!
Does Your Child Know How to Rhyme?
Use this simple test to find out whether your child knows how to rhyme. If your child needs help in this critical area, read on to discover how to teach your child to recognize and produce rhyme.
Three Stages of Rhyming Ability
It’s helpful to know that children don’t just start off rhyming. In fact, they generally go through three stages. In the order of easiest to hardest, those stages are:
Recognizing rhyme is a skill your child must master before he can produce rhyme, so you’ll first want to focus on helping your child recognize rhyme. Here are some activities that can help.
5 Simple Ways to Teach Rhyming
Read rhyming picture books together.
There are hundreds of great rhyming books, and this Rhyming Picture Books Library List is a good place to start. As you read, occasionally point out words that rhyme. (“Oh, goat and boat rhyme! They sound the same at the end. Goat, boat.”)
Play “Get Out of the Wagon” with your child.
“Get Out of the Wagon” is a popular Stage 2 rhyming game. In this downloadable activity, three word cards—like rake, cake, and king—are placed in a wagon. The child determines which word doesn’t rhyme and tells it to “get out of the wagon.”
Share nursery rhymes with your child.
Nursery rhymes are conducive to reciting again and again. After your child knows the nursery rhymes, let him fill in the rhyming words to work on Stage 2. You’ll find some wonderful nursery rhyme collections to enjoy together in this download.
Play “What’s in My Bag?” with your child.
Once your child can successfully recognize rhymes, this activity will help him learn to produce rhymes (a Stage 3 skill). Just fill a bag with several common household items (here are some ideas) and you’re ready to play “What’s in My Bag?”
Play “Dinner Time” with the whole family.
For more advanced Stage 3 rhyming, download this fun “Dinner Time” game. But make sure to play “Dinner Time” with the whole family. It’s guaranteed to provide lots of giggles for kids and parents alike!
The Bottom Line on Teaching Rhyming to Your Child
- Rhyming is an important pre-reading skill that reaps dividends later on.
- The ability to rhyme occurs in three unique stages.
- Use books, games, and engaging activities to promote rhyming ability. We make it easy by including hands-on activities throughout our Pre-reading program, and we continue to reinforce rhyming throughout the All About Reading program.
It may not happen overnight, but with repeated exposure, your child will learn to rhyme. Most importantly, keep your rhyming practice fun and light—it shouldn’t feel like a “lesson” to a young child.
Is there a rhyming activity that your child enjoys? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
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Photo credit: Rachel Neumann
Julie
says:My son is in kindergarten and is ASD. He hears the initial sound but not the middle or ending sounds of words. Even trying to teach him what those terms mean is difficult. I’m not sure how else to explain it to him. Do you have any suggestions?? We are doing Pre-Reading AAR and he knows all the letter sounds and can recognize the letters, but is hung up on rhyming. Do I move on to the next lesson? Or sit tight on the current lesson since each lesson we cannot get passed the rhyming exercises.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceJulie,
I’m sorry your son is struggling with rhyming. It can be a tricky skill for some kids to master!
Feel free to move forward with learning the letters, but you do need to work on rhyming so that he can master this foundational skill. Children who struggle with rhyming and other phonological awareness tend to struggle greatly with being able to sound out words. Don’t move forward with the Language Exploration portion of Lessons until he masters rhyming, even if he ends up doing the letter learning portion of all the Lessons first. Just use two bookmarks to keep your place for each portion.
Start with reading lots of books that contain rhyme. I recommend reading several books a day and really emphasizing the rhyming words by making the rhyming words a bit louder than the others. Here is a blog post round-up of reviews of rhyming picture books. Reread the books he enjoys a few days in a row and see if he can start to anticipate the rhyming words. Every day, spend time doing nursery rhymes, rhyming games, songs, poems, anything that he wouldn’t mind hearing over and over again.
When a young child has a problem with a phonological awareness activity (like rhyming or sentence length), Marie tries to turn it into a kinesthetic activity whenever possible. Let them “feel” what we are asking for. This can work with rhyming too. Clapping games like “Miss Mary Mack” add a kinesthetic activity that stresses the rhyme and makes it easier to understand. Rhyming songs and games are very good because they let kids experience what we mean in a different way.
Keep in mind the stages of rhyming as described in this blog post.
Hearing rhyme
This is what we do in Lesson 1 with Ziggy Body Parts and Lesson 2 with the Rhyming Cards.
Here’s another way to help your son hear rhyme:
“Listen to this sentence: There’s a goat in my boat. Now you say it.” Child repeats the sentence.
“Boat and goat rhyme. They have the same sound at the end: oat. Say these words with me: boat, goat.”
“I’ll say another sentence, and you’ll repeat the sentence and say the two words that rhyme. ‘There’s a fox in the box.” Child repeats the sentence, then identifies the words ‘fox‘ and ‘box‘ as rhyming.
With some kids, this activity may need to be repeated every day for two weeks straight before they catch on. Keep practice very short but frequent until the child catches on.
Recognizing rhyme.
This is what we do in Lesson 3, 4, 6 with the Get Out of the Wagon game, Lesson 5 with Rhyming Concentration, Lesson 7 with Stand Up or Sit Down. (Don’t start doing this until your is able to hear rhyme.)
Game ideas:
Matching games: Use the Pre-reading rhyming cards. Lay out three picture cards, two of which rhyme and one that does not. Say the words aloud with your learner. Have him identify the picture card that does not rhyme. Or, have him find the pair that does rhyme. After this is easy, lay out three pairs of rhyming cards and ask them to match up the rhymes.
You can play a concentration–like the matching game but with the cards face down, so the student has to remember where the rhyming word is.
Say two words and have your student decide if they sound alike at the end. For example:
mad – sad “YES”
bear – chair “YES”
ball – wet “NO”
Producing rhyme.
This is what we do in Lesson 8 with Forgetful Zebra, Lesson 9 with What’s in My Bag, Lesson 10 with Read a Book with Ziggy, and Lesson 11 with Name the Animals. Don’t attempt these until he hears and recognizes rhymes with some ease.
Here the child produces a rhyme to fit a sentence, such as:
Ziggy says (emphasizing the word to rhyme), “Look at the purple bunny. Doesn’t he look ______?” (funny)
or Ziggy asks for help since he keeps saying the wrong word and then says sentences like, “Let’s read a look together.” (“No, a book!”)
Or, take common objects (pen, spoon, sock, book) and have the child pick one up and try to rhyme, using a real or a made-up word, as long as it rhymes. He picks up the sock and says, “bock”.
I hope this helps. Focus heavily on rhyming for a couple of weeks, keeping it fun but workin at it consistently, and then let me know how it is going. Let me know if you have any questions.
Christiane
says:Thank you for this wonderful teaching. I would like to know the criterias I can use to demonstrate listening to my child. Thanks
Suzanne Ingram
says:OMG Thank you for teaching this veteran second-grade teacher how to teach rhyming. By second grade students are fluent with rhyming and I never gave it any thought. Now I’m working with kindergarten and I am lost. I have asked colleagues and get the same ideas over and over but they don’t work I thought I was just missing something. Yep! but so are they. These ideas will be put straight to use Monday morning. Thank you!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Suzanne. Rhyming can be difficult for some students to grasp, but they can learn! Let us know how it goes or if you need further help.
Sharon
says:My son just turned 6 and has started to read at probably the higher end of his class ability. However, I was volunteering at reading groups last week and I noticed my son had no idea how to rhyme! I’m now panicking because everyone else in his group came up with words easily. We read books and books every day since he was a newborn and read rhyming books all the time, I am surprised he hasn’t picked it up on his own, I just presumed he could rhyme! I am going to try these activities but is there any reasoning to how he could have missed all of this? We play games, talk, read, I thought he would have picked it up.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSharon,
It sounds like you did everything right! Many children will master rhyming through lots of exposure to language and books while toddlers and preschoolers. However, some children just don’t intuitively pick up rhyming; they need to be explicitly taught. The games and activities in this blog post can help you help your child get rhyming. In addition, sing lots of songs, especially ones with hand movements that go along, and stress the rhyming words. “Twinkle, twinkle little STAR. How I wonder what you ARE.”
Let me know how it goes. I suspect his abilities to detect and produce rhyme will improve quickly!
Carol
says:I realize rhyming activity is so important. I have used your example for my tutoring, very helpful.
Ruth
says:I’ve described rhyming as words that sound the similar to my daughter, and she understands how to rhyme generally. But the other day, I was reading a book with a character named Tracker and then a book with tractor, and she said, “Oh, they rhyme.” What is a better way to describe words that rhyme? I did explain that rhyming is words that sound the same at the end of the word, not the beginning. Is it that simple?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceRuth,
Your daughter has cleverly caught onto to “near rhyme”, also called “slant rhyme”, “half rhyme”, or “imperfect rhyme”. Poets use near rhyme frequently! Near rhymes are just one sound away from being perfect rhymes, like tracker and tractor or eye and symmetry (from William Blake’s poem “The Tyger”).
Very technically, a perfect rhyme is when two words are identical in sound beginning with the stressed syllable (aka accented syllable) of each word and remain identical sound for every syllable after that stressed syllable. This is why abreast and infest rhyme and father and other do not. The last syllables of abreast and infest are stressed, so they are the only part that have to have the same sounds in order to rhyme. However, father and other both have their first syllables stressed and since their first syllables are not identical in sound they do not rhyme, even though their second syllables are identical.
However, talking about stressed syllables with young children is probably not best. It is a difficult concept to grasp even in upper elementary. Rather, your definition that rhymes have to sound the same at the end of the word works quite well for little ones. You may want to talk to her about near rhymes as well, however, as she is likely to find more. They are fairly common in song lyrics. Praise her for hearing it even when she didn’t know what it was!
Eli’s Mom
says:I did this with my son and I couldn’t believe how fast he caught on. If rhyming is an indicator of how well he will read and spell, we’re looking good so far!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceIt’s great your son caught on to rhyming so quickly! Way to go!
Gaby
says:These look like fun activities to teach rhyming. I’m going to try the wagon activity here in the next couple days. Thank you for making them available!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Gaby. The wagon activity was a favorite in my home!
Nikadomi
says:Thank you very much for making the materials available. They’re great!
Karla
says:I have noticed recently my kindergartener has trouble creating his own rhyming words. Neeed the remindern of how much it helps the reading process.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceKarla,
Yes, the ability to rhyme does help with learning to read. If you work with your kindergartner for a while and find isn’t improving with his rhyming skills, please let us know so that we can help you help him have success with this.
Sarah
says:I never thought to assess my four year old daughter’s rhyming ability, but she passed with flying colors! Thanks for the two tests.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome for the assessments, Sarah.
Many young ones do pick up on rhyming and other phonological awareness skills easily and naturally, but occasionally a child will need to be explicitly taught them. Assessing your child when they are still little allows you to build up these foundational skills, if necessary, before it becomes a problem.
It’s great to hear that your daughter is strong in rhyming!
Katie
says:Looking forward to using this program with my soon to be kindergartener in the fall.
latha raman
says:simple awesome method of teaching rhyming words to kindergarten kids thanku you so much its really working out for my students looking forward for many more of this kind
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceWe are happy to hear that this has been helpful for your student!
Sammi
says:My son had been loving this program!!! And loves the rhyming games!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSammi,
Thank you for letting us know that your son is loving the rhyming games!
Julie
says:Working on rhyming w my preschooler :)
DG
says:This is so helpful!
Monica
says:My daughter is having trouble rhyming words in pre-k. I am so glad I came across your page! Your blog has every tool from start to finish to help me work with my daughter on rhyming! Thank you!!!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome, Monica. Some children take a lot of exposure to rhyme to be able to recognize it and then a lot of recognizing it to be able to produce it. If your daughter keeps having trouble with rhyming, keep providing her opportunities to hear rhyming daily. Rhyming songs with hand movements and actions are especially effective with little ones, as the movements often occur with the rhymes and emphasize them. “Miss Mary Mack” comes to mind.
Court
says:interesting, will continue to rhyme with my two year old and check out some of these games!
Tanya
says:I am very interested in using these suggestions with my son.
Melanie
says:I love to sing rhyming songs with the grandkids, especially if we are outside. If we are on the swing set I sing the nursery rhyme Sing A Song of Sixpence, if we are walking up the steps to the deck we say One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, etc…….if they don’t hear the rhymes they will have a more difficult time recognizing them and producing them. Of course the most fun is reading to and with them!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMelanie,
Yes! Rhyming songs and games are especially great for helping small children with learning to rhyme as they typically have very predictable rhythms and often have accompanying hand movements that add a kinesthetic aspect to the learning. Clapping along with “Miss Mary Mack (Mack, Mack)” or having the spider climb up the water spout helps stress the rhyme for little ones.
Christiana Dahlberg
says:Both of my children struggled with rhyming. We’re there with one, and still working with the other. Thanks!
Alicia
says:Great ideas!
Tab
says:Excited to try the wagon game!
Dee Blum
says:Very informative!
Karen Lewis
says:Thanks so much for making these ideas available for free! As a veteran home-school mom, I often forget what we’ve done in the past, and am often not using the same curriculum as I used to. These little tips help to remind me about things I have forgotten through the years. Sometimes I rely to much on my experience and less on proven methods. Thanks again!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceKaren,
You are welcome, but please do not discount your personal experience! There is a lot to be learned by homeschooling for many years. As a veteran homeschool mom myself, I think the best approach is a balanced approached between personal experience and continuing teacher learning or relearning.
Jessica
says:Can’t wait to try some of these ideas with my daughters!
Michelle
says:We maybe skipped this for all the nonfiction.
Elya
says:I didn’t know this. I will be working extra hard on this with my 4 year old.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceElya,
It’s important to work on rhyming but be sure to make it fun too!
Jaimy
says:I would love this, my youngest struggles with reading I think this would be so good for him
Heather Smith
says:Great ideas! Going to try these with my youngest child.
Amy Mac
says:Thank you. Perfect timing. I need this for my last 5 year old and Kindergartener. (6th boy).
Dynal Roberson
says:I didn’t know that, but my kids have always enjoyed rhyming just the same!
Candace Doriety
says:Ahh! Makes perfect sense. I’ve written poems (that rhyme) since I was little and the kids prefer my reading over their daddy’s. ;-)
Nat
says:We have blocks that have pictures that rhyme together—-she likes that!
Sandra
says:Excellent! I remember my oldest child having difficulty with this – she would supply a word that started with the same phoneme as the first word! Eventually, she mastered rhyming and is an avid reader to this day. I currently teach a seventh-grader who has LD and he has difficulty recognizing the pattern in spelling words. I’m going to use these ideas with him – I think he’ll enjoy it and also pick up the patterns more easily. Thank you!
One more thing. I’ve seen my current student progress from a young man who feared writing (he said in May, “I have trouble spelling even the simplest of words!) to a much more confident writer who writes confidently, avoids reversals of “b” and “d” 98% of the time. He uses the skills he’s been taught to figure out the spelling of words that are new to him. His skills have also carried over into reading – we just finished up a fourth-grade basal and are into the fifth-grade reader.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSandra,
What amazing improvement for your student! I especially love that he is becoming more confident. Congratulations to both of you on his progress, and thank you for sharing it with us.
Carlie
says:I lovethis! Truly an answer to prayer on where to start with teaching reading!
Olivia
says:Knowing the importance of this skill inspires me to make more use of children’s poetry books we already own!
Mary
says:Love these activities! Just learned about the importance of this from my son’s speech pathologist.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMary,
What great timing for you to have these activities right after your speech pathologist spoke of rhyming! Have fun with these.
Tonia
says:Great tips
Pam
says:Thank-you for sharing great ideas on your site. We will enjoy playing “What’s in my Bag” We like to toss a ball back and forth sometimes when learning something, it is great for when you just got to move. Rhyming would be a great addition. Thanks!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServicePam,
Tossing a ball while learning is great! We have lots of other kinesthetic ideas too.
Rebeca
says:I love these tips. Thanks so much! I’m going to apply them with my first grader!
Jenn A
says:Fun ideas! Thanks!
Christy
says:Thank you for sharing very helpful
Jackquelynne
says:I appreciate all of the information and tips provided on the AALP website. It really helps us new homeschoolers navigate the terrifying waters of reading instruction! Thank you for all you provide!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome, Jackquelynne! We are happy to help in these ways.
Magela
says:I will be implementing some of these ideas with my daughter. Thank you.
Angela
says:I love all these tips! Thank you!
Marie-Paule Hill
says:I think your site is wonderful and informative. I love all the free activities and tips that you give! I can’t wait for the next post!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMarie-Paule,
We will be taking a break for the holidays, but we have some wonderful new content planned for after the New Year!
Cathy Pell
says:My son is excelling at this program when public school left him behind.
Veronica
says:Love the activities and customer service!
KATHERINE JANE WALKE
says:We love the games you provide! Thank you!
Leanna
says:Thank you for sharing the breakdown of the learning stages of rhyming. I now see that my daughter is only at stage 2. I am definitely going to play the games mentioned here to help her out.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceLeanna,
We’re happy to help with this. Have fun moving into stage 3 of rhyming!
Deanna
says:Great tips. I never connected this ability and its stages to reading. This is reassuring insight for me as I have a slow reader, but I can see how he is going through these stages and growing in his reading. We listen to a lot of music and I think that has influenced his rhyming ability more so. Also, our curriculum has a daily poetry reading which my be helping, too.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceDeanna,
Yes, the poetry reading will definitely help. I find it especially effective to read aloud each poem two or three times. I read through it the first time to give us the overall sound and feel of it. Then we discuss aspects of it, like the rhyme pattern, the use of alliteration, metaphor, or other things. Then I read it again so they can pay special attention to what we just discussed. You could do something similar with the rhymes to help your child start to hear them better.
Deena
says:Thank you for all the info. I never really thought of rhyming being so important in this way. I have a couple who struggle with this and i plan to try some of your ideas
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceDeena,
Rhyming is an important aspect of phonological awareness, which is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds of language. Since English is primarily a phonetic language, these skills are very important for reading success.
Jerolyn Hardy
says:Excellent article! We home educated our four older children who are all grown now. Some of my children took to rhyming like a duck does to water and some struggled with it. When they were young, we would be in our van running errands, going to various lessons, and I would play rhyming games with them as we drove around! It was so much fun for them. I fear children now drive around with their parents and watch dvds and scroll the internet. Their ability to rhyme was indicative of their natural success with reading. I am now home-educating our caboose! I have heard such wonderful things about AAR and I would love to use level 1 to teach my budding reader! I have used many phonics programs since 1994.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceJerolyn,
I did similar sorts of rhyming games while driving and grocery shopping with my kids! I have such fond memories. Now they are much older, and we use driving time to discuss much more advanced things like current events, history, and science.
Anna
says:These are excellent ideas! I appreciate how you have broken it down into stages and added activities for each.
Brenda
says:I am so excited to work on these ideas with my 3 year old!
Kristen
says:Thank you for all your wonderful ideas!
Heather
says:Thank you for these great resources! I am excited for the library list and game.
Megan
says:What great ideas! Thank you so much for the free activities. They will be the perfect addition to our work this week.
Kathy
says:Wish I had information earlier. One of my children couldn’t rhyme easily at all, and she really struggled learning to read.
Iisha B
says:This was very informative.
Rebecca Bledsoe
says:This is so great and a big help! Thank you you!
Stephanie
says:Thank you so much for this article! Until we started All About Reading Pre-reading, I didn’t realize that my son struggled with rhyming. I didn’t even assess it because I assumed that everyone just “got it.”
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI had a similar experience with my third child, Stephanie. My older two kids got rhyming easily, so it shocked me when my third was 5 and still struggling with it. However, with lots of work, he did learn to rhyme.
Virginia Schultz
says:I am excited to include rhyming in my curriculum of teaching my 3-year old granddaughter.
Rebecca
says:I’ve actually had this confirmed with my four year old in the last few weeks.
Amanda
says:Thanks for the great ideas. My son struggles a little with rhyming words.
Sara
says:Very helpful post! Can’t wait to do the activities with my kids!
Tiffany
says:Good reminder! Thanks for the extra games/ideas!
Charlene
says:Thanks for the great ideas.
Marisa
says:Loved this post! Adding some rhyme time into our plans for tomorrow.
Tammie P.
says:I’m new to doing this with my almost 5 year old. I have soooo much to learn and it can be very intimidating
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceTammie,
We don’t want you to be intimidated! No, we want to help homeschool parents feel encouraged and supported. Is there a way we can help you to feel more confident as you begin teaching your child?
Deb
says:Thanks for the great ideas and downloads
Gerald Anawak
says:Never really though of rhyming for learning, I am just learning now about learning, this is a great learning environment website, I am happy I stumbled upon this site, thank you very much
Amery
says:Good ideas!
Averie
says:My 7 year old son still thinks that a word rhymes if it ends with the same letter. But he seems to get the basic idea! Thank you for this article, good info. I think I’ll have to work on this a bit with my son :)
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAverie,
Rhyming can be very difficult for some children. Spending time daily hearing rhyme and working on rhyme can help. Please let us know how it goes or if you need further help.
Van-Khanh
says:Great games. I like them.
LA
says:I love your blogs! I have been reading rhyming books to my daughter since birth. She’s 3 now and has been rhyming for about 6-9 months already. I do think encouraging rhyming is one of the best ways to get a child to learn how to read!
Brittani S.
says:Great suggestions!
Chelsea Green
says:Fun ideas
Katie S
says:Interesting to hear about the three stages of learning to rhyme. Thanks for the play and learn ideas!
Holly
says:So cool! Can’t wait to try it with my two youngest!!
Christine
says:My son is recognizing rhymes. He will come up and tell me that something rhymes with something else. It’s so cool to watch them learn and grow. He seems to show off his skills when it’s not ‘school time’.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceChristine,
Isn’t it wonderful when what was taught during school comes up elsewhere with enthusiasm? It’s one of the best parts of teaching for me.
Jess
says:We are on lesson 6 now of pre-reading. My son loves the rhyming memory game with the yellow cards and has it mastered, but later today he got so excited because he was playing upstairs and came down to tell me that “five and nine, they rhyme!” He has a speech disorder so it may take him a little longer to get it, but hopefully it will come.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceHe isn’t far wrong, Jess. When het gets to studying poetry in depth, probably high school, he will learn about “near rhyme”. Five and nine are near rhymes.
Alisa
says:I love the book suggestions. My daughter and I have so much fun checking out some of these suggestions from the library. Thank you!
Lynne
says:Helpful information, thank you!
Jean
says:Great info!!
Js
says:My kids love fun games that involve rhyming. It really makes learning fun!
Joy Lockwood
says:Thanks for sharing! This is great info!
Stephanie
says:I was unaware of the importance of rhyming. It makes sense and glad information like this is provided freely to help my son. He is doing very well on the program. He looks forward to reading now. He used to hate it until we started this curriculum. He sees his progress and no longer feels defeated. Thank you!!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceStephanie,
We are so excited to hear that your son is not only making progress but seeing his own progress! That is very important for confidence and confident learners have less struggle.
Renee
says:Rhyming is something I never thought was that important and kind of ignored it for the most part. Wow! I hope I will see a change in my reluctant reader after I begin teaching rhyming!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceRenee,
Yes, rhyming and other phonological awareness skills like being about to identify the first or last sound in words are very important reading readiness skills, but they are often overlooked. Everyone knows students need to know the alphabet, but being able to hear and manipulative the sounds of language is just as important.
Emily
says:We’ve been doing some of these activities already, and some that I have yet to download. My daughter enjoys the ones we have!
HDaniel
says:I can not wait to try all of these suggestions. My kids always think its the first sound the word makes no matter how many rhyming books I read and gentle corrections I give. Hopefully these will work.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceRhyming doesn’t come naturally for many children and they need exposure again and again and again before they can get it. These activities can help provide some other ways to work with rhyme, but don’t be discouraged if they don’t help the first time you play them.
Make a focus to expose your children to rhyming language every day. Read lots of rhyming books, read or sing nursery rhymes, play rhyming games, sing songs, read and recite poems. Basically, spend 5 or 10 minutes daily with hearing rhyme.
When a child has a problem with a phonological awareness activity like rhyming, Marie tries to turn it into a kinesthetic activity as much possible. Our “Get Out of the Wagon” game is one way to do this. However, clapping games like Miss Mary Mack and children’s songs with hand movements like Itsy Bitsy Spider are wonderful kinesthetic activities for rhyming.
Another idea to help a child with rhyming is to give a wrong answer and allow the child to correct you. Page 10 of our “In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra” ebook found in our Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness blog post has an example of this. However, you can make it easier to help your kids have more success by actually touching or pointing to the thing you say wrong. Touch your head and say, “This is my lead. Right? Is this my lead?” Then your child can correct you say, “No, Mom, that’s your head!” Then you can make a little rhyme, “This is not my lead; it is my head! Lead and head rhyme! Lead, head. Lead, -ead, -ead, head.” And it’s all done as a silly little game that you can play with no preparation anywhere, even standing in line at the store.
Work with both hearing and recognizing rhyme daily for a few weeks and see if your kids improve in their abilities to recognize it. Let us know how it goes.
Donna Mauney
says:Didn’t realize there are 3 stages of learning rhymes! Very helpful info! Thanks!
Eva
says:I am half way through level one reading and I must say I am very impressed with the program. I have been homeschooling for 24 years and have used several programs. However, when my last two children (twins) were struggling no matter what I tried I was at a loss. My friend recommended All About Reading for children who have reading difficulties. It is just the right curriculum. It is easy to follow, lots of practice, no pressure to complete a lesson each day, the child’s mastery of the concept sets the pace for teaching each lesson, and the stories keep the children’s interest. We are also using All About Spelling and we love it also. The spelling program is great for children who have dysgraphia. They can master the words with the tiles before being asked to use pencil and paper.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Eva! We really appreciate feedback from homeschool veterans like you.
Beccam
says:This is one of those things you read and then feel like you are doing something right. My son and I make up rhymes all of the time. He loves it.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceBeccam,
Rhyming is such a fun game to play with your children. When my children were little time in the car was game time with rhyming, counting, finding the ABCs in order on signs, and so on. It was always fun but it was great learning too!
Tawnya
says:Thank you for all of these great activities. Definitely keeps learning fun!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome, Tawnya. We hope you and your student has a lot of fun with these activities!
Shannon
says:I want to try this program
Hilary
says:My little kids love rhyming! So many fun and simple ways to get rhyming into our daily lives!
Pilar
says:It’s a good experience to teach the students different rhyming words.. Learn is fun…
Alison
says:I appreciate the breakdown into 3 steps- makes it so easy to understand and apply. I used AAR with 2 of my kids and loved it. I will now be intentional about teaching rhyming to my 3 year old!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAlison,
I’m glad to hear that our three steps will make teaching rhyming to your 3-year-old easier!
kaylani
says:i tried a few and the child was laughing and having fun.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceKaylani,
Thank you for letting us know your child found a few of these so fun!
Amthul
says:Very motivating for kids. Can you suggest few tips on how to make lesson plans for these kids with reading and spelling.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAmthul,
I’m not sure what you are asking for. Our All About Reading and All About Spelling programs have lessons already planned out. If you are asking how to plan ahead how much you will cover each day, we recommend setting a timer and working for twenty minutes, stopping when the timer goes off and placing a bookmark in the Teacher’s Manual. This allows children to progress at just the right pace for their own unique needs.
Jennifer M.
says:We love Ziggy! We just finished Pre-K with our oldest and looking forward to getting him out again with our almost 4 year old.
Joyce
says:Great idea on body parts—very motivating for kids.
Wendy
says:great ideas. I like off the wagon
April Kohl
says:This is great. I didn’t realize there were steps. I am going to download these activities and play them in “Gramma School” Thank you!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceApril,
“Gramma School” sound like it would be fun!
Pushpa
says:Really it’s a wonderful n easiest way to provide knowledge to the kids.My 3.5yrs daughter takes more interest in the activity “what’s in my bag”…..thanx for your efforts done for all the kids to make their studies so simple n enjoyable….
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome! Have fun playing and learning with your daughter.
Katrina
says:LOVE this!! My 3-year-old finds rhyming hilarious and is constantly making up his own rhymes! I think I just might have to get him this program!!
Amber
says:I recommend it! I have looked at a bunch of materials and none are as easy to teach from nor as richly helpful to your child’s progression as this program (for reading and spelling). Good luck!
Marshall Bullock
says:Just discovered your blog today, and I must say I am impressed. After teaching preschool for 25 years, I was looking for some fresh, new ideas, and you have so many! My printer is running now with your things, and I’ve saved many of your blog posts. Thank you for your efforts, and for providing them free. I have a small in-home preschool and saving on cost is necessary!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMarshall,
You are welcome. We are glad to be able to help like this.
Jennifer
says:My 3 1/2 year-old daughter absolutely adores Ziggy and the wagon game. She asks for them constantly! THANK YOU!!!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Jennifer. :D
Alayna
says:My children both love rhyming books and songs, but haven’t begun to rhyme on their own yet. I will try some of your games and ideas and see if we can’t develop this skill!
Erin Schwartz
says:In supporting children with a hearing loss, rhyming is very difficult. There are times when I cringe when spelling lists are all rhyming words. Your blog was a helpful perspective as to why rhyming is a skill. While not an especially easy task, it can be taught. While the thrill of listening to rhymes might be tricky, when it is paired with its visual rhyme (cat, bat, mat), it isn’t as overwhelming. Thank you for the reminder as to why we rhyme.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceErin,
I’m glad you found this blog post informative.
AbbyGale
says:Love the correlation with rhyming and poetry. I feel so strongly about rhyming and learning early to appreciate the musical nature of poetic composition. These are such great activities which I plan to use over and over. Thank you so much for these tips.
Michelle
says:My preschooler is actually better at rhyming than my kindergartener. Any tips to help her or will these work well with her too?
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceMichelle,
I know this post is titled “Teaching Rhyming to Preschoolers”, but the tips and activities outlined in it would apply to a wide range of ages. I used similar techniques with my son when he was 6 and 7 and still struggling with rhyming. The activities in this post come from All About Reading Pre-reading Level, which I have used with Kindergarten aged children twice now.
So, yes, these will work well with your Kindergartner too.
Kara
says:This was so helpful–really inspired me to do more rhyming reading/activities with my preschooler. Thank you!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceKara,
You are welcome. Have lots of fun with it too!
Renae B.
says:I am always looking for additional hands-on ideas for preschool. I appreciate the fun printable activities from the program.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceRenae,
Glad to help you make it fun!
Karrie
says:Love it!
Kristin
says:Thank you! This was a good reminder, as my older kids get older sometimes the younger games get moved aside and rhyming games get forgotten.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceKristin,
I experienced this too, especially right around the time my older two started into high school. I found setting aside a time just for younger activities every day was necessary to get it in, and give the youngers the attention they needed.
Deana
says:We love to play “Rhyming I Spy.” It is a great game for when you are waiting, like at the doctor’s office. I say “I spy something that rhymes with bear.” And they have to find the chair. So fun.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceDeana,
Great game idea! It’s always great to have an activity or two at the ready for when you have to do some boring waiting, and this one lets them work on an important skill at the same time. Thanks for sharing.
Deborah
says:I think the first song my kids knew by heart was 5 Little Monkeys! We read tons of Dr Suess, and other rhyming books from birth also.
joanne altom
says:rhyming is fun for the little ones!
Melissa Ford
says:I downloaded the rhyming wagon game and have been playing it with my struggling reader this past week. My four year old loves it and colored some of the pictures for us. The large and easy to recognize pictures make my struggling reader feel confident and happy to join in the fun!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceMelissa,
It’s great to hear that this activity has been so good for your struggling reader!
Anne
says:I loved this post and it was so helpful to me.
For some reason I always associated rhyming with poetry and as I don´t like classical poetry very much I never put much emphasis on rhyming. But after reading this article I will for sure ;).
We leave abroad, speak 2 languages at home and all together our kids grow up with 4 languages.
Next summer we will have to start with homeschooling so this summer while being State site I had to decide on a curriculum to take back with us. Not an easy task, considering our uncommon situation.
I as a not native speaker will have to teach a native speaker growing up with 4 languages, help ;).
Well I feel God led me to AAR and AAS and I am so excited.
I also love all the Freebies and helpful Blogg Posts.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceAnne,
We have had great reports from parents whose first language is not English using AAR and AAS.
Rhyming is a lot more than classical poetry. Here is a blog post about books that explore fun, non-traditional poetry.
However, you might consider rethinking some classical poetry. Forget analyzing it to death (which is pretty much the only way most schools do poetry) and just read some once a week for a while. There are some great anthologies out there to help you explore poetry with your kids. Even my engineering minded students found at least one or two classic poets that they enjoyed, and there are plenty of more modern poets that are wonderful. Lord Byron, Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, and Banjo Patterson are all favorites here. Classic Poetry by Michael Rosen (Editor) is a great book to start with.
Kim Starr
says:Ziggy is great! I tried it out today with Kindergarten students who are learning to rhyme. We got dramatic when we responded to Ziggy’s incorrect names for body parts, such as: tin for chin, lace for face and deck for neck. Fun. Funny. Fabulous. Thank you very much!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceKim,
You are welcome. :D Ziggy is almost always a huge hit!
Dawn Brown
says:We love All About Spelling & are looking forward to using All About Reading as well! :) Great products!
Rachel
says:I love rhyming! Although I’m not sure my five year old loves it. Some days it seems like she totally gets it, others I’m not so sure. ;-) She loves making up nonsense rhymes though.
kate
says:this is so helpful!
Anna
says:Not only could my son not produce a rhyme, he became angry when I would read a rhyming book to him, like it hurt him. He was the only kid I know who hated Dr. Seuss. We started homeschooling last year, and my sister started a game with him, a ‘nursery rhyme challenge’ or nursery rhyme battles. She lives far away, so they would write letters, or talk on the phone. She commented last week after seeing him that he can remember the nursery rhymes, and a year ago he could not. He just turned 10.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceAnna,
I haven’t heard of a child become angry when listening to rhyming books, but I do know some dislike them a lot. Your sister did a wonderful thing with your son.
Thank you for sharing his struggles.
Pyra
says:Similarly, my son strongly disliked rhymes and rhyming books. He never enjoyed Dr. Seuss and was constantly annoyed at books that rhymed. We did many rhyming activities such as singing Miss Mary Mack. He would participate, but he enjoyed the story line and the movement of the songs instead of the rhyming. He is also 10.
We would go through the alphabet, subbing different consonants at the beginning to create words that ended with –ack, –ing, or something similar. It was OK for the words to be nonsense words as long as they rhymed. Later, we would go back through and determine which words were real and which were nonsense. This was helpful when he had poetry assignments where rhyming couplets were required.
Angela
says:Thank you for the activity. Printing it now and look forward to seeing more All About Spelling products.
WL
says:Without rhyming they don’t see the connection of sounds to letter patterns.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceYes, and rhyming is only the beginning of phonological awareness skills needed to be able to manipulate sounds well for reading.
Mary
says:I absolutely love your downloads! I’m a private reading tutor and have found
them useful, very practical. Your website is user-friendly as well. Thanks so much!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceMary, you are welcome!
Amye
says:I have just started homeschooling my daughter (5) who is quite dyslexic. We are using the All About Learning pre-reading program- we ordered the whole kit with puppet and all. We are a little discouraged and frustrated because she absolutely cannot hear a rhyme. We’ve been doing each rhyming activity listed in the book but it’s usually ends in frustration. Should we continue to try or skip these parts and try again later or persevere through the torture of not getting it?!
We love the curriculum!
Thanks.
Sarah
says:My first dyslexic child always loved rhymes, but the next one can’t get it. We plowed through the pre-reading level, anyway. At six and a half we just recently began level 1. He still struggles with rhyme, but as he learns to read words he is beginning to see how some word endings look and sound the same. He is getting a visual of rhyming words, which seems to help him connect the sounds. Previously, when asked to find words that rhyme, he would pick words that begin with the same sound instead. He has a speech delay and would leave off ending sounds in the early years. His hearing tests fine, so it must be a processing issue. I don’t know whether your child’s issue is the same, but I hope this helps. I was very discouraged, but we are finally making progress. These precious ones of ours don’t all learn the same way or in the same time frame, but they’ll get there. Keep pressing on, mama. You are not alone.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceSarah,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I just want to add that what you described sounds a lot like Auditory Processing Disorder.
Debbie
says:Oh my, sounds familiar! My 2.5 year old was leaving off the end of EVERY word too, or should I say only pronounces the beginning of every word – ballon, bunny, blue, baby – all were “BU” – for ever. I’m sure he’s dyslexic, as my 12 year old is – who is working on AAR4 & AAS3…. last year he did AAR2 & 3, and started 4. The 2 year old has had speech therapy for a few months now, and I don’t know if it’s helping to progress any faster, but finally this week he can say ‘mommy’ completely – it’s so sweet, and has begun speaking 2 word or 2 syllables at a time now. I think he will get to read all the rhyming books I’m working with my 4 year old (non-dyslexic)…. anything to not struggle as much as my 12 year old does…. who by the way still barely gets rhyming.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceDebbie,
Oh, I know that joy of having your 2.5-year-old finally able to address you. With my son, he had no word for me at all until he was almost 3, when he finally after a couple months of speech therapy said, “Mama,” for the first time. Now he is 14 and I many times I wish he would forget how to talk! (Not really, of course, but sometimes I do wish he would talk less and focus more.) :D
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceAmye,
I’m sorry that your daughter is struggling with the rhyming games and getting frustrated there.
The ability to rhyme helps phonological awareness, which in turn helps reading. But the absolute most important precursor for reading is “motivation to read,” so I’d back off on the rhyming activities with a child who was very resistant, and would concentrate on the other skill areas.
Instead of the Pre-reading rhyming activities, try reading lots of rhyming books to her. Nursery rhymes, rhyming games, songs, poems … anything that she wouldn’t mind hearing over and over again. Play (or sing or read aloud) with rhyming for a few minutes each day, but keep it light hearted and fun.
When a child has a problem with a phonological awareness activity, Marie tries to turn it into a kinesthetic activity, when possible. Let them “feel” what we are asking for. This can work with rhyming too: clapping games like Miss Mary Mack can add a kinesthetic activity. Activity engaging kids in a play routine is much more effective.
Rhyming songs are good, because they let kids experience what we mean in a different way. Start with songs she is already very familiar with, and ask her to supple the rhyming word. “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you …?” Since the song is already very familiar, she may find supplying the rhyme easier. If she can’t supply the rhyme, don’t go to the point of frustration. Rather, just sing the song but really stress the rhyming words for her. “The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water SPOUT. Down came the rain, and washed the spider OUT.”
So, focus on the non-rhyming activities (learning letters, aspects of the Language Exploration that don’t require her to have to produce rhyme etc…) and build up her ear for rhyming through ways that don’t require her to respond right now. You could also read through the Pre-reading activities to get ideas for how you can playfully incorporate rhyming into some games later, in a few months. Then, even if she has an aversion to the book in relation to rhyme, you’ll have ideas you can use when she’s ready. You could also try using Ziggy as a model: alter some of the dialog so that Ziggy either models a concept (instead of asking your daughter to answer), or you can answer things instead of her.
My son used to like it if I would give a wrong answer and he could say what the right answer was. You could experiment with that type of approach to see if your daughter responds better. For example, when Ziggy points to a shoulder and says it’s a “holder,” you could say, “No Ziggy, that’s not a holder, it’s a BOULDER! Isn’t that right, daughter?” Then she has the option of just saying no, or saying “no, it’s a shoulder!”
When your daughter starts to have success with rhyming, you can start the Language Exploration activities over again, or you can start your own activities keeping the stages of rhyming explained in this blog post in mind. Let us know how it goes, and if we can help in any further way.
Carol
says:Great ideas all! Love the body parts misidentification. Fun!
Can be used with older children, too, for spelling: e.g. key/knee, put/foot, sky/eye.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceCarol,
Be careful with that, holding off on having students spell rhyming words that are spelled differently until they have already learned, practiced, and mastered the individual patterns. Many kids could assume that all words just have random spellings that must be memorized if they are presented with multiple ways to spell the same sound all at once without having the opportunity to master each one before another is introduced (the way AAS does it).
However, if you did this activity as a review, after the student has already learned the words, then this could be a fun way to practice spelling.
Tracy Longuevan
says:Thanks for explaining the different stages of learning to rhyme. This is so helpful.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome. :D
Tracy
says:Thanks for sharing so much wonderful information! Can’t wait to get started with this with my little man.
Jessica
says:I am so thrilled with the progress my girls have both made so far this year, with the pre reading level for my four year old and level 1 with my 6 year old. My 6 year old struggled in kindergarten last year with reading and grew so frustrated that she would just sit in class and do nothing. We brought her home this year and haved LOVED level 1, she has just taken off and is flying through her lessons with smiles and so much success. We are using the Phonics Road along side AAR and both curriculums are an answer to prayer! thank you!
Thanks for the rhyming tips, my four year old loves to rhyme and my six year loves joining in the fun with Ziggy too! Your curriculum went way beyond expectations!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceJessica,
Thank you for sharing your experiences with AAR this year! It’s great to hear how well your 6 year old is doing after the difficulties she had last year.
Cindy
says:Thank you for your info about rhyming
Samantha
says:Marie, this is such excellent material. I wish I’d had this post years ago when I needed it for some of my children! Having had my first child (a daughter) who could rhyme well at age 2, I think, I struggled with some of the others who didn’t seem to get it. And yet I knew rhyming was an important l skill for reading. I wish I knew about those three stages so I could have helped scaffold their learning instead of just feeling frustrated when they couldn’t produce rhymes.
You explain things so well. Thanks for sharing this. I’ll be sharing this information as the opportunity arises.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceSamantha,
I, too, wish I had this information years ago when my 3rd child was 6 and still unable to produce a rhyme. I didn’t know it had to be taught to some kids; I just assumed it was a natural thing that all kids pick up like walking and talking. I was finally able to teach him to rhyme, and then to read, but things would have been much easier if All About Reading was available then.
Teresa
says:We love rhyming here. So much so, that when the activity for the day involves dropping the first sound and just repeating the last, my ds throws out a rhyme instead. LOL. He is getting better at it though! Would love the next level. I thought I had it but turns out, I don’t.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceTeresa,
When mine were younger, we would rhyme in the car. It was a silly game, with no rules except rhyme and no winners, but it made drive time go quicker and the kids enjoyed it.
Jodie Caillouet
says:We have just started level 1 Reading . My daughter is excited about reading. I love the way the program is setup, there’s no stress as how to implement the program. I would definitely recommend All About Reading.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceThank you for your recommendation, Jodie!
Melissa Ford
says:Thank you for this post and for all of your hard work to create this curriculum. You make the lessons easy to follow and have a simple plan to follow.
Suzanne Filz
says:My 4 year old loves to rhyme thanks to the prereading program and is already asking for the AAR level 1 that I have sitting in the shelf. You guys make learning so much fun and stress free for both of us!
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Suzanne. It’s great that AAR has been fun and stress free for you and your child.