Rhyming words

The aim of the game:

Finding out about words that rhyme. Learning opportunities: Rhyming helps children to understand how words are built, in preparation for learning to read. It also helps them to store words so they can use them when needed. How to do it: Introduce the idea of rhyming by saying that “Rhyming is when words sound nearly the same.” Give examples by saying “Cat and hat” they rhyme. So do mat, fat, rat and sat. After you’ve given lots of examples say “Let’s think of something that rhymes with house”.

Encourage the child by giving them ideas of words that might rhyme and saying them next to each other, e.g. “House and mouse – they rhyme. What about house and dog? They don’t”. Some children may take quite a while to learn about rhyming. If it’s too difficult just yet, come back to this activity later.

Too difficult? Sharing books with the child, especially those with lines that rhyme, is a really useful way of finding out about rhyming. When you come across rhyming words, point them out – “Oh, look those words rhyme – fly and why”.

Too easy? Ask the child to come up with new words to rhyme with a word that you say, e.g. “How many words can you think of to rhyme with four?” It’s fine to include made-up or nonsense words in the list.