Step 3 – Extend the Foundation With Chants These two things – rhymes and books – are certainly not rocket science, but are crucial in giving children a platform onto which they can later build. The more children are able to repeat rhymes, the better they will internalize them. A good example is Hairy Maclary, or The Smartest Giant In Town. I particularly like ones where the rhymes repeat a lot. Check out some fantastic songs to play with a parachute here. These are songs like Twinkle Twinkle, Wind The Bobbin Up, and all that kind of thing. It is important for children to have a foundation of repetitive songs and rhymes to build on later. Start as easy as you possibly can when teaching rhyme.
Right – onwards to building a foundation… Step 2 – Build A Foundation For Rhyme There is some research that points to the difficulty in learning rhyme for many children ( Source).īut please relax! Many children will learn to read whole books independently before they can complete a rhyming string.
I understand it can be frustrating, as so many children are able to learn many other skills in early reading before rhyme. There is no point in either the adult or child becoming stressed about rhyming! This is really counter-productive. The other major pitfall is to get stressed! So start easy (as I’ll show you in Step 2 onwards). This is a bad place to be, and a tricky habit to get out of.
Rhyming words for kindergarten how to#
When children don’t know how to do something, a lot of them will guess. Or ‘Whiskers’, or some other strange word association idea like that. You might say, ‘What’s a rhyme of cat?’ Children will often say something like, ‘Dog’. This is a key pitfall in other areas of phonics as well, particularly in blending (find out what blending is and how to teach it here).Īsking a child to complete a rhyming string is an example of this (hint – don’t start with this!). This happens when children are set a rhyming challenge that is too difficult for them, and so they just make up the answer. The thing to avoid at all costs is children guessing. There are a few things that you want to avoid to help the process of teaching rhyme to go more smoothly, and be much quicker. This is one of the key principles behind the 100+ ideas and activities that I demonstrate in my online course Phase 1 Phonics Toolbag.Īnyway, let’s dive into the seven step plan. Success breeds success in rhyme! So begin with activities that they literally cannot get wrong, and expand from there. So try not to get stressed! Teachers and parents around the world have issues with rhyming, and they always will, so you are definitely not alone.īut if you start as easy as you possibly can with rhyme, and follow the following steps in order, then your chances of success become much greater! It is mainly one of many tools to help children begin to read. Then extend to games where they are starting to think of their own rhymes with support.Īn important thing to remember is that rhyming is not the be-all-and-end-all. To teach rhyming to struggling students you should begin with simple chants, songs and books. However, there are some steps you can put in place, to help children maximize their potential in this area at least.įollow these in order, and you are much more likely to see success. In ten years of teaching young children, I have seen many children learn to read fluently, and still not be able to complete a rhyming string. Use similar games to work with small groups of students who are struggling to hear or produce rhyming sounds.Rhyming is a very hard concept, and a lot of children take a long time to understand it. Make up nonsense words and have kids think of another word that rhymes, like "zake" and "yake." Five-year-olds enjoy being silly. Lead the class in brief rhyming activities every day. Practice rhyming often with whole and small groups. For example, say, "Down and around getting ready to mix, that's the way we write a six". Make up rhymes associated with each number. Use rhyming when teaching concepts like number writing. Kindergarten instruction focuses on reading and math. Incorporate rhyming into other academic subjects. Children enjoy hearing these stories and learn to hear predictable rhyming patterns as you read them. Choose from nursery rhymes and other poems as well as children's books that are written in rhyme, such as the books of Dr. Say a word like "cat," then give several rhyming words like "rat," "hat" and "mat." It won't take long for most students to catch on and begin participating themselves. The main way they will come to understand this is by hearing you give examples often. Tell your class that rhyming words sound alike at the end.