This month’s when you only have a minute post is focused on rhyming words. Giving children the time and opportunity to practice rhyming can truly help their literacy skills; research has proven it. For information on why rhyming is important for little ones and for practical ideas, pop over to Fun-A-Day for a series of easy-to-read posts. If you’re here to grab the freebie keep on going!
These Rhyming Words activities are intentionally supposed to be quick and easy to reinforce and consolidate your child’s learning.
How to Prepare
- Print off the coloured or black and white rhyming cards. For longer use, print onto cardstock or laminate.
- Cut out the squares so you have 12 pairs of rhyming cards
How to Play
Memory: for individuals or pairs
- Children place the cards face down in a grid pattern
- They take it in turns to flip over 2 cards. If they are rhyming pairs they keep them, if not, both cards are turned face down again
- Once all the pairs have been discovered the winner is the child with the most pairs
- Differentiate by giving out fewer or more pairs. This pack has 12 pairs in total = 24 cards.
Rhyming Sentences: (individually, pairs or small groups)
- Give a child one card and ask them to create a rhyming sentence based on that card. For eg, if given the picture of a fox they might say (or write) ‘that fox is wearing socks in a box.’
Flash me a Rhyme: (pairs)
- Two children sit facing each other with half the cards in front of each of them in a pile, face down.
- They take it in turns to flip a card over and place on a centre pile.
- Both children should try and say a word that rhymes with the card just flipped
- If that card rhymes with the previously flipped card, the children should slap their hand on top of those cards and say ‘it’s a match!’
- They play until they have no more cards in their personal piles (since the maximum number would be 12, it’s very fast). Print off more cards if you’d like the game to last longer.
You can download your free copy of Rhyming Words here.
If you’re looking for more rhyming words fun take a look at these rhyme mazes. Children find their way through the mazes by following the rhyming words. There are also recording sheets included for focusing on beginning, middle and ending sounds as well as writing out whole words. This means the activity can be adjusted easily for children at different levels.
There are 32 mazes and you can choose colour or black and white for printing.
I hope you get lots of use out of this learning pack and wish you happy teaching and learning!
