Activities Using Rhyming, Alliteration and Nonsense Sequences,
and Sound Judgment Rhyming
The rhyming tasks have been divided into three levels of complexity (knowledge,
discrimination, and production) listed from least difficult (receptive activities) to most
difficult (expressive tasks)
Knowledge of rhyme (receptive)
1. Determine if pairs of words rhyme
(Do the words cat and bat rhyme?)
2. Play games like “Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Susan over.” Have fun modifying the
words to the game; for example, “Dear Clyde, dear Clyde, we call John to our side”,
“My dear, my dear, we call Terry over here.”
3. Use guessing games as a means for drawing children‟s attention to rhymes. You can
play I Spy rhyme play by using pictures that are full of rhyming pairs (a dog and a frog;
a hook and a book) or by using books like Moose on the Loose.
Discrimination of rhyme (receptive)
1. Teach your child to categorize or group
together pictures of real objects on the
basis of shared sounds. Hat could be
grouped with bat and rat, because they
share the same end sounds.
2. Play rhyme oddity games.
For example, which word does not belong: sat/mat/bat/sun; feet/cat/meet?
3. Play sound matching games. Play rhyming charades and have students act out two
words that rhyme; play Go Fish or Memory with rhyming pairs.
4. Have your child choose objects from a bag and indicate whether the objects rhyme or
not (bat, can, fan, frog, pan). This activity could be modified to emphasize a particular
sound: Children could take turn choosing objects and indicating whether they start
with the targeted sound.
Productive of rhyme (expressive)
1. Play Simon Says. The task Simon Says say a word that rhymes with ball could be
simplified by providing more cues or information: Simon Says say a word that rhymes
with ball; I’ll give you a hint I’m very t___.
2. Have your child make up rhyming words about a particular topic or themes. For
example, outdoor words – fun, sun, run, hide, ride slide.
3. Have your child tell you words that rhyme. Tell me a word that rhymes with hop.
4. Play a guessing game. (The word rhymes with pop and bunny rabbits do this, they
_____.) You could simplify this task by choosing words within a theme such as
animals. For example, A fish named Jim was learning to _____.
5. Pass a rhyming ball – Start holding the ball and stating a word. Pass or toss the ball,
and the child says a word that rhymes. Use the list of one-syllable words for ideas.
6. Present pictures or objects and have your child generate as many words as he/she
can that rhyme.
Activities Using Nursery Rhymes, Other Rhymes, and Poems
1. Use a selection loaded heavily with pairs of rhyming words and
use peelable sticky notes to cover the rhyming pair so your child
can guess it. For example, use “Humpty Dumpty”:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great ______.
All the king‟s horses and all the king‟s men
Couldn‟t put Humpty together ______.
2. Use rhymes that emphasize specific syllables;
(for example” Ee-nie, Mee-nie, Min-nnie, Mo).
3. Ask your child if they can recite any nursery rhymes. Then
suggest a rhyme and encourage children to suggest the missing
rhyming words in the passage; for example, “Do you know „Jack
and Jill?‟
Jack and Jill
went up the _______.
Rhyming Activities Using Art:
1. Create a collage with pictures of favorite rhymes.
2. Draw a picture of something that rhymes with the word me. Your child may draw a
tree, a bee, a key, etc.
3. Make a collection of objects that rhyme. Use pictures from magazines or real objects.
List of One-, Two- Three-, Four-, Five-, and Six-Syllable Words
A list of mono-and multi-syllabic words:
One-Syllable Words:
add
ape
bat
bite
cat
cut
dear
do
feet
fit
go
game
heat
have
jog
judge
king
kick
zebra
candy
hockey
summer
popcorn
doctor
present
winter
Two-Syllable Words:
apple
cobra
Easter
swimming
Three-Syllable Words:
September
hospital
photograph
instrument
October
spaghetti
cucumber
principal
telephone
banana
octopus
Saturday
television
caterpillar
rhinoceros
dictionary
Four-Syllable Words:
Cinderella
kindergarten
Five-Syllable Words:
congratulations
refrigerator
Six-Syllable Words:
encyclopedia
veterinarian
Ericson, L. & Juliebo Moaira F. (1998) The phonological awareness handbook for kindergarten and
primary teachers. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.