Does it make me geeky to admit that I love rhyming activities? I do. And at a recent family gathering, a certain sister brought to my attention that I was, in fact, quite geeky.

I truly had no idea. Isn’t that funny? I have always thought of myself as more natural living and free-spirited. This geeky title is quite new in my mind, and very interesting.

I am of course quite geeky when I think of it – I even made a list for you (I believe “making a list of geeky traits” should actually be number one on the list)

1.  I love learning the ins and outs of my blogging obsession – and computers are utterly geeky.
2. I love math problems and word problems of all kinds – definitely geeky.
3. And I will take any and every educational course that comes my way because I just LOVE learning. (HOW DID I NOT KNOW I WAS GEEKY!)

Well. I really don’t know how things went so off track there. Apparently I felt the need to share my geeky realization with you quite desperately.

As I was saying.

I love rhyming activities (which of course will not surprise you in the least now, knowing my wonderfully geeky side that you now do). So for this reason, and the fact that it is such an easy skill for many little ones to master, I often start with this skill when teaching little ones the 7 phonological awareness activities.

If you have been following along with me, you might now that we are playing our way through the 7 areas of phonological awareness found  in my eBook and Book, Beyond the Alphabet: Play into reading readiness.

1. Rhyming (you are here)
2. Word Awareness
3. Syllable Awareness
4. Sound Identification
5. Sound Segmenting
6. Sound Blending
7. Deleting Sounds

Rhyming Activities

This week I wanted to share a fun rhyming activity that you can find in that book, and also share with you that sometimes this skill, in fact, does NOT come easily.

My youngest has really struggled developing his rhyming. I believe this to be because he has been listening to his older siblings work on various skills and has heard so many different things over the years!

When I would ask him for a rhyme with cat, he might say car (same beginning sound)

Or if I asked him to rhyme bear, he might say moose (both animals)

So we went right back to the beginning and started at square one.

When first introducing rhyming activities to little ones, it is great to begin with having them listen to rhymes in stories. There is really no need to point out the rhymes, just let them enjoy listening to all of those wonderful rhyming stories and the rhymes will just sink right in.

Next, little ones can listen to rhymes and figure out if they do in fact rhyme. This is when you can explain to your child that rhyming words sound the same – or they end with the same sound. Give oodles of examples when beginning this step. Perhaps you would say:

“I am going to rhyme with cat: bat, hat, sat, mat. Now I’m going to do it again and you tell me if the last word rhymes. Cat, bat, hat, sat, mat, alligator.”

Nice and simple at first to build up that understanding and confidence.

Finally, little ones can practice making up their own rhymes and their own rhyming activities. With any luck they will LOVE doing this, and another wonderfully geeky person will be born. (But won’t know until her little sister tells her at a family gathering. And then that sister will be completely shocked that she did not know this characteristics of herself. One of her hobbies is puzzles for goodness sakes! Ahem)

Here is a fun rhyming activity my little guys love playing. (This idea and oodles more are found in my book, Beyond the Alphabet: Play into Reading Readiness)

Of course there are so many different ways to practice rhyming with kids – reading, singing, and playing lots of different games.

And should your little one start getting confused, just go right back to reading those rhyming books. Dr Seuss knows just what to do.

I hope you are having a fabulous week friends. Thank you so much for being here and sharing in all my wonderful geekiness. See you tomorrow!

 

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