I just love teaching kids to rhyme. I have the BEST rhyming words game for preschoolers! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but 3 year olds just adore this fun and easy activity.
Rhyming is likely not brand new to your preschooler. I bet you naturally do it every day – perhaps without even realizing it. Tons of songs, poems, and books rhyme. As I was playing with my Sam yesterday – I realized we could use a bit of practise in this area. Sometimes we need that direct teaching to really grasp something.
I tried to sing some silly songs, and make up some (what I thought to be) hilarious poems – but they were not winning him over. And since preschoolers need to be engaged to learn, I thought up this super fun (and kinda gross) rhyming game.
We call our rhyming words game “Rhyme or Slime”
This rhyming game is great, messy, engaging, and oh so simple.
The concept is easy: If 2 pictures rhyme – great! But if 2 pictures do not rhyme – throw a stone into the slime.
First we whipped up a batch of slime. This is just what we call slime – I love it because it is not nearly as goopy or messy as ‘real’ slime.
Slime
2 cups shaving cream
1 cup dish soap
Mix together. We added green food colouring to make it extra slime like.
We started off nice and simple:
Out loud I said: Cat and Bat – I asked, “Do they sound the same? Do they end with the same sound?” Sammy decided yes they did, and disappointingly put the word ‘Bat” in the rhyme pile. I followed up by saying, “Good for you – they both end with the sound ‘at’!”
Next, we did Cat and Frog – Sammy smiled broadly and announced Frog would go in the slime. Excellent – clearly I had his attention!
Once he got the hang of this, I brought out some word cards. I gave him a word, and when he came up with a rhyme he took one stone out of the slime. This was a great way to keep this activity rolling.
I would rhyme and when the words DID indeed rhyme a stone would get thrown in the slime. Then Sam would need to come up with a rhyme to either a word I said or a picture card to dig OUT a stone.
I wasn’t worried about them being real words at this point – dog rhyming with mog was great.
We played this for a nice long time – longer then I anticipated.
This turned out to be an excellent and engaging rhyming game for my wee one. He loved playing with the slime – and eagerly rhymed hoping to find some new words to add to his slime.
When we finished – Sam announced, “Mama, ‘rhyme’ and ‘slime’ – those rhyme!” I congratulated him telling him he was so smart. He said, “that rhymes too!” …. What rhymes hunny? “Sam and Smart!” Hmmm … clearly we will be playing a few more games to really cement that learning!! My sweet little guy – so much to learn when you’re 3!
I hope this rhyming words game is as big of a hit with your preschoolers as it was with mine!
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Love this idea and could be use for older kids as well.
So glad you like it! My Sammy sure had a blast. you are absolutely right – it would be great for bigger kids too!
Oh my goodness, what a VERY fun idea — my boys would just love it. Thanks for sharing at After School!
So glad your boys will enjoy it! Mine sure did. Thank you for letting me share at After School!
What a fun idea of rewarding your son. Thanks for sharing with Afterschool!
Thanks for letting me share Natalie!
What a great game! I remember how rhyming was difficult for my son when he was younger. Then one day, it just clicked. This game would have been great practice! Thanks for sharing at the After School Linky!
Thanks for letting me share!
Hi Sarah,
Just found your lovely rhyme or slime activity. Just thought I’d share with you how I have incorporated into my teaching with my 4 and 5 year olds. We are enjoying Julia Donaldson’s Gruffalo so have made a slime bog in the Gruffalo Wood. The children have helped me write words on pebbles by segmenting them into idividual sounds. They have shown me which letters represent each sound (next time they are going to make their own stones with thier own writing). As you suggested they have put non-rhyming pebbles into the slime and later rescued them if they could make them rhyme with another word. What a great idea rhyme or slime is. Thank you so much. I’m thinking of trying ‘Alliterate or Obliterate’ and just need to think of what to obliterate – perhaps baked beans!
How wonderful Chrissie! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment – it made my day! What a creative twist on this activity … I bet your wee ones loved it! I would love to share this twist with our readers on Face Book – would that be alright?
Hi Sarah and hello from the UK. I’m glad you liked my little twist. You are more than welcome to share my comment
Thanks Chrissie!!!
What a wonderful idea – especially for small boys who are often reluctant when it comes to reading and related activities! -I’m sure the slime will make all the difference!