All About Rhyming {freebies included}

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in THIS post how I would be taking a giant step forward in “stepping up” my sight word instruction this upcoming year. Not that I need to “teach” sight words any differently, but offer continuous and hands on ways for my kiddos to practice them. Another area I will be offering constant engagement is rhyming. Rhyming is one of those fundamental areas skill areas that is a MUST for our sweet kindergartners. Recognizing and generating rhyming words is one of the initial phonemic awareness areas we approach at the beginning of the year. Rhyming then progresses to more of a phonological awareness approach once the kids start to work with rhyming word families. In word families students are really focusing in on the letters that makes up that word and not just the ending sound as a whole.

One of the first places we work at during the start of the year is names! You can easily combine your work with rhyming and names easily! When calling your kiddos to line up or to the carpet simply call them by a nonsense rhyming name and the class will help to listen and decide who you are call. So, I would say, “Mara!” and the kiddos would respond with, “Tara!” Simple, yet effective!

Another great activity for the students solely listening in to the actual word ending is to play a listening game called, Take Out the Trash! For this activity you will read a series of three to four words. The students will listen for the word that does not belong! They will tell you to throw this word away in the trash! You can snag this freebie game printable by clicking below or clicking HERE.

Below is an adorable and one of those DUH why didn’t I think of that games! Anna from over at The Imagination Tree placed a set of rhyming items in the basket and had the kiddos come up and find matches. And in a quick search I stumbled across a great song that Kathleen from Growing Kinders made up that would go along perfect. She wrote, “A tisket, a tasket here is the rhyming basket. Words that rhyme end the same. Let’s play this fun learning game!” She has the printable for the song HERE.

Another super fun game I like to play when studying rhyming words is to read rhyming riddles. These really get the kiddos thinking and offer a fun way to generate rhyming words. None the less we get to gain some critical thinking skills too! This is a simple activity. You will read the rhyming riddles and the kiddos will respond with the rhyming word answer! You can snag this for free to by clicking HERE or on the picture below!

After the initial phonemic awareness has been built you can move towards more of a phonics approach to rhyming and start word families! Below is a simple and effective way to practice words families in a hands-on way! Miss Kindergarten whipped up this word family center using……a Pringles can! {headed ti the the gas station now} You can read more about how she made the word family cans and snag her freebie recording sheet HERE.

Below is simple, cheap, and un-cutsey {sorry!} way to practice word families. I grabbed these colored popsicles sticks from the Dollar Tree. I wrote word family pairs on each stick. The kiddos will match the pair that rhyme and then place them in the cup! $1 center. #sold

I also snagged these snazzy ketchup and mustard cut-outs at the dollar tree! They screamed rhyming match-ups!

I wrote the rhyming pairs on eat cut-out. The kiddos will simply match the pairs and I win with another $1 center!

What I’ve noticed the most about my rhyming instruction is that I hit it “hot and heavy” those first couple of months…then it takes more a back seat as I teach segmenting, blending, word writing, etc! So, I knew that was a no-go this year! I would make it my mission 2.0 to provide meaningful and fun activities for the kids to practice rhyming throughout the year. I will have one sight word and one rhyming activity per literacy basket throughout the ENTIRE year to keep the kids firm in these skills! Below is a quick view of the activities I whipped of for the kiddos! Because I will be continuing to place rhyming activities in my literacy baskets and use at small group for the entire year I knew I would be make A LOT of new rhyming packets so I decided to place them into an endless bundle! If I need them, you get them free! Once you purchase the bundle you get all of my future rhyming packets for free!

Up first are these ADORABLE Frogs on a log! For the activity students will match the frogs to the word family log. If you feel the students will have a hard time with this activity OR to cut down on students asking what the picture might be you can simply write the word on the back of each frog! Students will then be able to self-check their work!

Rhyming dab it! Hey, the party doesn’t start until the teacher pulls out the dabbers! HA! I have included two versions of this activity…one version like the one below and one where the kiddos will dab the rhyming pictures!

EEK! Pull out some search and color activities with a rhyming focus and you have some happy kiddos!

This activity is called Sort the Deck! For this center you either have the kiddos sort the cards into a bag or a basket…..or you can use the sort back at your guided reading table. I also include two sets of cards. One set has the rhyming word and then the set with the picture only like the set below!

How about these flower match-ups? The kiddos will simply match each rhyming pair!

Rhyming clip it! For this activity the students will clip the rhyming picture on each card.

Color, cut, and paste rhyming sheets are great for a center or for whole-group practice!

My teacher is giving me one of her paperclips to use? WHAAAT? I still remember last year when I did my first spinner activity {yes, I guess I am a mean teacher like that} the kids looked at me in amazement, as if the paperclips were a trip to the moon!

I’m really giddy about these rhyming cut and staple booklets! We are actually going to be working on these whole-group! I have included two versions… the first version pictured below. For this version the students will write in the missing rhyming word. For the other version the sentence has been completely typed out so they become simple easy readers!

I had these adorable caterpillars in my sight word bundle and knew I would need them for rhyming too! For these the rhyming word family is listed on the caterpillar head and then the kids will match the rhyming “body segments.”

So, after I posted the sight word caterpillars I had a buyer email me and tell me about this awesome way she discovered to cut out the circles in a flash! After she told me about it I literally logged onto Amazon at the mid-move at the movie theater and ordered it!

I have a tendency to be a little behind in the crafy “times,” but this thing is awesome! It is called a circle lever punch! I purchased the “extra large” one which punches out 2 inch circles.

So, to cut out the circles in a flash I just cut off the excess paper on one side and then use the lever punch to cut out the circles! So, if I ever need to make circles in a packet I will be using 2 inch circles so I can use this 😉

The last activity is actually a brand new addition to the rhyming bundle {added 8/1/15}. So, the endless bundle got its first update! Whoop! So, this activity is just adorable or maybe I am partial!? For this one… the teacher will need to print just one garage. You can print more, but it is full size and that is a lot of ink. So, just one garage will work great. The students will place the “family” name plate above the garage and then park those match family members’ cars in the garage. ADORBS, right?

All of the activities I shared above are in my ENDLESS Rhyming MEGA bundle. The endless part means that as I create additional sight word activities for my kiddos I will be placing them into this bundle.

If you’re interested in snagging it you can click below!