This free rhyming game is perfect for young learners!
One of my favorite things about teaching is the day the light magically goes on.
When you’ve worked (for what feels like forever) and suddenly your learner gets it.
We had one of those happy moments in our house this week.
My daughter, almost four, figured out how to RHYME!
This is a big, big deal, because rhyming is one of those mega-important phonological awareness skills. In fact, I’ve always said that if a kindergartner can’t rhyme, h/she is most likely going to have problems learning to read.
Now, my daughter has almost two years until kindergarten. But I’m always alert for potential challenges. And when she didn’t learn to rhyme naturally after hearing a gazillion rhyming books (as her four older siblings did), I realized that I needed to be more intentional.
I decided to help her practice rhyming by creating a simple rhyming board game.
And, lo and behold — it worked!
The board game is super simple. It has a rhyming picture pair on each space. We took turns moving around the board and naming the rhyming pictures when we landed on a space.
“Car, star.”
“Flag, bag.”
“Five, hive.”
“Book, hook.”
You get the idea.
Instead of rolling a die to move around the board, we used cards with one or two dots on them. That makes this game accessible to young learners who aren’t ready to count six dots and move six spaces. Plus, it makes the game longer … which means your learner gets more practice!
I was surprised at how much she enjoyed this game. (In fact, we played it twice more after the first round, at her request!)
Even her older brother, age five, an expert rhymer but a notorious “I don’t want to do learning activities with Mom” kid, asked to join in.
So I guess we have a hit! Who knew that such a simple game would do the trick?
Now, when I ask my Three to rhyme, she happily supplies a real or nonsense word.
“What rhymes with book?” “Pook!”
“What rhymes with pen?” “Sken!”
“What rhymes with horse?” “Porse!”
“What rhymes with car?” “Star!”
(She supplied all of those rhymes just now as I wrote this post.)
P.S. As I was finishing up this post, my Three asked, “Mom, would you do something fun with me?” I told her that I could do something fun with her after quiet time (i.e., Mom’s work time). “What do you want to do?” She saw a picture of this game on my screen and replied, “Can we play that game again?”
Music to my ears.
P.P.S. This free game comes in a color version. To save ink, print in grayscale.
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Rhyming Activities
$15.00
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