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.
Get your free say the rhyme games!
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Rikki
This is a great resource. Thanks for sharing.
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Rikki!
Devi Rahmayanti
Dear Anna, as a newbie teacher and newbie parent, I am so thankful that I have found the one who already helped me so much to be more professional on this. Thousand thanks for everything you’ve shared :’)
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Devi! I hope this works well for you and your learners.
Chitra Shah
Hi Anna,
Wonderful resource. I must thank to you for providing practically useful resources.
Anna G
You’re very welcome!
Bernadette
Thank you Anna.
Have three children who find rhyming difficult. Can’t wait to try this.
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Bernadette!
Bonnie
Thanks so much Anna for sharing yet another engaging game for our littlies to learn, practice and consolidate such important concepts 🙂
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Bonnie! I hope this game works well for you and your learners.
Janet Stephens
Fantastic resource! Sharing and thank you.
Anna G
You’re welcome, Janet!
Doloris
I love the activities☺ thanks alot
Pat
This game will be perfect for helping my tutoring students learn how to rhyme. Thanks for all you provide!
Blessings!
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Pat! I hope you find many helpful resources on my site.
Edna
I love your work, but I can’t download it however I tried with the tips you mentioned.
Can I get this by email?
Anna G
I don’t send files by email, as I state in the troubleshooting page. Can you tell me what exactly you’ve tried on that page, and what’s happening when you try it?
martha
Anna,
Hi Anna I just want to thank you for another great printable and I love the dots idea, sometimes when the kiddos are 3 they get distracted how far dice can roll or be tossed. My grandson likes to play pickup, sometimes we spend more time crawling around on the floor looking for the dice than playing. He is a huge teaser,he has an old sense of humor. I think the dots will be great for other games we play also.Thanks again and take care of that lovely family you have.
Anna G
Ha – yes, we’ve played “pick up” with the dice too many times as well. 🙂 I’m glad you can use the printable, Martha!
Alphabeta
One of my favourite websites whit such a lot of printables. So much joy and smile on my child’s face. Thank you very much. I teach him English from the very early age and he loves it.
Anna G
I’m so glad to hear this! Thank you for your comment!
Delta
I am impress with your phonics strategies,I am so happy that you are able to share your ideas with us. Thank you very much.
Anna G
You’re very welcome!
Christina
Hello, I tried to download the free printable rhyming game, and I kept getting the message “blocked plug-in” on my MacBook…
I don’t know what that means, but I read the three hints you suggested and the message remained the same…
I’m disappointed because the game looks awesome for my class.
Anna G
I’m sorry, Christina, I’ve never heard of that issue before. You might need to check with Apple.
Joan Rousseau
I use your resources quite a bit. I like the rhyming game boards, this is really an excellent idea, I’m really excited to give it a try, I know my kiddos are gonna love it.
Thank you Anna for sharing your great ideas.
Anna G
I’m so glad you like them, Joan!
Shelly Hozack
Thank you so very much! My kiddos certainly will enjoy these games. Makes for a quick and simple parent volunteer activities to to with the children!
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Shelly! I’m so glad you like them!
Beth Pipkin
Hi Anna. I have my Master’s in Reading Instruction. My husband is a minister and when he moved to a new church, I decided to quit my teaching position and work with emergent and beginning readers in our local schools and in the community. Our church started a tutoring program that meets once/week. I write the plans and volunteers work with the children one-one. We have between 25-30 children in the program and about 15 tutors. I love your things because they are engaging for the children, easy for the tutors, and they explicitly teach or reinforce a skill. (AND they save me a lot of time and work!) Thank you so much for what you do!
P.S. We have 100 more children in the in-school program. Those are taught in small groups by retired teachers. It is all done by grants and donations and is free to the schools and parents. We work hand in hand with the schools and teachers and the “it takes a village” approach is working wonders with these children. City-wide 94% of our children were reading on grade level at the end of first grade! God is blessing us in Suffolk!
Anna G
Thank you so much for telling me about your program, Beth – how wonderful that God is blessing it so richly! I’m so happy that you can use my resources with these children!
Miss Karen
Thought #1: Hmmm, a freebie. Probably selling something, but this looks pretty good. I’ll have a peek.
Thought #2: Wow, this game is fabulous!
Thought #3: CLICK CLICK CLICK I AM GOING TO BUY ALL THE THINGS!!!!
*NO REGRETS*
Anna G
Thank you, Karen, your comment gave me a laugh and really brightened my day! 🙂
Jaece
Thanks so much for the rhyming game! I am an SLP and have a kiddo who can identify rhymes but not generate. Hoping he has a “lightbulb moment” like your daughter did!
Anna G
You’re welcome, Jaece! I hope this works for her!
Georgina
Of course it was music for your ears, we get so happy when they “approve” our effort. I just wanted to thank you for all the great activities you make, my daughter also enjoys them a lot. I am a mom of a 5 year old little girl, we live as expats in Qatar in Middle East. Have a nice day!!!
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Georgina!
Teri
I love this game! As a former K/1 teacher, now Title teacher, I have learned to teach specific rhyming pairs then generalize. This game is ideal! Thank you!
Maithili
You simply amaze us with your thoughtful work Anna! Thank you so much for creating these resources and sharing with us! Your bits of knowledge sprinkled throughout make it a valuable read! Thank you ??
Anna G
Thank you so much for your kind comment, Maithili! :))
Maria Elena
Hi Anna,
The Rhyming Game is fantastic. Thanks for taking time of your busy schedule to share with us.
I know that with this game kids will have fun, expand their vocabulary and improve their communication skills.
God bless you and your family.
Bonnie
We recently had my son (2 1/2 yrs old) diagnosed as borderline autistic. I went online to try and find some activities to do with him while his “school” is closed and while we wait to see when he will be getting the extra help he needs. I absolutely love this site and all the helpful and amazing resources you share with everyone and anyone for FREE! I printed out the dot alphabet and the simple find the letter activities. So far he’s enjoying them and this morning after only two days of spending five minutes on the letter A I brought out the dot A and asked what letter it was and he replied, “ah ah apple”!!!! He didn’t say A but that’s still a huge win in my book! Going to print out the rhyming game and I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun tonight with it! THANK YOU!
Anna G
This is wonderful to hear, Bonnie! You’re doing a wonderful job with your son; he’s clearly very bright. I hope you keep finding useful resources on my site!
Sylvia
Hi Anna, what a wonderful idea! I would love to play this game with my son, but when I click on the download link, it takes me to a website for downloading a software called formative.
Heather Groth, Customer Support
Hello Sylvia! I have emailed the Save the Rhyme game to you, please let me know if you don’t get it. We hope that you and your son enjoy it!
Sylvia
Thank you so much! I received the email, and my son and I played the game today. He loved it and asked to play it a second time once we were done. Thanks again for the great resource!