A Guide to Teaching Rhyme to your Kindergarten Students
Image: Rhyme Matching Game
WHAT IS IT?
Rhyming is a phonological awareness skill that helps children recognise and manipulate sounds in words. It builds early reading skills by strengthening the ability to hear patterns in language.
Children typically begin by identifying rhymes (for example identifying that cat and hat sound alike) before they can produce rhyme. Explicit teaching and repeated exposure through games, songs, and activities help solidify this skill.
Rhyming words share the same ending sound but have different beginning sounds. For example, cat, bat, and hat all share the -at sound at the end.
Key points to remember when teaching rhyme:
Rhyming is about sound, not spelling (e.g., blue and shoe rhyme even though they are spelled differently).
Children first recognise rhyme before they can produce their own rhyming words.
Rhyme is a phonological awareness skill, an essential early reading skill.
When introducing rhyme, it's important to start with oral activities before moving to written words.
Strategies for Teaching Rhyme
Here are some engaging ways to help young learners master rhyme:
✅ Rhyming Books & Nursery Rhymes: Use books with strong rhyming patterns like The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss or Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. Pause before the rhyming word and have students guess it. Read nursery rhymes and poems aloud o expose children to rhythm and rhyme.
✅ Phonological Awareness Explicit Instruction: Teach students to listen for and identify rhyming words through direct instruction. Encourage students to generate their own rhymes.
✅ Sorting and Matching Games: Provide students with picture cards and have students match rhyming words together (e.g., "cat" with "hat").
✅ I Spy: Play a rhyming version of "I Spy" where students find objects that rhyme with a given word. For example, "I spy something that rhymes with ‘‘fox’’ (students might find a ‘‘box’’).
✅ Word Wall: Create a rhyming word wall with word families (-at, -og, -in). Add new rhyming words as students discover them in books, songs, or daily activities. Use the wall for reference during writing and word work activities.
OVERVIEW:
Below outlines how to teach rhyme to your students. It is broken into ‘rhyme identification’ (the ability to hear and identify rhyme) and ‘rhyme production’ (the ability to produce a rhyming word).
RHYME IDENTIFICATION:
Introduce rhyme and explain what students will be doing.
“Today we are learning about rhyme. We will be listening for words that rhyme.”
Demonstrate the task to students. Give a clear example by describing what they will be doing and show the actions.
“I am going to say two words and you will repeat them after me. If the two words rhyme say ‘yes’ (or thumbs up) and if they do not rhyme say ‘no’ (or thumbs down).
“The words are: dog / frog”
Students repeat the words.
“Now do the words rhyme?”
“Yes” or (thumbs up)
RHYME PRODUCTION:
Introduce rhyme and explain what students will be doing.
“Today we are learning about rhyme. We will be producing rhyming words.”
Demonstrate the task to students. Give a clear example by describing what they will be doing .
“I am going to say a word and you will repeat it after me. Then you will say a word that rhymes with it”
“The word is jet.”
Students repeat the word.
“What are words that rhyme with jet?”
Student/s brainstorm one or more rhyming word
“net / pet / vet”
KEY QUESTIONS
What if a student says a nonsense word?
A non-sense word is a word that is not real. A student might say ‘dox’ rhymes with ‘fox.’ Tell the student they are correct but it is not a real word. Either let them produce another rhyming word or give them an example.
What if a student can identify rhyme but not produce rhyme?
Once a student can identify rhyme, the next step is rhyme production. Give them visuals, like images (match game). Give two choices (Does ‘dog’ rhyme with ‘log’ or ‘sun’?). Make it fun - I spy something that rhymes with...
Rhyme Resources for Teachers
To make rhyme fun and accessible, I’ve created a range of resources to support educators:
📌 Rhyme Worksheets – Engaging worksheets for students to consolidate their ability to identify and produce rhyme.
📌 Rhyme Flip Cards – Featuring both prompts for rhyme identification and rhyme production to support teaching.
📌 Rhyme Task Cards – A simple task card activity where students match rhyming words.
📌 Rhyme Match – A fun game where students can match two rhyming words (images) to create a flowerpot.
📌 Free ‘How-To’ Guide – A step-by-step guide explaining how to introduce and reinforce rhyme in the classroom. Download it here!
Final Thoughts
Teaching rhyme sets the stage for reading success, allowing students to hear and recognise patterns in words. By incorporating interactive activities and structured resources, you can help your students develop essential phonological awareness skills in an engaging way.
Don’t forget to grab your free ‘How-To Guide for Rhyme’ and explore our rhyme resources to support your teaching!
