Use memory cards to familiarize your students with words that rhyme. This game can be adapted to any skill or grade level by simply changing the words used on the cards. Create a deck containing 16 to 24 cards. Select eight to 12 pairs of rhyming words, such as "flea" and "spree", or "nimble" and "thimble". Write one word on each card. Mix the cards up and lay them face down on a flat surface. Have the children take turns flipping over two cards to try and find a pair of words that rhyme.
This rhyming activity is a variation on a game used to practice math problems. "Rhyming Around the World" forces children to quickly rhyme words in order to stay in the game. Have the children sit in a circle. Instruct the first two children to stand up next to each other. Say a word or a series of words that rhyme. The first standing student to offer a word that rhymes with the others wins the round. The losing student sits down, and the winning student moves to stand beside the next student. The student who defeats each student in the circle wins the game.
This activity allows third graders to practice their rhyming skills while listening to poems, nursery rhymes or rhyming books. Read a poem, recite a nursery rhyme or read a rhyming story aloud to the students. Read the first line and second line, but omit the last rhyming word of the second line. Have the children fill in the missing word. The students will have to listen to the context of the story and the rhyming word to discover the correct answer.
This lesson activity allows third graders to practice their rhyming skills while competing on teams. Draw two stick figures on the board. Add as many body parts and features as you can to each figure. Divide the students up into two teams. Read aloud a rhyme with one or more words missing. One student from each team will face off, and the first child to correctly name the missing word or words wins the round. The winning student gets to erase a body part from the opposite team's stick figure. Teams lose when their figure has completely disappeared.