You can help children learn to generate rhymes by practicing finding rhymes with them. The simplest form of this activity is to pick a word, such as "cat," and work with the second-graders to think of as many words as you can that rhyme with it, such as "rat," "bat" and "sat." To help children associate rhyming sounds with the letters that make them, write rhymes down on a whiteboard or paper. For tactile learners, let children collect blocks with pictures of rhyming objects.
Singing can heighten recall and help children learn the content of the songs they sing. Take advantage of this by letting children sing along with rhyming children's songs. To emphasize the rhymes, have children clap, stomp or jump every time they sing a rhyming word. Classic nursery rhymes set to music are an excellent source of rhyming song material, and many CDs and DVDs of children's music or TV programs have rhyming songs in them as well.
Connecting rhyming sounds to letter combinations can reinforce children's understanding of phonics and help them develop into better readers. Help second-graders who are learning to write to create lists of rhyming words that end in the same letters, such as "jump," "pump" and "lump." As they write, point out that the same letter combinations make the same sounds. When a child is ready to understand exceptions, you can start teaching her that some words, such as "bite" and "right," rhyme even though they are in different word families.
An engaging way to expose second-graders to rhyming words is to read stories together that are structured around rhymes. Many children's authors, such as Dr. Seuss, write rhyme-rich stories with entertaining stories, captivating rhythms and amusing pictures. One way to use these stories to reinforce children's awareness of rhyme is to let each child see the page you are reading aloud and, when you reach a rhyming word, have all of the children read it aloud together.