Nursery rhymes are an important tool when teaching kindergarten children early reading skills. Nursery rhymes have predictable rhyming words that help children develop phonological awareness. After a rhyme has been introduced to your class, create games where you break your class into two groups and one group reads one line and a second group reads the second rhyming line. To help children remember nursery rhymes, put the words to movements, acting out the nursery rhyme.
Dr. Seuss books are excellent examples to use in your kindergarten classroom. Select a Dr. Seuss book to read to your class. After reading a rhyming book, select a rhyming pattern to extend with your pupils. If the rhyming words are, "dish and fish," ask the children what other words would rhyme with fish. Reread the selected books to help children learn rhyming patterns.
Teach children to clap out the syllables they hear in words. While kindergarten children cannot name the syllables they are clapping out, with practice all your pupils should be able to clap out words with you. Begin with inviting children up to the front of the room, where you will clap out their name. Allow children to begin practicing clapping out their friends' names and other words of interest. When children have mastery of phonological awareness they are able to clap out the syllables in words.
Introduce kindergarten children to the concept of word families by making words. Making words challenges your pupils to drop the beginning sound, the onset, off the end of the word, the rime. Invite a group of children up and give each child a large letter to wear on his shirt. Arrange the children so that they spell out a word family, such as --at. Have the child who is wearing the letter C come up and stand in line with the A and T. Ask children to sound out the word. Then replace the child with the C with the child wearing the M. Continue to do this to create new words. Write the words down on the board, so your class can see all the words they have created together.