Rhyming Games & Activities for Preschoolers

Name Rhyming

• If there is one word that most preschoolers are sure to know, it is their own name. Take advantage of this fact to teach young students about rhyme. Have each student find a word that rhymes with his name. Help students who are having trouble with it. If a student has a name without obvious rhyming words, such as "Oliver," help him be creative and come up with a word or phrase that sounds similar, such as "calendar" or "full of hair." Have students write their name and draw a picture based on their rhyming word.

Rhyming List

• One way to teach rhyme is to make it part of your daily activities in the classroom. Focus on a new sound each day and have students come up with as many rhyming words as they can. For example, if the sound is "at," students will find words such as "cat," "bat" and "hat." Make a list of these words on a large piece of paper and go through it, having the entire class read them together. Post these lists around the room as they are generated. Encourage students to come to you whenever they think of another rhyming word to be added to the list.

Rhyming Objects

• Preschoolers often love physical tasks that allow them to expend their excess energy. Make sure there are some objects in the classroom whose names are easily rhymed, such as "block," "pen" and "toy." Have students spend a few minutes wandering around the room, each collecting an object. Students must reassemble in a circle. Go around the circle and have each student name her object, along with a word that rhymes with it.

"Down by the Bay"

• Preschoolers are generally willing to sing if you lead the way. Sing "Down by the Bay" with your students, a song that encourages them to come up with silly rhymes. Sing each line and have the class repeat it after you. The song's lyrics are as follows:

  Down by the bay,
  Where the watermelons grow.
  Back to my home
  I dare not go.
  For if I do,
  My mother would say.
  "Did you ever see a (insert animal)
  (insert rhyme)?"

  Students must come up with an animal and rhyming action, such as, "Did you ever see a moose riding in a caboose?" or "Did you ever see a duck down on his luck?"