If you have a young child, either not yet reading or soon to be reading, you may have heard the term Phonological Awareness. Basically this is an umbrella term that encompasses many different skills that help make children strong readers.
Within that umbrella of Phonological awareness, you have Rhyming (cat, hat, mat), Blending words together (C A N = can!), breaking them apart and several other skills. Basically, these skills start to develop before kids are reading and continue to grow as they learn to read.
I love a good dinner-time word game. This could also be done in the car or any other time that you have at least 5 minutes together.
The goal of these games is to become comfortable manipulating sounds and words, which are skills necessary for strong readers.
These are easy, straightforward and require no material or set up. YES PLEASE!
Here are Two Quick and Easy Games that support Literacy Development:
Pass the Rhyme: Depending on the skill level of your child, pick a three to five letter word and see if you can all go around the table naming as many words as you can that rhyme with the word shared (e.g. WORD is CAT, rat, mat, hat, fat, sat, splat, pat, lat, etc), before moving onto the next word to rhyme. The words get sillier and there is usually giggling so have fun with it!
Tip: If you are just starting out with rhyming, stick with three letter words (e.g. MAP, BUG, HAT, PIG, DAD etc) when passing the rhyme.
Nonsense words totally count! The whole point here is listening and manipulating the sounds. So if you say, "Cat" and your child says "gat", that means they are getting the fact that rhyming words have the same middle and ending sound but a different initial sound. Great!
You may also find that your child says a word that ends in the same sound but does not rhyme (e.g. Cat, Light).
Keep it positive by saying (You heard that both of those words have the same ending sound! They both end in "t" (You can say the sound and letter)". "For words to rhyme both the middle and end has to be the same e.g. Cat - Hat they both have an /a/ sound and a /t/ sound.
Guess What: For a child just learning about rhyming and sound manipulation, set them up for success by playing a guessing game that conveniently has words that rhyme!
To play this game, give your child a word and then give them clues to guess the rhyming word.
For example, you could say, "I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with FUN! It rises and sets each day and gives our planet heat!" (Goal word is SUN).
You can either start with a new set or continue for added reinforcement of the same rhyming pattern. "Yes, the word is SUN! Fun-Sun, they rhyme!"
Now I'm thinking of something that rhymes with SUN that we do when we want to move our legs very fast to get exercise or chase after something" (Goal word is RUN).
This provides valuable background knowledge and helps give extra support for pointing out how the words rhyme without making it too hard for a child to come up with the word as they are learning.
Remember: Frustration is never the goal and if you are finding these games more frustrating than fun, don't fret. Your child may not be ready and may need more sound awareness first. Take a break and try them again in a month or two.
Happy Rhyming!
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