Good rhyming activites?

[MamaBug]

My friends dd is 6 and having trouble rhyming. She can tell you when she sees or hears a rhyme but she cannot make one. Like if her mom says what rhymes with cat she will say tree or something. But when reading Dr Suess she can tell you when there is a rhyme.

So I told her that I would ask here if anyone knows any activites to promote and encourage rhyming? Thanks in advance from the both of us!!

[LunaMom]

I would just keep reading rhyming books and playing rhyming games...she'll probably get it eventually.

If your goal is to improve her reading skills (or pre-reading skills, if she is not yet reading), try some phonemic awareness games. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear words as combinations of separate sounds. So ask her to take her name and replace the first sound with various other sounds, for example:

"If Jessica started with a 'b' (make the sound, don't say the name of the letter, BTW), what would it be?"

And she should say, "Bessica!"

You can do this as a "Oh isn't Mommy silly, I forgot how to say that word" kind of game, for example, tell her it's cold outside so she should put on her "mat" and "kittens" so that she'll laugh, and tell you that you should have said "hat and mittens."

You get the idea. Being able to hear words as combinations of sounds is essential for reading and spelling.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm a teacher, specializing in early reading skills!!!

[lilyka]

Here are some things my dd enjoyed. we would play I Spy with rymes. For example I would say I Spy a rhyme with bat. And they would guess cat, hat whatever.

We also did the name song. You know the one, Jessie jessie bo bessie banana fana fo fessie, me my mo messy, jessie

[wemberly]

I've always rhymed for Elliott. It's just habit, I suppose, I'll make a request/suggestion/command and add a rhyme (maybe it softens my bossiness?)

For example: time for bed, jed
brush your teeth, keith
yes indeed, pumpkin seed
let's hit the road, toad


After being pummeled with these goofy rhymes for the last five years, the boy recognizes rhymes and can make them. I'd think that adding these to the daily banter may help (familiarity and all). Reading familiar rhyming books, and allowing the totlet to fill in the blank (missing rhyming word) is a nice way to build confidence before she attempts to make rhymes on her own. These activities, along with the terrific suggestions from Luna Mom Rhyming Queen!

[LunaMom]

Well, golleeee, I've never been a queen before!!!

[wemberly]

Oops Luna Mom. While I bow to your queenly power (flower), somehow there was an editing glitch, and it should say something frighfully clever, like, "this, coupled with the terrific suggestions from Luna Mom, will make her the rhyming queen in no time" But let's leave it like it is

[LunaMom]

[MamaBug]

Thanks ladies for the suggestions and please others feel free to add more if you have them. My friend really enjoyed the ideas. wemberly she said to tell you she loves the idea of changing most everything into a rhyme for her dd and she started doing it the minute I read all the ideas to her! Thanks again I knew I could count on all of you!