What is Rhyme Awareness?

Welcome to our Phonological Awareness blog series, an important series for parents and teachers that covers phonological awareness, phonological sensitivity, and phonemic awareness.

This week’s topic is the third level of Phonological Sensitivity: Rhyme Awareness.

You can also read this information in a convenient, easy-to-print eBook. Check it out here!

Rhyme awareness activities for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS TOPICS

Check out the other topics in this Phonological Awareness blog series:

You can also check out my Phonological Awareness playlist on YouTube for more information:

Phonological awareness activities for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL SENSITIVITY: RHYME AWARENESS

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sound properties of spoken words. It can sometimes be called an “umbrella term” because it can be broken down into two separate groups:

Phonological Sensitivity: the ability to hear and manipulate units of language larger than phonemes, including words, syllables, and rhymes

Phonemic Awareness: the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words.

Today’s topic is all about the third level of Phonological Sensitivity: Rhyme Awareness.

Before we dive into Rhyme Awareness, let’s review some definitions:

ONSET:
- The initial consonant or consonant blend before the first vowel in a word.
  - If a word begins with a vowel, it does not have an onset.

RIME:
- The string of letters (beginning with the vowel) that follow the initial consonant or consonant blend.
  - Every word has a rime.

ONSET-RIME EXAMPLES:
- dog = d (onset); og (rime)
- splash = spl (onset); ash (rime)
- at = no onset; at (rime)

RIME vs. RHYME:
- RIME is a noun that refers to a linguistic unit when discussing ONSET-RIME.
- RHYME refers to a poetic device.
  - We can determine if two words RHYME by finding the RIME in each word.

Therefore, Rhyme Awareness is all about identifying the onset and rime of words and determining if those words rhyme.

Rhyming is a great phonological awareness skill to work on with our little ones, but just remember it’s not a prerequisite for reading.

Some students, especially those with dyslexia, may struggle with rhyming, but they can still learn to read.

HOW DO WE PRACTICE RHYME AWARENESS IN PRESCHOOL, PRE-K, AND KINDERGARTEN?

Here are 8 fun activities to practice rhyme awareness in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.

These activities go from least complex to most complex and should be incorporated into your daily routines.

You should also be reading rhyming books, singing rhyming songs, reciting nursery rhymes, and pointing out rhymes as much as possible in everyday life!

RHYME ACTIVITIES:

RHYME REPETITION:
- Have your little one repeat the rhymes in a poem or song in order to draw their attention to the rhymes.
  - “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Star/Are. These words rhyme. Can you say star/are?”

RHYME RECOGNITION:
- Say two words and have your little one tell you if the two words rhyme or don’t rhyme.
  - “Do these words rhyme? Cap/Tap.” (yes)
    - If they rhyme, have them clap their hands.
      - I also have a great rhyming song that I sing once my students make a rhyme that you can hear in this video.
  - “Do these words rhyme? Call/Take.” (no)
    - If they don’t rhyme, have them cross their arms over their chest like an “X.”
- Say three words out loud (2 that rhyme and 1 that doesn’t) and have your little one tell you which word doesn’t rhyme.
  - “Which word doesn’t belong? cat/hat/dog.” (dog)
    - As an alternative, you can also have them repeat the 2 words that do rhyme.
- If your little one is struggling with rhyme recognition, try this hands-on way to help them hear rhymes:
  - 1. Have them hold out their left arm straight in front of them.
  - 2. Using their right hand, they will tap their shoulder for the onset and run their hand down their arm for the rime.
    - For the word “tin,” they would tap their shoulder and say /t/, then run their hand down their arm for /in/.
    - Then repeat with “fin.”
    - Show them that both times they ran their hand down their arm, they were saying “in,” which means those two words rhyme.
    - You can see a video demonstration of this strategy in this video.

RHYME PRODUCTION:
- Say one word and have your little one produce as many rhyming words as possible.
  - “Can you tell me three words that rhyme with like?” (hike, bike, Mike)

ONSET-RIME ACTIVITIES:

ONSET-RIME BLENDING:
- Pulling sounds together into words
  - Directly connects to reading
- Call out the onset and rime of a word slowly and have them orally blend to say the word.
  - “What’s my word? /s/ /un/?” (sun)

ONSET-RIME SEGMENTATION:
- Breaking a word up into its onset and rime
  - Directly connects to spelling
- Say a word and ask them to orally segment the word into its onset and rime.
  - “Your word is man. Break it up into its onset and rime.” (/m/ /an/)

ONSET-RIME ADDITION:
- Say a sound and have your little one add the onset or rime.
  - “Say an. Now say an and add /t/ at the beginning. What’s the new word?” (tan)
  - “Say /d/. Now say /d/ and add ark at the end. What’s the new word?” (dark)

ONSET-RIME DELETION:
- Say a word and ask your little one to say the word without the onset or rime.
- “Say book. Now say book without /b/. What’s left?” (ook)
- “Say shelf. Now say shelf without elf. What’s left?” (sh)

ONSET-RIME SUBSTITUTION:
- Say a word and ask your little one to replace the onset or rime with something new.
  - “Say ran. Now say ran, but change an to ed. What’s the new word?” (red)
  - “Say boo. Now say boo but change /b/ to /h/. What’s the new word?” (who)
    - Remember, this is about sounds, not spelling. Boo and Who rhyme, even though they’re spelled differently.

Looking for a resource that has all of these games included in it? Check out my Phonological Awareness Sound Games! I’ve created games to go along with the themes I teach to my little ones.

RHYME AWARENESS ON YOUTUBE

Want to see a video explaining this topic? Head to my YouTube channel to watch my Rhyme Awareness video and my 5 Tips for Teaching Rhymes video:

Rhyme awareness video for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

5 tips for teaching rhymes video for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS E-BOOK

Would you rather have this information as a PDF download so you don’t have to navigate to all the different pages on my website? Check out my Phonological Awareness eBook and save yourself time!