What do nursery rhymes, limericks, songs, and poems tend to have in common? They have rhyming words, considered to be an essential literary skill. Such rhyming words for kids create a rhythm or repeated patterns of sounds which helps them to remember words easily.
What are rhyming words:
Rhyming words are words that end with a similar sound. As not all rhyming words end with the exact spelling, preschoolers should be taught to listen to word sounds to determine if they finish in the same way and rhyme. For instance, some rhyme words for smile are mile, pile, style, while, etc.
The rhyme patterns between a song or poetry lines are called a rhyme scheme. In a poem or a song, these rhyming schemes, shown using letters, indicate which lines rhyme with which other lines. Like for instance, the rhyming words in Kutuki’s ‘1-50 Number Rhyme’ has the following rhyming scheme,
Minku runs and hops with glee
On her way to the banyan tree
Who does she see on the tree?
A blue bird and his family.
Rhyming words, as seen above, at the end of the lines are called end rhyme words. These rhyme scheme patterns, formatted differently, can change with every line, stanza, or continue throughout the text.
What benefits can rhyme words have on preschoolers:
By working with rhyming words, preschoolers can -
- build awareness, recognize and work with the sounds that letters make,
- segment words based on their sounds, learn about word patterns, rhythms, and structure of the language through simple rhyming words in English,
- improve their fluency and other important reading and writing skills,
- experience the rhythm of language and expand their imagination,
- engage them for longer periods of learning as it adds joy and fun to an otherwise daunting task of reading for kids.
Rhyming words list: Here's a list of a little over 10 rhyming words in English as examples. They will help as you introduce and work on rhymes with your little preschooler.
Day Rhyme Words
bay, gay, hay, lay, pay, ray, say, way, clay, grey, pray, stay, sway, tray
Eye Rhyme Words
my, buy, cry, die, dry, fry, guy, lie, pie, sky, spy, try, why, high, sigh
Fly Rhyme Words
buy, guy, fry, try, sky, dry, pry, why, eye, high, sigh
Far Rhyme Words
bar, car, jar, tar, war, our, spar, star, scar
See Rhyme Words
me, bee, pea, she, sea, tea, flee, glee, tree
Boat Rhyme Words
Oat, coat, dote, goat, vote, float, wrote, throat
Book Rhyme Words
Cook, look, hook, nook, took, brook, crook
Child Rhyme Words
mild, wild, piled, riled, tiled, styled, viled, wilde
Hands Rhyme Words
cans, fans, pans, bands, glands, scans, lands, sands, stands
Love Rhyme Words
dove, wove, glove, shove, stove,
Name Rhyme Words
Aim, came, dame, fame, same, game, lame, tame, blame, claim, frame
Rain Rhyme Words
Bane, cane, gain, lane, main, pain, rein, vain, chain, crane, train
Song Rhyme Words
Dong, gong, long, strong, throng, wrong, belong, prolong
Friend Rhyme Words
end, bend, fend, lend, mend, send, tend, spend, trend
Rhyming Activities for Preschoolers:
Use different fun activities to teach your preschooler rhyming. The more opportunities and ways they get to practice, the better they will get at it. Here are some fun ways to teach preschoolers rhyming:
1. Rhyming Read Alouds: This is one of the best ways to enable your little preschooler to pick up on rhyming skills. It introduces them to rhyme sounds in a meaningful, fun, and engaging manner. Make the experience engaging by pausing every time you come across a rhyming word. Have your little one share more words that rhyme with the words identified. Such read-aloud will teach them rhyming skills and instill a love for reading in preschoolers.
2. Basket of Rhymes: Place some objects in a basket. Now say a word, such as ‘hen’, and then have your child pull out an object from the basket that rhymes with ‘hen’- say a ‘pen’. It doesn’t matter if the rhyming word you say is accurate or not. The idea here is to get the preschooler to identify the sounds.
3. Match-Up the Rhymes: Draw or lay out different pictures in front of your preschooler. Have your little one match the pictures with each other based on if they rhyme. Another way of playing this is to match the picture with a rhyming word card.
4. Erase a Rhyme: Draw a picture on a board or a sheet of paper. Have your preschooler erase the word from the picture that rhymes with the one mentioned with every word that you say aloud. Continue this till the whole picture is erased.
5. Songs, Poems, Nursery Rhymes, and Fingerplays: Most preschoolers love singing and dancing. There is no other fun way but to have them dance to rhymes through a song. Simple fingerplays, poems, and rhymes also can do the trick.
Have your child join Kutu and Ki as they munch and crunch their way with different rhyming words in Kutuki’s ‘Carnivores Herbivores Rhyme’ To watch more such engaging content with your preschooler, download the Kutuki kids learning app.
Kutuki’s early learning platform engages preschoolers through an interactive app and online preschool programs. Crafted by early learning experts, the interactive stories, engaging rhymes, and games with attractive animations and illustrations on the Kutuki Kids Leaning App allow for unassisted, self-paced learning. The certified online preschool program provides preschoolers with a structured, personalized, and immersive preschool learning experience. Kutuki’s child-centric content uses interactive elements through a mixture of hands-on activities, creative song and story-based curriculum to build Linguistic, Numeracy, Physical, Social, and Creative skills in young ones.
Besides English, rhyming is a concept used in other languages like Hindi. Rhyming words in Hindi are used in the same way in English. For instance, some rhyming words in Hindi for बिंदी (dot on the forehead) are चिंदी (miser) and भिन्डी (Ladies Finger/ Okra).
While you try to rhyme your way into your preschooler’s heart, don’t forget to have fun! Rhyming is a fun concept that will boost your preschooler's language development in the long run. Like all other skills, the more your little one hears and engages with rhyming words, the faster and stronger their rhyming skills will be.