Rhyme Time

Teaching and reinforcing important rhyming skills has never been easier with the huge variety of multimedia resources available to kindergarten classrooms. Although we practice rhyming all year, I always designate March as the month where rhyming really becomes a focus.

Since March is Dr. Seuss' birthday, it's the perfect time to read his rhyming books. We completed a favourite learning experience based on the books "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". After reading both books a number of times, we decided to create our own "Cat in the Hat" hats. We watched a Brain Pop video on rhyming words. This video was excellent, and extended rhyming words into reading and spelling word families of rhyming words. We paused the video at strategic points to provide our own answers and predict the rhyming words. The quiz at the end of the video provided additional practice, and the special helpers chose the correct answers on the Smartboard.

After a movement break, we watched one of my favourite rhyming Sesame Street videos, Gangsters: AN Plan. Then we retold the story in the video, using the rhyming words to remind us what part came next in the story. After discussing how the words rhymed, it was time to print them on the Smartboard. We talked about how the first letter/letters changes each time, but the last part always stays the same. Halfway through, we started using red for the onset and blue for the rime to make this really obvious.

The next step was modelling the creation of a Dr. Seuss hat. Using four white strips, we printed a different rhyming word on each. I modelled this while students gathered around on the floor, but using a document camera projected on the Smartboard would have been even more effective!

Students returned to their table spots with their four strips of white paper, printing a different rhyming word on each strip. Next they glued them on their Dr. Seuss hats to create this adorable finished product!

We're excited to model them this afternoon!