Rhyme is the correspondence of sound(s) between words, usually at the end of words. Words that rhyme may have different letter patterns for the same sound, such as height, bite, and fight.
The ability to identify and generate rhyme signifies that a reader has a sense of phonological sensitivity. Rhyme has weaker correlation to word-level decoding success than phonemic awareness, which is the ability to segment, blend, and manipulate individual speech sounds. In fact, children who are not yet proficient with rhyme can develop phoneme-level skills as their understanding of language, words , letters, and sounds deepens (McNorgan, Awati, Desroches, & Booth, 2014). Therefore, all children should have access to varying complexity of phonemic awareness learning, regardless of current understanding about rhyme.
The rhythmic nature of rhyme lends itself to playful language experiences! Children love to engage with poems, chants and songs that play with words that sound the same.
View a collection of poems, organized by theme, by clicking the button below. (Surrey teachers may need to use their SD36 login to access the files.)
Find playful rhymes and songs on Jbrary's website, or their You Tube channel
What are playful classroom experiences with rhyme? See this 4-page resource of ideas: Rhyme.pdf
