Jj is for Jottings 51. Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 2).
Shanti says:
“When learning to rhyme just relax, like me,
Play games and have fun: it’s easy – you’ll see.
How do we explain what a rhyme is? I usually say that rhyming words sound the same at the end, and follow it up with plenty of examples. However, be prepared for some children to think that you are talking of only the last SOUND. You might have some extra explaining to do. The most important way they learn is by regular exposure to rhymes in various ways and by actually labelling that they are rhymes.
In addition to ensuring that you set out to read rhyming books and sing songs with your child (or if you feel uncomfortable about singing, at least you can play them recordings of children’s rhyming songs although, as with everything else, it is much better for adult and child to be interacting), here are some other activities which you can incorporate into your everyday life to promote both recognition of rhymes and the ability to produce rhyming words:
- Rhyming on names. I must admit that I have always had a tendency to do this automatically, not only with my own children, but also with my “therapy children”. Some children are tickled pink when you use their name as a basis for a rhyme, but others can get quite shirty, as if I had taken a huge liberty (it’s THEIR name and it shouldn’t be messed with) – in which case I don’t push it. It can be as simple as adding a rhyming word to their name eg. my younger son, Antony (who took most of the photos in “Aa is for Alpacas”), became Antle Bantle, and then for a few years he was frequently known as Bantle. Or you can make rhyming couplets (“Antony Bantony Boo, Fell in the Irish Stew”). You can rhyme with real words or with nonsense words, using simple rhymes or more complex ones. When the children were young we had a cat named Simon (we didn’t name him, I hasten to add.) For some forgotten reason he was sometimes referred to as Pookle. I would come out with long strings of rhymes on his name of increasing length, such as: Pookle Dookle; Pookle Squidookle; Pookle Icthealookle and so on. I wasn’t setting out to deliberately teach the children to rhyme but, by golly, they certainly knew how to rhyme at a very early age!
- With slightly older children you can say a starter word, and then everybody thinks up as many rhyming words as they can. You can do it just for fun, or make it a competition. This is a great game to while away some time on a car journey. It is also a good opportunity to teach the strategy of mentally going through the alphabet to help generate as many rhymes as possible.
There are many other activities and games using pictures cut from magazines, pictures from the internet or games you have purchased which you can use to promote rhyming. You could create a set of pictures of rhyming pairs rather than pairs of identical pictures and play games of Fish, Snap and Memory (but I bet you could buy such cards quite cheaply), or adapt any other game you already have, so that your child “earns” each person’s turn by producing a rhyme for a word you say, or telling you if two words rhyme. With children who work better with a higher level of physical activity you could do the same thing outside – the child gives a correct response to whatever the rhyming activity is, and then gets to kick the ball, shoot into a basketball ring, or whatever activity they prefer.
Rhyming, and any other form of word play, can be just plain fun for its own sake. Some years ago I decided to give up on commercial Christmas crackers with their weak jokes and rubbishy tokens, and to make my own. I chose to write a limerick about each person who would be with us at Christmas. This has become a fun family tradition and, since most of the people are family and therefore need a new limerick each year, I try to base them on what was going on in each person’s life during the year. For a sample of an early limerick see A Christmas Limerick.
For more Shanti pics, see Shikha and Shanti