Phonology in the Classroom: It’s Time to Teach Rhyme
The benefits of rhyming in early education are endless. Not only does rhyming help young learners gain an interest in language, but it also helps prepare them to excel in reading and writing. It's the memorization factor that makes rhymes so impactful. In fact, students who have heard and started to memorize nursery rhymes like the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus are better equipped to learn to read, according to Scholastic.com. This is because rhyming helps young students learn to audibly recognize certain sounds and word patterns, which in turn helps them recognize those same patterns when they begin to read.
To give your little ones even more practice with rhyming, use these free printable worksheets! They serve as excellent practice for students learning to read and write and can be used in class or at home. They are best-suited for beginners in ESL or preschool and kindergarten students.
10 Rhyming Worksheets
-
1
- For more advanced readers and writers, you can use this rhyming worksheet to help students practice developing their own rhymes from scratch. The creative writing prompt gives students a line of poetry that rhymes and asks them to come up with a line that is similar in rhythm. This is ideal for ESL students are are looking to advance their writing skills. (Check out these creative writing prompts for even more opportunities to master the art of poetry and prose!)
-
2
-
This is another rhyming worksheet for upper elementary, intermediate, or more advanced ESL students. The activity focuses on helping students memorize and learn irregular verbs by having them sort the words into groups that rhyme with eachother. This will not only solidfy their knowledge or irregular verbs, but it will help them with their reading and writing skills as well. And according to the creator of the worksheet, some of the word groups can be memorized in just 10 seconds!
-
3
-
Teaching beginners who are in the early stages of reading and writing? This rhyming pairs worksheet is perfect for a quick warmup activity. The sheet lists 28 simple words and asks students to pair each word with the term it rhymes with. Use it as an instructor led activity if your students need help reading or have them complete it independently if they're comfortable.
-
4
-
Students will love this engaging, fun worksheet from Help Teaching. In each of the 10 questions, students will read a riddle and figure out a myster word. The answer to each question will be a rhyming word, so students will not only get a chance to practice their rhyming skills, but they will also work on pronunciation and reading. One example from the worksheet is "You use me in the snow. I rhyme with red," and the answer is sled. Young learners will love the challenge of this activity, as well as saying each word outloud until they recognize the one that rhymes!
-
5
- Using rhyming is perfect for teaching things like days of the week, colors, and planets. This activity presents a song to students to help them quickly memorize the days of the week. The catchy tune goes something like this: "Sunday is a sun's day/Monday is a moon's day/Tuesday is a two's day/Wendesday is a wedding day/Thursday is my birthday/Friday is a fly-day/On Saturday I sat all day!" You and your students may have the song stuck in your head throughout the whole day, but it's an extremely effective way to help them learn!
-
6
-
One sure-fire way to broaden your students' vocabularly is by teaching them words that rhyme with a simple term they are already familiar with. For example, there are dozens of words that rhyme with fan, and this worksheet gives students a chance to recognize those words all on their own. The worksheet gives students a set of words, some that rhyme with fan and others that don't. They're asked to color the words that rhyme in green and the ones that don't in red. In part two, students will write out all the words they colored in green, ensuring they've exercised both reading writing skills!
-
7
-
Similar to the previous worksheet, students will be asked to identify all the words on the page that rhyme with book and color them in green, as well as color the words that don't rhyme in red. These activities are great for in-class warmups or take-home homework assignments. You can also use them for speaking activities - after they complete the sheet, have them say the words outloud.
-
8
-
Let's round up the trio of worksheets with words that rhyme with ball. Just like the book and ran activities, students will practice identifying words that rhyme, as well as write those words out so they can solidify what they've just learned. You can use these worksheets throughout the course of the semester, or give them to students if they need some extra practice after completing one of them.
-
9
- Irregular Verbs
-
This worksheet uses rhyming to teach irregular verbs, which is often one of the most difficult ESL topics to teach. It showcases groups of verbs, which you can use for multiple activities like singing a song or rap. You can also print off this activity and use each group of irregular verbs as flashcards. The goal is to have students read the lines outloud to help them memorize the verbs and be able to recognize them in future reading and writing activities.
10
It's never too early to start thinking about back to school time, and this rhyming worksheet is perfect for those first few days back in the classroom. The School Things worksheet is a fill-in-the-blank activity that focuses on school terms like desk, ruler, and friends. There is an answer key that you can use to provide a word bank for beginner students if necessary. Once students are finished filling out the sheet, you can sing the rhyme together as a class.
Rhyming will always be one of the best ways to teach young learners and ESL students new words and phrases! With these 10 worksheets, we hope you feel equipped for the year ahead. For even more activities you can use this year, check out these reading and writing worksheets for all grade levels.
