Pre-Writing Club: Rhyming Eggs

Phase One Phonics - Aspect Four: Rhythm and Rhyme

This aspect aims to develop children's experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. They will begin to identify and produce rhyming words.

Literacy - Reading (30-50 months):

Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.

Shows awareness of rhyme and alliteration.

What you need:

Place 8 objects on the floor. These should include 4 sets of objects that rhyme. Spend some time looking at the objects and talking about the pairs. Say the names of the objects and find the objects that rhyme.

Place the objects in to the plastic eggs. Take it in turns to open two eggs and keep them if the objects are a rhyming pair. If they are not a rhyming pair, put the objects back in the eggs and place them on the floor. Then the other player has a turn.

Examples of objects you could use:

sock, block

cone, stone

car, star

frog, dog

Generate a rhyming word - When they have found two objects that rhyme, can they think of another object that rhymes?

Odd one out - Give your child three eggs to open. Inside the eggs place two objects that rhyme and one that doesn't e.g. block, cone and sock. Can they identify the object that does not rhyme?

Generating rhymes is a difficult skill to master and there is no need to delay starting Phase Two if they haven't mastered it by the end of Nursery.

Rhyming teaches children how language works. If a child can recognise when words rhyme it can help them to understand that words that share common sounds often share common letters e.g. Frog and dog both have an ‘og’ sound pattern. If they recognise the pattern, they can attempt to read or spell another word with the 'og' sound at the end.

If you have a go at this activity and share any photos on social media I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.

Anna