My students LOVED this rhyming game. Food is big in my class right now. Kitchen play is a free choice favorite, and we love talking about favorite foods and what we make at home with our families. That’s great because this week, as we explore thankfulness, we explore being thankful for food. We made soup together and are preparing for our class “Feast of Favorites,” Each child brings in their favorite food to share with their classmates before Thanksgiving break. I decided to use this food theme for a quick rhyming game. As you can probably imagine, they had a blast with this; rhyming is always fun. What I love about this rhyming game for Prek is that it makes a great small group or free choice activity after doing it as a group. This rhyming game is a free printable, so click on that link below to get your own.
Gather your materials. You will need scissors, magnets, a cookie sheet, and of course, the plate and rhyming card printable.
Cut your rhyming pairs out and laminate if you want. Do not laminate the plate because it’s hard for magnets to stick through the lamination.
Pop your plate on the tray.
Place all the food in one pile and the rhyming objects in another.
You are ready to play.
Pop a food item on the plate and have its pair and one other object ready. Put them both on the printable and say all three words. “Ham, noodles, lamb. Hmm, which words rhyme? Ham/jeans? Ham/lamb?” I like to make rhyming games “shout-out” games. We don’t raise hands because I want as many little voices repeating the rhymes and hearing them as possible.
Remove the non-rhyming word and restate the rhyme. “Yes! Ham and lamb rhyme.”
Ready for another one?
“How about these words? Hmm… poodles, noodles, bread. Which words rhyme? Poodles/noodles? or Poodles/bread?” Even if children shout out before you say the second possible pair ( in this case poodles/bread), still tell them, adding something like, ” I just want to make sure, and the best way is to say the words and listen.”
Continue with all the pairs – or less if your class needs a shorter lesson. Only keep going if your group is engaged.
If they are super engaged even after each one, you can extend the activity by asking them to create rhymes that don’t have to be actual words for some of the foods. For example, ham tam bam wam pam stam…
