Research tells us that one of the best ways to help your child with reading and writing is to help him/her to be aware of sounds in words. This week we've been playing with rhyming words and you can reinforce what they've learned by doing it at home.
- Share nursery rhymes, sing songs or read books that have rhyming words. Emphasize the rhyming words as you read or sing. Say the nursery rhyme or read the book again and pause before the second rhyming word. Have your child supply the rhyming word. "Jack and Jill went up the __________."
- Take turns naming things you see when you're driving and think of words that rhyme. You can make silly rhymes. Example: park - bark, shark, tark or store, door, bore, more, lore.
- Say three words, but only two of them will rhyme. Can your child find the one that doesn't?
- Play "Can you read my mind?" Example: "I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with "book" and you can hang your coat on it." (hook)
Have fun with this and if you find the simple rhymes are getting too easy, try adding "sh", "th" "sl" "pr" etc. at the beginning of the word you are rhyming. Example: tip, dip, ship, drip, slip, trip.