Rhyming and Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness is a broad umbrella term for the awareness of what sounds are and how these sounds work together to make words. Research suggests phonological awareness has no apparent developmental sequence, but some elements of phonological awareness seem to be more difficult than others for kindergarten children to master. For example, young children can often split words into onsets and rimes much more easily than they can manipulate the individual phonemes (sounds) within words.

Rhyming along with the ability to segment words and identify the sounds within words are subskills of phonological awareness. Rhyming is just one of the foundational skills children will need in order to become capable readers and writers. When children understand rhyming, they will notice familiar patterns in words. The awareness of word patterns will help beginning readers to decode effectively and beginning writers spell correctly.

young kindergarten boy learning to write rhyming words

The Stages of Rhyming

There are levels of difficulty within the phonological skill of rhyming.

Identifying Rhyme–"Does hat rhyme with cat?"
Matching Rhyming Words–"Which one rhymes with hat? Pig or cat?"
Rhyme Oddity–"Which one doesn’t rhyme? Hat, pig or cat?"
Producing Rhyme–"Give me a word that rhymes with hat."

A rhyming basket is going to help you teach all 4 stages of rhyming.

What is a Rhyming Basket?

A rhyming basket is simply a collection of small rhyming objects placed into a basket. Using small manipulatives to learn about rhyming words promotes hands-on learning. Children learn best when they are touching and doing. Using hands-on manipulatives is so much more effective than a worksheet or a set of rhyming pictures.

Rhyming basket with hands-on rhyming objects

Teachers know hands-on learning is extremely beneficial in the early childhood classroom. When children learn by doing, they are engaged and learning with their hands and their minds. Your young learners will be much more focused and motivated to learn when you keep the learning experiences hands-on.

There are many learning opportunities where you can use a rhyming basket in your classroom.

Add it to an investigation area.
Use it as a resource in explicit teaching lessons.
Add it to your classroom library shelf.
Turn it into an activity at a literacy centre.

What to put in a Rhyming Basket

You will find many small rhyming objects around your home and classroom. Think about your small world play resources and your collection of loose parts. I often check out the little miniatures available in the discount stores too.

I have compiled a comprehensive list of easy to find rhyming objects for you to add to your rhyming basket. You can download the list HERE in my FREE Resource library.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started: man and pan, chair and bear, snake and cake, cat and hat, duck and truck, car and star.

Using a Rhyming Basket to Learn Rhyming Words

Learning to Identify Rhyme

Children will learn to identify rhyme with this easy rhyming basket activity. Ask a child to close their eyes and choose 2 objects from the basket. Hold up the two rhyming objects next to each other and say their names. Encourage the children to say the names with you.

Next, ask the children “Does _1_ rhyme with _2_?” When you say the object’s names, stress the ending sounds. If the objects rhyme, put them aside. If they do not rhyme, place them back into the basket.

This simple game is surprisingly fun for the children. I think getting them to close their eyes helps! It is a fantastic activity to do as a warm-up for a literacy lesson or as part of a tuning-in session prior to adding the basket to an investigation area.

early childhood student with eyes closed and a walker learning literacy investigation area set up

Learning to Match Rhyming Words

Learning to match rhyming words is easy with a rhyming basket. Simply pick one object from the basket, say its name out loud, then ask a child to look through the basket for a matching object which rhymes with it. Place the two rhyming objects together and say their names again, this time stressing the ending sounds.

The children will enjoy the challenge of adding to the rhyming basket by searching the classroom or brainstorming more rhyming objects which are part of this word family and could be added to the basket.

Learning about Rhyme Oddity

Learning about rhyme oddity is sometimes a difficult task for young children. Using the rhyming basket and the rhyming objects seems to make it a little easier.

Choose three objects from the basket–two that rhyme and one that doesn’t. Place the three objects in a line. Encourage the children to say the names of the objects with you as you point to each object.

Next, ask the children “Which one does not belong? Which one has a different ending sound?” After their response, say the names of the three objects again, stressing the ending sounds again.

You might like to continue with more questioning. Ask “Which two objects rhyme?” Repeat their response, stressing the ending sounds. Ask “Do _1_ and _2_ sound the same at the end?”

If the children selected the oddity correctly, place all three objects back into the basket and continue the game with three new objects. If the children could not correctly select the rhyming oddity, you might need to re-visit the first two rhyming skills of identifying and matching rhymes.

Learning to Produce Rhyme

The last level of difficulty within the phonological skill of rhyming is learning to produce rhyme. This level is an important level for teachers of early literacy students. If you are implementing the Australian curriculum, requiring students to produce rhyme is part of the ACARA curriculum assessment pieces for children in the Foundation Stage.

Kindergarten Rhyming Assessment documents

Use your rhyming basket to teach your kindergarten children to produce rhyme. Ask a child to close their eyes and choose one object from the basket. Hold up the object and encourage the children to say the object’s name with you. Say the name of the object again, stressing the ending sound.

Next, ask the children to produce a rhyming word for this object. Say, “ What is another word which rhymes with object?” If you have been using the rhyming basket regularly with your class, you might find the children remember the rhyming objects within the basket. Instead of independently producing a rhyming word, they may give you the name of the matching rhyming object from memory.

This is OK! You can then say the names of the two objects, again stressing the ending sounds. Ask “What is another word which rhymes with _1_ and _2_?” When children can give you a rhyming word which is not a familiar object from the basket, you can be confident that they are well on their way to independently producing rhyme.

Phonological Awareness is NOT about Writing

You may have noticed the objects in the rhyming basket sound the same but don’t always have the same spelling patterns. Phonological awareness is purely an auditory activity. Phonological Awareness is NOT about Writing. The purpose of these rhyming basket activities is to develop phonological awareness skills.

hands holding alphabet letters for phonics lesson

Phonics is the term given to sounds as graphemes (written alphabet letters) or morphemes (written prefixes and suffixes). When children learn phonics, they represent the auditory sounds with the corresponding visual representations or alphabet letters.

Phonics is about the visual representation of sounds, while phonological awareness is about the auditory representation. The activities in this blog post use the rhyming basket to teach children to hear and match sounds.

You could easily transform these activities into writing and reading activities if you feel your children are ready for the next step.