Rhyming Cups

Sweet Pea is 4 years old.

From: Allison from No Time for Flash Cards shared this great way to teach your tot about rhyming words.

Material:

A list of 5 simple words plus 4 or 5 words that rhyme with each of them. Here are some options:
- bug: hug, jug, mug, plug, rug, drug, slug, smug, tug
- cat: bat, chat, fat, flat, gnat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, scat, splat, that, vat
- dog: hog, log, bog, frog, jog, smog,
- pig: big, dig, fig, jig, sprig, swig, twig, wig
- sun: bun, done, fun, none, nun, one, pun, spun, stun

About 25 craft sticks
Thin lined permanent marker (I love the new Mark It ones from Bic. They come in lots of colors and write on almost everything.)
4-5 Small cups.
Painter’s masking tape.
Scissors.
Basket or bowl to hold the rhyming flags.

Preparation:

Place a piece of tape on each cup.
Use the marker to write the first word in each rhyming set on it’s own cup.
Lay out a long strip of masking tape, face up on a table.
Place the craft sticks about 2 inches apart along the tape.

Place a second piece of tape directly over the first piece, “sealing” the craft sticks between them.

Cut the tape to separate the craft sticks and create a tape “flag” on each one.
Clearly print one word on the front (and back) of each “flag”.
Place all of the craft sticks in a basket.

Procedure:

Remind your tot that rhyming words are words that have the same ending sound. Give a couple of examples (“cat” and “bat”) and encourage your tot to think of a word that rhymes with them (“I can think of something that rhymes with “cat”. You put it on your head…”)
Explain that you are going to place the flag sticks in the cup that has the correct rhyming word.
Read the word on each cup out loud.
Invite your child to select a flag stick from the basket.
Either have your child read the word on the flag, or read it for them.

Ask you child to place the flag stick in the cup that contains the word that rhymes.

If your tot needs more help, say the word on the flag and then repeat the words on each of the cups again. For example, if your tot selects a stick with the word “hog” on it, you could point to the first cup and say “This says “cat”. Does ‘hog -og -og -og’ have the same ending sound as ‘cat -at -at -at’ “?
Repeat the procedure for all of the rest of the sticks in the basket.

Observations: Sweet Pea had a hard time at first and I had to help her a lot. She started catching on after 4 or 5 sticks and did seem to like it, but only placed about half of the flag sticks before getting silly.

I have noticed that Sweet Pea has a hard time coming up with rhyming words (one of the reasons that I introduced this activity) and I think this activity was just a tiny bit too difficult for her. We started off well, but it just didn’t quite hold Sweet Pea’s interest. I suspect that she will like it better in another few months.

I intentionally added some “tricky” rhyming words such as “none” to put in the “sun” cup and Sweet Pea found those impossible without my help. I think that would be a good idea for an older child who is a little more comfortable with rhyming, but I wish I wouldn’t have done it this time.