I would make the worst lyricists on the planet. The part of my brain that stores my phonological rhyming skills is permanently snoozing while the rest of my body tries frantically to cleverly conceal my inability to rhyme. Seriously – throw a word at me and ask me to throw back a word that rhymes; I’ll say something ridiculous that doesn’t rhyme, but it’ll make you laugh.

Why is the ability to rhyme so important? Rhyming is a skill that helps children read and write. When learning to read and write, children don’t need to acquire the rhyming skills of a Grammy award winning lyricists, (phew for me!), but it is important that they are phonologically aware, i.e.. they are able to hear the larger units of spoken language as well as the smaller parts.

When rhyming, children see the relationship between letter clusters that represent the same sounds in different words. E.g. hose, nose, pose, rose.

Reading Game: Cover the Rhyme

Cover the Rhyme is a simple game that you can play with your child using any picture book you have readily on hand.

Looking at the pictures in the book, ask the child to place a counter on the part of the picture that rhymes with a given word. Or they could also simply point to the part of the picture that rhymes with a given word.

For example, in these pages, (from Greetings from Sandy Beach by Bob Graham), ask the child to place a counter on the part of the picture that rhymes with the following:
• Hose – nose
• Flies – eyes
• Mat – hat
• Fox – box
• Band – sand, hand
• Made – spade
• Bat – hat
• Hurt – shirt
• Dear – ear
• Dance – pants
• Far – car

As an extension, can the child think of any other rhymes in the pictures?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment; I’d love to hear from you. If you are new here, you might like to receive updates direct to your email. We have many fun ideas to share.

The post Reading Games: Cover The Rhyme by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
There are so many important skills for children to learn. In my mind, knowing how to read is way, way up there. Children learn to read so that they can read to learn.

 
Here are 12 fun helpful ways to nurture your children’s reading skills.

 
Happy playful learning!

Reading: Games, Activities & Resources

 

	← Reading Strategies for Unknown Words by Lessons Learnt Journal → Phonemic Awareness, Mr Tongue's House by Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Sequence for Introducing Letters by Lessons Learnt Journal → How to Encourage Reading by Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Word Family Freight Yard by Play Trains at Train Up A Child → Montessori Inspired Initial Sound Cards by Smiling like Sunshine
	← 10 Simple Ideas for Encouraging Letter Recognition by Full Hands Full Hearts → Initial Sound Matching Activity by Stay at Home Educator
	← Clubhouse ABCs Revisited by Fit Kids Clubhouse → Seashell Letter Match by And Next Comes L
	← Sight Word Practice Box by Boy Mama Teacher Mama → Phonics Flip Book by Kids Activities Blog

 
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Most of these ideas are from our Kids’ Co-Op. If you have a child focused post to share, be sure to come back and visit the Kids’ Co-Op link up here at Lessons Learnt Journal, (published and live here every Wednesday at 10PM CST or Thursday 2PM AEST).

More Activities for Preschoolers

Three to Five: Playful Preschool is stuffed to the brim with tried, tested and loved playful learning ideas for preschoolers. There are 25+ ideas for preschoolers, ten printable resources and additional links to over 50 more activities. A great resource for parents. Download your copy here.

The post Reading: Games, Activities & Resources by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Reading Games: {Phonemic Awareness} Mr Tongue’s House

 
I’m so excited to share one of my favourite reading reading games today: Mr Tongue’s House. It’s a fantastic warm up to any reading session. It’s fun. It’s funny. It involves actions. It gets all the kids involved.

 
This reading game, Mr Tongue’s house is a phonemic awareness warm up game. It helps promote awareness of the sounds and movements involved in spoken language.

 
As children begin to learn to read, they need to have an awareness of how sounds are structured in words, and be able to manipulate these sounds.

 
An awareness of the sounds and movements involved in spoken language will help a child telescope sounds and segment words; necessary skills for reading.

 
Phonological awareness helps children hear the larger units of spoken language as well as the smaller parts. So, they are able to hear and manipulate syllables, onsets and rimes; (thus allowing them to rhyme and alliterate).

 
Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. It hears and manipulates individual sounds within words. Phonemic awareness breaks down spoken words into tiny abstract sounds called phonemes. Phonemic awareness skills lays the groundwork for later reading skills, such a sounding out words and blending.

 
Phonemic awareness is not the same thing as phonics. Phonemic awareness involves the ability to (only) hear and manipulate sounds; there are no letters of the alphabetic writing system involved. Phonics instruction is where sounds are linked with letters.

 
Phonological and phonemic awareness exercises are purely oral acitivities. The child listens to sounds and responds. No words or letters are read.

 
This reading game, Mr Tongue’s house is an oral activity, where children listen to the story and sounds and respond with appropriate sounds and actions.

The post Reading Games: Mr Tongue’s House by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.