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Rhyming Games for Pre-Kindergarten

Nursery rhymes and poems can teach children that using language can be fun. Rhymes tell funny and silly stories, which educators can use to teach children early literacy skills by enhancing their awareness of phonetics, similar endings and comprehension skills. Rhyming games can be played in different environments, and with additional resources.

Playground Games
- Traditional playground games, including hopscotch, rope jumping and counting out, are played while singing rhymes. In hopscotch and rope jumping, the rhymes indicate actions children have to perform while playing the games, while the chants in counting out activities establish teams or select leaders. Playground games generally use cheap resources, including ropes and chalk, and can be played across the age groups. Apart from having the benefit of teaching children to socialize and increase their vocabulary, the games also give children physical education and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
Clapping and Action Games
- Clapping to a rhythm and singing rhymes promotes phonetic awareness in preschoolers, and helps them remember words and increase their vocabulary. In rhythmic games, children simply clap their hands to the sound of the rhymes. Other games encourage actions indicated in the lyrics, while group or team clapping games require partnering up and touching each others hand to instructions given in the song. Well-known clapping rhymes and games include Mary Mack, Lemonade Crunchy Ice, and Miss Suzie.
Card Games
- Play flashcard games with pictures of objects that rhyme. Make your own cards by cutting out objects for matching pairs, including clocks and rocks, a house and a mouse or nails and snails. Alternatively, download free printouts from online resources. Give the cards to preschoolers and let them pair up the rhyming objects. You can also place the cards in a basket and let them draw one card. When looking at the chosen card, they then can say all the rhyming words that suit the object pictured on the card. Alternatively, make up a rhyme and leave out the last word, which has to be found by the children among the objects depicted on the flashcards.
Online Games
- Educational resource websites offer online activities and games that involve rhyming. In word bingo games, children have to find a word from a given list that matches with the word given by the cartoon figure. In other online games, children can click on pictures depicting a missing word in a rhyme, or drag a word to a text to complete a sentence. In games that teach the text of nursery rhymes, preschoolers have to mirror the words, including make Jack jump over candlesticks, or bounce Georgie Porgie around a playing field to kiss the girls.

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