Rhyming Words: Lesson for Kids

Instructor

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April Inocente
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Expert Contributor
Ginna Wilkerson
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Learn about rhyming words. Discover what makes two words rhyme and where we usually see rhyming words used in
literature. Finally, explore examples of rhyming words and practice identifying them.

Rhyming Words Fun

'Let's play a game where I say a word and you say a word that rhymes with my word,' said Jim to Molly.

'Sounds fun, let's play!' says Molly.

Jim and Molly Rhyming Game

Jim: 'red'

Molly: 'bed'

Jim: 'sat'

Molly: 'rat'

Jim: 'funny'

Molly: 'bunny'

Jim: 'book'

Molly: 'look'

Jim: 'house'

Molly: 'ship'

'GAME OVER!' says Jim. 'House and ship do not rhyme. You could have said mouse. Mouse rhymes with
house.'

'Oh, I see', said Molly. 'Ship could have rhymed with chip.'
What Are Rhyming Words?
Rhyming words are two or more words that have the same or similar ending sound. Some examples of
rhyming words are: goat, boat, moat, float, coat.

When you are figuring out if two words rhyme, use your ears to listen as you say the words. If they sound
the same or similar, they rhyme. For example: car and bar rhyme; house and mouse rhyme. If the two
words sound different, they do not rhyme. For example: car and man do not rhyme; house and grass do
not rhyme.

Say the words in the chart out loud and practice listening to words that rhyme and words that do not
rhyme.

Rhyming Word Charts

First, let's look at words that rhyme:

Hat / Bat

Fun / Sun

Bee / See

Honey / Money

Now, see how this is different from words that don't rhyme?

Jump / Star

Silly / Sick

Boy / Girl

Love / Truck

When Do We See Rhyming Words?

We see rhyming words in stories, poems, and songs. They can help the story, poem, or song sound more
fun and interesting. Rhyming words can also help you memorize a story, poem, or song more easily. In
'The Alphabet Song' we sing,

A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P...

We hear the sound of G and P, which sound alike, and so they rhyme and help us remember the order of
the letters in the song.

Think about the nursery rhyme 'Rain, Rain Go Away'. We say, 'Rain rain go away, come again another day,
little Johnny wants to play.' 'Away', 'day', and 'play' all rhyme. This helps us memorize the nursery rhyme
very easily.

Here is a picture from the nursery rhyme 'Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater', which has rhyming words in it. The
words that rhyme are highlighted for you:
 Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

There are also rhyming words in the song 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. Look:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

We can see that 'star', and 'are' rhyme. Then 'high' and 'sky' also rhyme.

Lesson Summary
Rhyming words are all around you in stories, songs, and poems to make them more interesting as well as
help you memorize them. If two words sound the same or have the same ending sound, they rhyme. To
figure out if two or more words rhyme, use your ears to listen to the words as you say them. For example:
when we say car, bar, far, we hear that the 'ar' is the same sound to our ears, so these words rhyme.

Additional Activities

Practice with Rhyming Words

Activity 1
Poems sometimes feature rhyming pairs at the end of the lines of poetry. Poems aren't required to
rhyme, but many do. Short poems can be found in many greeting cards, like the birthday cards you get
each year or the Valentine cards you give to friends. Look at some greeting cards and find the rhyming
words. Is there a pattern to the rhyme? For example, some poems have lines one and two rhyme, and
then lines three and four rhyme. Others rhyme at the end of every other line. Here are examples of
each pattern.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky."

"Roses are red

Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And I love you."

Whoops! What happened in that last example? The second and fourth lines rhyme, but the first and
third lines don't. See if you can think of a word to replace either "red" or "sweet" to make those lines
rhyme. Remember, the poem still has to make sense!

Activity 2
Most of the time words meant to rhyme are exact matches in the way they sound. But sometimes
poets need a rhyming pair and there isn't any word that exactly matches what they've already said.

So what they do is use a "slant rhyme," also called a "half rhyme." Here are two examples:

oranger - stranger
hat - bad

Notice that the first pair share ending sounds and the second pair share vowel sounds. By the way,
can you think of an exact rhyme for "oranges"? Trick question! There isn't one.

Activity 3
Some words have many rhymes. In fact, you could probably make an entire poem using words that
rhyme with "hat" or "sun." See how many words you can think of to rhyme with each of the words
below:

air
car
stand

Now add slant rhymes to your list. If you want a challenge, see if you can write a short poem using one
of your word sets.

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