Rhythms of poetry and rhyme are enjoyable for every kid.
The earlier kids are exposed to poetry, the more they appreciate it and begin to love it. Matching rhymes helps kids really listen to the sounds they are hearing and pick out similar sounds. It helps with reading comprehension and is a step toward learning to read. These fun poetry and rhyming activities add to your homeschooling curriculum and poetry unit study.
I put together this poetry unit study for my early literature class at our local Homeschooling Co-op, including reading kids friendly poems from some great poets, discussing them, a rhyme matching game, and these rhyming activities for early learning. The preschool and early elementary kids came away with a much better understanding of poetry and they all loved it so much, they begged for more poems to be read! They quickly developed a love for poetry which I hope grows with them. These activities make for some good indoor fun with your homeschooling kids or any young kids. Have fun playing with rhyming and poetry.
Links at the end of this post for Rainy Poems for kids, which includes poetry books for kids and recommended rainy day poetry to read to your kids, and the Matching Rhyme game.
Rhyme Matching Craft
Materials:
- one copy of the Rhyming Matching printable per child from Alphabet Printables
- poster paper or construction paper
- scissors
- yarn
- glue
- tape
Instructions:
- Pass out one copy of the printout to each child and have them cut out 4 cards they like. The set I originally used I can no longer find, but this set I like even better!
- Turn the poster long ways and paste the cards down the left side of the poster.
- When ready, pass out the matching printout and have them cut out the cards that match the cards they already picked. Mix them up and paste in random order down the right side of the poster.
- Tape yarn in a straight line from one card to it’s match.
Extra fun: “Check out the interesting patterns you made!” My kids had fun finding triangles and other shapes that appeared in their “spider web”.
Younger siblings can participate in whatever craft project you’re doing, too! My two year old does whatever her big brother does, just in her own way. She practiced cutting and pasting and ended up with a collage. She loved every minute of it! I just let her do what she wanted with the materials and didn’t try to get her to follow along with the rhyming, but I’m sure she was learning by what she did do and by listening to the rhymes as her brother and I sounded them out.
Color a Bookmark:
Materials:
Bookmark with the poem “OOPS!” by Shel Silverstein: printable
Instructions:
I doubt you need instructions, but I cut them out ahead of time and we just read and then colored the bookmarks with crayons. I had six kids in my early literature group, so there are six bookmarks in the printable. If you have less kids, they could paste two together to make it double sided and stronger. Before they glue both sides together, they could insert a ribbon in the top between the papers and the press them together, for even more fun.
Write a poem and illustrate it
Have the kids come up with their own poems and write them down, or they can dictate and you can write it for them. Then ask them to draw a picture to illustrate their poem. If they are not sure where to begin and need some ideas, ask them to write a poem describing a feeling or the sound of the rain. Try a few different types of poems; a silly one, rhyming and then non rhyming on the same topic.
Most importantly, have fun!
These are such fun activities to add to your poetry unit or homeschool curriculum. For more rhyming and poetry learning check out these other posts:
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