Age 3+
Develop early rhyming skills
About this book Children enjoy rhymes because rhymes play with language and children love all forms of play. Understanding how rhymes work is an important skill that will give your child a happy start in reading and spelling simple words. A child who can read and spell ‘cat’ will be able to read and spell ‘hat’, ‘mat’ and so on. So, as children enjoy these rhyming activities, they will also be taking an essential step towards successful reading. Some suggestions to help you get the most from this book: • Read through the activities together. Talk about the pictures and give help as needed. Also give plenty of praise. This builds confidence - an important part of all learning. • Encourage your child to listen carefully. In order to rhyme, your child will need to pay attention to the final sound in words. This is a valuable step towards successful reading. • Always say the sounds that letters make, not their names (e.g. b is not ‘bee’; it is the little ‘b…’ sound you make when you start to say ‘Bouncy Ben’). The correct sound is right at the start of each Letterlander’s character name. • If your child has enjoyed a particular page, think of ways in which you can extend the activity. For example, on page 12, you could see how many other words you can find that end in ‘ap’, ‘en’ or ‘op’. • Try making up your own rhymes together. Be creative - you could make up some really silly rhymes as part of the fun. • Encourage your child to draw lines or tick boxes carefully, to help develop fine motor skills. • Keep it short, and stop before your child tires. If he or she just wants to scribble, provide crayons and plain paper and encourage their efforts. Save the activities in this book for later. At a later stage your child may well find them a lot easier. And don’t worry if your child finds a particular activity difficult. All children progress at different rates. Leave the activity for now and come back to it later. Your child may well find it a lot easier on another occasion. Above all – aim to make shared enjoyment of books the beginning of a lifetime habit.
Let’s rhyme! Look at the pictures below and say what they are. Four of them have the same end sound. They all rhyme. Can you spot the one that does not rhyme? Draw a circle around it.
van
fan
pan
List en
pin
man
Explain that words that sound the same at the end are words that rhyme. When your child has found the non-rhyming word see if they can think of a words that rhymes with it.
1
Build a word Finger trace each big letter as you say its sound.
c…
Clever Cat
a…
Annie Apple
t…
Talking Tess
Touch the red dot under each letter as you say each sound.
c
a
t
Say the first sound. Then blend the next two together.
c
at
Now say all three sounds together.
2
Blen d
cat Remember to only whisper Clever Cat and Talking Tess’s sounds. To blend ‘c...at’, say the first sound. Then say the last two sounds, ‘...at’, without a gap, ‘c...at’.
Rhyming words Write the first letter. Say its sound. Blend the sounds to read each word.
hat
mat
Say the rhyming words in the sentence below. Colour the picture.
Rhy me
Look at that fat cat in a hat on a mat ! Explain that words that sound the same at the end are words that rhyme. Hold your child’s hand and help him or her to point to each of the red rhyming words.
3
Build a word e…
b…
Bouncy Ben
Eddy Elephant
d…
Dippy Duck
Use ‘finger power’ to blend the word.
b
e
b
ed
d
4
Fing pow er er
bed At the top of the page, say each Letterlander’s sound together. To blend ‘b...ed’, say the first sound. Then say the last two sounds, ‘...ed’, without a gap, ‘b...ed’.