Rhyming

[Guest hfitz12]

I have been doing nursery rhymes and have explored rhyming words in as many different ways as I can think of but my Reception children are still stuggling to hear the rhyming words let alone generate their own rhyming strings. does anyone have any ideas that they have used to help with this? Any ideas would be greatfully received as I have felt like I have been banging my head against a brick wall this week!

With thanks in anticipation of your help.

Helen

[Hello Kitty]

Have you done 'odd one out' to see if they can hear that 2 are similar and one is different?

 

Changing Nursery rhymes so eg Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair, Humpty Dumpty was eating a.... and getting them to finish it.

 

Using rhyme in general chat or make up rhymes - I'm terrible for that! Usually done to the tune of Murray Mints ad from years ago So maybe Bobby Burch, Bobby Burch, sings like a bird and sits on a perch... The children love it and queue up for personal versions can be quite hard!

 

Reading lots of books that rhyme like the ones by Nick and Sue, Julia Donaldson etc and again missing off the last word.

 

I feel your pain Helen, this is an area that has me banging my head too - you can't MAKE them get it can you!

[green hippo]

Hi,

I have come across this when working in Reception before! The only thing I can suggest (and it's what I do with the Nursery children now) is demonstrate lots of rhyming strings e.g. playing rhyming soup, continue to sing songs with rhymes but don't have any element of 'guess' work at the moment as children can often remember the 'wrong' answer e.g. if you stop at the end of a rhyming sentence and let the children complete it and they complete it with the wrong word they can often remember that word not the 'correct' rhyming word (if that makes sense). I think the problem in Reception is that there is so much pressure for children to hear sounds in words and generate words that start with the same sounds that they get mixed up with what a rhyming word is. I have this exact problem with my own son now - he is very good at hearing rhyme and finishing a rhyming sentence, however, he is coming home saying "dad and dog they rhyme, they sound the same" - getting all mixed up! Keep going, as always, some children find it more difficult than others, just like some children find it ever so hard to blend. xx

[Hello Kitty]

That reminded me Green Hippo that we have also found this - children often find it difficult to know what you want - we're working on initial sounds and rhyming and it's difficult to describe what you require isn't it? Some staff will ask do they sound the same and if the child is thinking of the initial sound then they may well say yes. Poor things, they have so much to learn so soon

[Guest hfitz12]

Thank you for your replies and ideas. It makes me feel a little better to know that other people have had similar experiences. H x

[finleysmaid]

may be no help but at pre-school our 2 favourite activities are finding the rhyme in the story....so green eggs and ham they fill in the endings and we make up our own and we have a rhyme song (based on letters and sounds) that goes

"i have a word that rhymes with bat

it's sits on my head it is a ......!"

cant tell you the song as i made it up

and i just make up the rhymes as i go.

i find these sort of games give them a chance to 'get it' and then they are able to move on to make their own...last year i had a group that were really into rapping and chants which worked well too...we would go off down the road rapping about what we saw!always made the locals smile

[Guest]

I'm in full agreement with all of the above! I play a game - put your finger on your rose, then I touch my nose. Put your finger on your pea, then I touch my knee etc. They will SHOUT - thats not your rose, its a nose - so I say yes, but it sound like nose - it rhymes!! I played this with my nursery children last year - this year I'm in Reception, some children get it some just don't - when going to the toilet or getting ready for lunch we play, can you tell me a word that sounds like 'sun' or any other words you can think of. I often think yes, they've got it - until the next time when we're starting all over again!

 

Good luck x

[Guest]

I'm glad it's not just the children I work with that don't get rhyming! It's a low scale point but is soooo hard, when given the choice of cat, hat and dog if i ask which words rhyme dog will always be chosen as one of the rhyming words I'm feeling your pain

[catma]

But you only need to evidence they show awareness of rhyme - it doesn't require them to generate rhyming strings!! Nor does that exist in the EYFS as far as i know (though happy to be proved wrong if that's the case)

 

"The child is aware of rhyme

in songs and poems and

sometimes distinguishes

sounds of personal

significance from others or

notices when words begin

with the same sound."

 

Just showing that they can anticipate the rhyme or laugh when you substitute a word because they were expecting another would be evidence of that sort of behaviour at a pre ELG pitch.

 

Cx

[Guest hfitz12]

Thank you all so much for your replies. Did some more work on it on Friday and it does seem to be clicking with some children at least. Thanks again for your help and advice it is much appreciated. H

[Guest]

I've never had complete success with rhyming until they get to the stage where you can show them the words and they can see that the ending is the same and then they can begin to understand. I had a few in reception that were ready for this but I've used it more with year 1