To Rhyme is Sublime

This week my first grade students used their spelling words to create a silly rhyme. I encouraged students to make up new words as well. Especially for younger students just learning how to write, rhyme can be a wonderful teaching tool for the following reasons:

1. Rhyme teaches students phonemic and phonological awareness.

2. Rhyme gives students an appreciation of the rhythmic and musical qualities of language.

3. Rhyme helps students learn about word families, like cake, bake, and lake.

4. Rhyme teaches students the patterns and structures in language.

5. Rhyme allows students to play and experiment with language.

Here’s an untitled example by one of my first graders:

ride the bike Mike

nice mice

bake the cake lake

race face

star mar

eat meat

peek at the week

there’s a cage on the stage

the dime is a crime

Did I miss Christmas

It is Christmas Eve Steve

by Katherine, 1st Grade

The children enjoyed this writing activity and hearing each other silly rhymes made everyone giggle. With older students, it might be fun to bring in the Paul Simon song, “50 Ways to Leave your Lover,” which models internal rhyme in longer sentences with an overarching theme.

By Amy Lin, Writers in the Schools