Some of the keys to learning to read are noticing sounds in words (developing phonemic awareness), recognizing letters of the alphabet and understanding words.

Next time you’re in the car with your preschool or kindergarten child, spend a few minutes talking about sounds and words. Informal chats like these, can have a huge impact on her phonemic awareness and readiness for formal reading instruction…

Listening For Sounds at the Beginning of Words
‘Here are some words that begin with the /b/ sound’ (Note: you should use the letter sound rather than the letter name) ‘boy, ball, bicycle, bat.’ I am going to say three words to you, can you tell me which one does not begin with /b/?’

(1) baby, ladybug, bumblebee
(2) shovel, bucket, blanket
(3) basket, apple, bird

Listening For Rhyming
‘Here are some words that rhyme: bat & cat, ring & spring. Rhyming words are words whose endings sound the same. I am going to say two words to you, see if you can tell me if they rhyme.’

(1) king & ring
(2) up & down
(3) black & stack

For more ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

Discovering Meaning
‘These words are opposites; in & out, wet & dry, awake & asleep. Listen to my words. Are they opposites?’

(1) black & white
(2) yes & no
(3) sad & crying

For more ways to help your child with reading comprehension, follow this link.

At a Parent Ed program (I call ‘Ready for Reading’) at a preschool last Fall, I talked about the importance of helping children to develop phonemic awareness. I explained that, together with alphabet recognition, good phonemic awareness is critically important for young learners. We want children to understand that words are made up of sounds and we’d like them to learn to play with the sounds in words. Developing a good understanding of rhyming is one element of this. Children who ‘get’ rhyming are gaining phonemic awareness.

After the presentation, one of the moms in the audience told me that she’s been playing, “How’s Your Nose, Rose?” with her young son. The game begins with one of them asking, “How’s Your Nose, Rose?”   The other replies with, “How’s Your Back, Jack?”  and the game continues until every possible body part rhyme has been exploited;  “How’s your toe, Joe?”,  “”How’s your arm, Parm?”,  ”How’s your leg, Peg?”, “How’s your brain, Jane?” etc.

What great fun and what a marvelous learning opportunity; it doesn’t cost a penny, it can be done anywhere, and asking, “How’s your nose, Rose?” just might make waiting in a long line a tiny bit easier.    If you have a great idea for an inexpensive, portable reading lesson, I hope you’ll share it with us.

So, how’s your tummy, Mommy?

For more information, visit our page about phonemic awareness.

The focus of our last few posts has been phonemic awareness. Here are some more ways you can assess your child’s phonemic awareness…

Can your child break a word apart by syllable? If you say “carpet” can your child hear and say “car – pet”?

Can your child mush sounds together (to make a word)? If you say “r – a – t” can your child hear and say “rat”?

Could your child hear whether two words begin with the same sound?

When asked to listen for a sound, can your child distinguish whether the sound is at the beginning, middle or end of a word? For example, when asked to listen for the /S/ sound, can your child hear it at the beginning of “skunk”, in the middle of “listen” and at the end of “tents”?

Could your child tell you the sound at the beginning of a word? Could he say which sound is at the end of a word? And, most difficult of all, could your child correctly identify the sound in the middle of a word?

It is not difficult to understand why, a child with above average phonemic awareness will probably be a very good speller. If you can hear the sounds in words, you are more likely to spell the words correctly.

  Match the Ending Consonant Sound
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

  Match the Beginning Consonant Sound
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

For more ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

Our recent posts have provided some ways to help your child gain phonemic awareness. Here are some ways you can assess your child’s phonemic awareness…

Can your child hear whether two words are the same or different? “duck” and “duck” or “frog” and “fog”

Can your child hear whether two words rhyme? “pig” and “wig” or “black” and “bat”

Could your child think of a rhyming word for “boy” or “hot”?

Could your child say how many syllables are in a word like “west” or “under” or “amazing” ?

Here are the solutions to yesterday’s Hink Pink riddles

an overweight kitten (fat cat)
a very large hog (big pig)
a damp dog (wet pet)
a large stick (big twig)
a disappointed father (sad dad)
being startled by a grizzly (bear scare)
a turquise sandle (blue shoe)
how rabbits pay for things (bunny money)
24 hours without any work (play day)
mama bear massages her baby (cub rub)
use one to catch your goldfish (pet net)
rosy sheets and blankets (red bed)
rockers at the beach (sand band)

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.com

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.ca

What do you call a rabbit who tells jokes?

If you are playing around with Hink Pinks, the answer is a funny bunny.

Solving and making up Hink Pink riddles will help your child to develop phonemic awareness and, since phonemic awareness is a key to reading success will bolster early reading and spelling.

So, here are some Hink Pinks for you to try…

an overweight kitten
a very large hog
a damp dog
a large stick
a disappointed father
being startled by a grizzly
a turquoise sandle
what rabbits use to pay for things
24 hours without any work
mama bear massages her baby
use one to catch your goldfish
crimson sheets and blankets
rockers at the beach

Check back tomorrow for the answers and, while you’re here, why not challenge us with your best Hink Pinks?

Hink Pinks online

Trotter Math’s Hink Pinks

Utah Education Network’s Hink Pinks

For more ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

We offer two sets of free printable rhyming words on the website. Keeping in mind that sound matching will help your child to gain phonemic awareness, here are some ways you could use these printables…

1. Print off one set of rhyming word pictures and then cut the pictures apart. Make sure your child knows what each picture is depicting. Ask your child to put the rhymes together.

2. Use one set of rhyming words to play a memory/matching game with your child. Turn all the pictures upside down and take turns trying to patch the pairs.

3. Make a file folder matching game – gluing one half of the rhyming pictures to the inside of the file folder and leaving the remaining pictures (loose) to be matched. You can make it a self correcting activity by putting a different symbol beside each of the pictures you glued to the folder and using the symbols the back of the matching pictures.

  Match the Rhyming Words
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

  Match the Rhyming Words - Set 2
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

Our early literacy printables, including our rhyming word printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need to use it to access the downloads.

Please note: some of our early literacy printables are available to Storytime Standouts members only. To become a member of the website (without cost or obligation), please click on the “Members” tab and register as a user.

You will find our selection of free printable alphabets here and all of our early literacy printables here.

If you appreciate our rhyming word printables, please support this site by visiting and purchasing from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Our pictures of rhyming words have been very, very popular with visitors to Storytime Standouts so we are adding a second set.

Use these free PDF downloads to create a matching activity for young children. Print the PDFs, cut the pictures apart and have your child match the rhyming words. For a trickier challenge, use the pictures to play a memory-matching game.

Our early literacy printables, including our rhyming word printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already have Adobe Reader, you will need to use it to access the rhyming word printables.

Please note: some of our early literacy printables are available to Storytime Standouts members only. To become a member of the website (without cost or obligation), please click on the “Members” tab and register as a user.

  Match the Rhyming Words
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

  Match the Rhyming Words - Set 2
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

You’ll find dozens of Storytime Standouts printables here.

For more ways to help your child learn about rhyming and develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

As always, we hope that if you enjoy our large selection of free downloads, you will support this site by linking to Amazon through Storytime Standouts.

Rhyming Games at Amazon.com

Rhyming Games at Amazon.ca