Rhyme ping-pong

4–5 years · Language · 8 minutes

What you need

How to do it

Say a simple word and bat a rhyme back and forth: cat, hat, mat, sat.

Nonsense words absolutely count — 'zat' is a correct answer and often a better one, because it proves the sound rule rather than a memorised pair.

When the chain runs out, start a new word. Two or three chains is a full round.

Why it works

Hearing that two words end the same is phonological awareness, the strongest single predictor of how easily a child learns to read. It is about sound, not letters, which is why it can be trained years before reading starts.