Quick & Easy Phonemic Awareness Activities for Kindergarten

FREE Kindergarten Rhyming Activities

Have you been looking for fun and easy ways to incorporate phonemic awareness in your school day? Phonemic awareness is such an important pre-reading skill, and rhyme recognition and rhyme production are cornerstones! Children with strong phonemic awareness skills are ready to become readers! I try to sprinkle rhyming into as many parts of our day as I can, because its so important for my students to hear rhyming words - especially my English Language Learners. We greet each other with a rhyme in the morning, we practice rhyming during our Heggerty lessons, during small group lessons and we even tell each other good-bye with a rhyme at the end of the day! 

First, it's a rhyming morning greeting - these are fun to incorporate during calendar time too! I display these on my SmartBoard and once I have taught each greeting I'll say the first part and have the students chime in with the rhyme. 

Whenever we have an extra minute throughout the day, I also throw in a Rhyming Chant or Fingerplay  - these are amazing for fire drills, when the cafeteria line is backed up, or when waiting in line for the bathroom for example! I've compiled 18 fun & quick rhyming chants. I print them out and hang them on a ring, so I always have them at my fingertips, because otherwise I waste precious minutes trying to think of one to do! Bonus Tip: fingerplays are GREAT for building up those hand muscles! 

When we line up we rhyme too! Instead of TELLING my students to line up, I sing it to them! Singing ALWAYS gets their attention. Once they know the song I can leave off the rhyming words and have my students sing that part! Bonus Tip: if they're singing a rhyming line-up song then they aren't talking or touching their neighbor!

I was in the Army so this Cadence is one of my favorite line-up songs, but the FREE Rhyming Line-Up Songs Pack includes 13 other songs, so you're bound to find some you love! 

Finally, at the end of the day, we say farewell with a rhyme too These free Rhyming Good-byes are one of my favorite Kindergarten Routines - and my students love it of my  too! There are 20 rhyming ways to say good-bye - everything from "Give a hug, ladybug!" to "Out the door, dinosaur!". To support my non-readers, each farewell has a matching image. I hang these by my back door, and as I dismiss, each child indicates which way they want me to say good-bye to them. The kids love these playful phrases and its another way to create that positive classroom environment! 

I hope you enjoy these free phonemic awareness activities for your kindergarten classroom! Incorporating rhyming activities throughout your day is such a quick and easy way to build phonemic awareness skills with your students!