- “Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh” poem chart
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.2.a: With guidance and support, recognize and produce rhyming words (e.g., identify words that rhyme with /cat/ such as /bat/ and /sat/).
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Phonological Awareness: Identifies and discriminates between sounds and phonemes in language, such as attention to beginning and ending sounds of words and recognition that different words begin or end with the same sound.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
Word Play: Rhyming Words
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness (Rhyming), Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Write the poem “Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh” on sentence strips. Leave a space between the seventh and eighth lines to insert additional sets of rhyming words.
Use the “Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh” poem chart to help children hear, recognize, and identify rhyming words.
- Point to the words shirts and skirts on the “Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh” poem chart as you say them aloud. Have children repeat the words with you. Ask, What do you notice about the way these two words sound? Emphasize that the words rhyme—they both sound the same at the end.
- Repeat the process with the rhyming pairs shoes/news and socks/blocks.
- Explain that Mrs. McNosh washes and hangs up objects that rhyme. Say, Let’s think of two more silly things that Mrs. McNosh can wash and hang up to dry on her clothesline. Show children a small stuffed animal cat (or a picture of a cat). Say, Here’s a cat for Mrs. McNosh to wash. Show children a hat and two other objects that don't rhyme with the word cat. Ask, What else can Mrs. McNosh wash that rhymes with the word cat? Guide children to select the hat.
- Write the words “a cat and a hat” on a sentence strip. Draw or attach a simple picture next to each object. Insert the sentence strip after the seventh line. Then point to each word as you read the entire poem. Invite children to recite the poem with you.
Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh
Silly, silly Mrs. McNosh,
It’s time to do your wash.
Hang your laundry on a line,
Hang it up rain or shine.
Shirts and skirts,
Shoes and news,
Socks and blocks,
Silly, silly Mrs. McNosh,
It’s time to do your wash.