- clothesline
- clothespins
- Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash (book)
- rhyming picture cards (e.g., cat/hat, pen/hen)
- clothesline
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 Clothesline
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness (Rhyming)
Educator Prep: Hang a clothesline in a corner of the room. Supply clothespins and an assortment of clothes.
Use the illustrations in Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash to point out some of the rhyming objects that Mrs. McNosh hangs on her clothesline (e.g., shirts/skirts, bone/phone, hats/bats). Tell children that they are going to make their own rhyming clothesline.
- Gather children around the clothesline. Show children the rhyming picture cards. As you point to each object, ask children to say what it is.
- Ask children to raise their hand if they can name two objects from the cards that rhyme. Have a volunteer pick up two picture cards and say the names of the objects. Ask children, Do they rhyme? If they do, ask the child to hang up the rhyming card pair on the clothesline. If they don’t rhyme, hold up one of the picture cards and ask the child to choose another card that rhymes with it.
- Continue the process until all the picture cards are hanging in rhyming pairs. Point to each set of rhyming picture cards and say the names of the objects together.
- Continue to add to the rhyming clothesline for the rest of the week.