The concept of rhyming seems to be particular difficult for my little English Language Learners this year. So recently I took a couple of weeks to try to move them in the direction towards grasping the concept and being able to produce rhyming words themselves. I happened to have on hand Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash in big book form. And who doesn't love Mrs. McNosh? She's certainly not a traditionalist when it comes to doing the laundry. Everything from the laundry to the mail to the turkey is fair game for a good washing. As stories go this one is great fun with lots of vocabulary and rhyming practice thrown in too. Here's a little preview of the story done by one of my students. I love the view of Mrs. McNosh in the top box. Too cute! In searching the web, I didn't find many resources out there to go along with this story so I made up a rhyming activity myself. This is my first attempt ever to attach documents to my blog and my hand drawn pictures pale in comparison to all the cute clipart out there but the kids had fun so maybe yours will too. Feel free to print and enjoy the following activity. For those who might be looking for some ideas for fun ways to practice rhyming with their students, there were two other group activities that we did to practice making rhyming words that are worth mentioning. Let's call the first one Rhyme Around the Room. I placed quarter sheets of poster paper around the room with one word at the top. Groups of students were assigned a paper. They used the marker and wrote as many rhyming words as they could think of in about 30 seconds. After 30 seconds were up they moved to a new paper, read the words added by the group before them and then continued adding new words of their own. We'll call the second game Rhyming Encore. The students were once again placed in groups and given a white board and marker. I gave them a word such as "fish" and then the groups had to write down a word that rhymed with "fish." As soon as they had a word they could share it. Play continued until a group repeated a word, gave a word that didn't rhyme or wasn't real or couldn't think of any more rhyming words. At that point, the group with the last valid word got a point. Just last Friday I was walking with one of my students at our Track and Field Day, our minds about as far away from the classroom and rhyming as they could be. This student happens to be one of the ones who has had the most trouble with this concept. He was playing with words as we walked and suddenly he came across two that rhymed, "Mat and bat - those are rhyming words!" he exclaimed. Even if he didn't win any races, throw the farthest or jump the longest, that was a moment worth celebrating. He understands the concept of rhyming!