KindergartenWorks: oral rhyming hand motions

When I first thought about teaching, I knew I wanted to teach younger students, but admittedly never wanted to teach first grade because I did not want to be responsible for teaching children how to read. So, I think that's why I first had my mind set on kindergarten... they learn to read in first grade!

Boy, was I mistaken! In today's kindergarten we lay some of the most important reading foundations and develop some pretty awesome readers if I may say so. Kudos to each of you who does your best to meet each of your kinders' individual reading needs, because it is a lot to undertake. Not without reward, however, as we see tons of growth throughout the months and over the school year... so there is immediate gratification (well, almost) for being a kindergarten teacher.

With the numerous skills required to lay a strong foundation for reading and for kinders being able to manipulate phonemes (letter sounds) fluidly, there is an underlying question that I found myself asking. I find that the majority of what we teach is done orally, especially to begin with. Teaching vocabulary like "onset/rime" can be done, but is that the most efficient way to get kinders to understand what you're asking for when practicing one of the many foundational skills? I think not.

So, the question I found myself asking was, "How can I make a visual cue or kinesthetic tie to help them recall what I'm asking them to do?" Now mind you, I wasn't sitting at home asking this... but it was in that split second moment as I desperately realized they couldn't honestly remember if I was trying to have them to practice beginning sounds, ending sounds, blending, segmenting, rhyming... you get the point. Vocabulary comes with time even if you use kinder-friendly terms like "stretching it out." When you need to teach multiple things to reach all readers and grow them, you can't just wait until January to teach and practice segmenting so they can all just do segmenting in isolation. They're all connected.

I have a set of hand motions that came in that split second moment and it now is my visual, kinesthetic teaching tool and works great even when you have those odd 45 seconds of transition time. Let me preface with the fact that I do teach why words rhyme. I used to teach this later on in the year when my kinders were more proficient and segmenting and blending. Now I teach it as soon as I begin to focus on rhyming words in the first quarter of school. You'll see from the video that it will lend itself to teaching onset/rime and beginning sounds. So, in teaching why words rhyme, we use the hand motions and apply the notion of replacing the beginning sound with a new one while keeping the ending intact.

Have you ever found yourself in that kind of moment? If you have, or find yourself there someday, I hope this little tool will work with your kinders time after time!

More on Rhyming:

> Rhyming with Dr. Seuss
> Rhyming using Onset/Rime
> How to Quickly Inject Rhyming into Your Day

Free Rhyming Resources I've Downloaded:

(I use these in my small group instruction with students based on need)

> Rhyming Mini-Books
> Rhyme Time Packet
> Rhyming Bingo
> Rhyming Emergent Reader
> Rhyming Tic Tac Toe

> Rhyming Picture Cards
> Rhyming I Have, Who Has
> Silly Sally by: Audrey Wood Rhyming Worksheet
> Whack a Rhyme
> Winter Rhyming Picture Match

Just as I tell my kinders emphatically... the more we practice, the better get! If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.
- Leslie