Rhymes – Foundation for Reading
Today we’re going to talk about rhyming books! American Academy of Pediatrics has a list of five R’s that outline different ways to encourage early learning. The second R is Rhyming. Rhymes encourage phonemic awareness which builds the foundation for when children begin to learn the written word. Basically this means that being able to hear and make rhymes is a key to later being able to read and write rhymes (and other words, of course)!
Being able to hear that cat, bat, and rat all have the same ending sound introduces them to patterns and word families. This is important because reading is not something that just suddenly happens, it builds from a combination of many skills. Rhyming is an important skill that is vital to learning to read.
Furthermore, rhyming books are fun – they introduce fun word play to young kids that encourages them to continue reading. Rhythm is something people can hear and feel, even if they don’t understand, and it helps with memorization and keeps the reader engaged. If children enjoy the books they are introduced to at a young age, they’re more likely to enjoy reading later on. It’s important not only to lay the foundation of reading skills but to also build a love of reading.
Recommendations
I’m recommending a couple of our favorite rhyming picture books today. Most everyone knows that the brain develops faster in the first few years than any other time in a person’s life; it is never too early to start learning. These books are quick to read (good for small attention spans) and fun for parents to read (so you’ll be mostly okay after the hundredth time reading them). There are a lot of popular rhyming books, Dr. Seuss pops into most people’s heads when you ask them to think of one but we like to branch out. Here’s a couple of our favorite rhyming books and some of the reasons why we love them.
Jamberry by Bruce Degan
Jamberry is a nonsensical, enjoyable ride filled with all types of berries. The illustrations show the characters picking many types of berries throughout the story. The words simply describe what the picture illustrates, with fun, rhyming language. It’s quick and easy and Sonnet has started to memorize what each page says.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr
This is another one that’s fun to read aloud! I tend to try to find books that are fun or interesting to read aloud, otherwise I struggle to want to read to my girls. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom follows the abc’s on their trek to get to the top of the coconut tree. It’s fun, quick, and introduces kids to rhyming and letters!
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
Rhyming Dust Bunnies is all about rhymes, these dust bunnies only rhyme! Except Bob, he breaks the mold by saying other words (spoiler, he’s trying to warn everyone!). This is the shortest book but still lots of fun. This book specifically lets the reader know that they are reading about rhymes.
So there’s our top three favorite rhyming books! I love reading them to my girls and I’m always happy when they pick them out from the bookshelf. This post is part of a series of blog posts: Books with Friends! If you enjoyed this one, check out yesterdays post by Leah Frances. Her post is about a fun folktale based in Africa and it’s definitely worth a read.
xo
Faith
PS Shout out to my mom and aunt Cathy at Building Lifelong Readers for generously sharing their teacher knowledge about writing.
