Children love rhythm and song. Rhyming poetry is music to children and they are drawn
in by it. When my children were small, I would read Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss, and Shel
Silverstein and many fun little books written in rhyme. They were the favorites. I would
read the poems with inflection and feeling and, then, after a few times I would leave out
the ending words and the kids would fill these in. A five year old can often fill in a left out
word on the first reading if he is used to rhyme.
At quiet time when the children were looking through a stack of books, I would hear
them reciting parts of the rhymes from memory employing the same inflection that I
used with my reading. After a while, they memorized some of the poems and then
started to notice the words on the ends of lines and their spelling. This is usually a five-
year-old, though some children are fascinated with the alphabet, love words, and are
ready sooner. Some of my children and grandchildren were more interested in climbing
and riding on various bikes. But, one of my grandsons loved reading signs and building
names when he was two. Another also loved letters and frequently sang the ABC song.
His favorite games at four were word games.
Using my new little book of 20 poems, A BEE NAMED BEA, after several readings
simply enjoying the poems for content, you can point out the rhyming words and have
the child repeat them. From “AChicken Named Charlie:” Charlie, Harley, Marley/
careless, scareless/ bars, mars, stars/away, hay, Clay, day, play. After having your
child repeat the words enjoying the sounds, you can list the rhyming words of individual
poems and make flash cards. Put them in envelopes for the individual poems. Have
them repeat after you. Emphasize the sound of the first consonants. This should be
like a fun game for a 5 or 6 year old. See if your child can recognize these words when
they don’t go in order in the poem. Your child will notice that some of the words in “A
Cow Named Sue” look a lot alike: moo, foo too. Some rhyming words in the same
poem sound alike, but they don’t match the way they are spelled: Sue, you, new, do. In
“A Chameleon Named William,” there are some of the same words as in “A Cow Named
Sue:” do, new, too, you, and two new words with the same sound :blue and hue. “A
Butterfly Named Arin,” has three new “oo” sounding words: flew, loop-di-loo, true. After
playing with the matching words in individual poems over a period of time, the words
could be scrambled and the child can line up the matching sounding words on the floor
or stack them up on the table in piles .Then, she can recite the words for you, practice
writing the words, and make up her own story using some of the words. You can help
with the writing part which does not have to rhyme. This method can be used with any
rhyming book.
Above all, reading should be enjoyable. If this is not a fun activity or your child is not
ready, don’t do it yet. Just read and read and read to your child. Include poetry in the
mix and have fun together.
*Candace has taught Spanish on the high school, adult ed. and college levels. For
several years she was a supervisor in an after-school foreign language program in
Green Bay and De Pere grade school through St. Norbert College, and has served
as tutor for Hispanic children at Doty School in Green Bay. She has also done private
tutoring for children and adults. She has 4 grown and 8 grandchildren.
Glenda, Charlie and David
