Rhyme, rhythm and syllables
English · Early Years · The School
Words that end the same
Cat, hat, mat, sat — they rhyme because they END with the same sound. Rhyme is about SOUND, not spelling, so blue and shoe rhyme even though they look nothing alike. Play the game: I say "dog", you say a word that rhymes. Fog! Log! Silly words count too — mog, zog — because the ear is what is being trained.
Clap the beats
Say your name and clap once for each beat: Fa-ti-ma, three claps. El-e-phant, three. Cat, one. Those beats are SYLLABLES. Clapping them slows a long word down so you can hear its parts, which is exactly what you need when you come to spell it.
Rhyme families help spelling
If you can spell "ight" you can spell light, night, right, fight, bright, sight. Rhyming words often share a spelling chunk, so learning one chunk gives you a whole family of words at once. Collect a rhyme family this week and say all its members out loud.
Clap the beats in your own name: A-mir is two claps, Fa-ti-ma is three, Sam is one. Now do the same for elephant (3), cat (1), banana (3) and umbrella (3). Notice that a LONG word is not always more claps — 'through' is one clap and 'ivy' is two. Then try rhyming: which of blue, shoe and shoot goes with 'true'? Two of them, and only your ears can tell you which.