Kids' Skills Climb by Simply Using Rhyme

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #36 – November 7, 2009

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to use a teaching device that not only worked, but also had the kids begging for more? Using rhyme as a teaching tool does just that. It is so enjoyable, students don’t even realize they are working and learning new skills.

One learning area where rhyme is a facilitator is reading. Reading is one of the most challenging yet important tasks a child must master. A child's successful accomplishment of this feat is one of the strongest indicators of future success--and a child's struggle with reading is one of the strongest indicators of future failure. One of the keys to success in this accomplishment is making sure that rhyme is a part of the child's reading regimen, especially in early reading development. There are three important reasons why rhyme is important in learning to read.

One simple reason why rhyme is important is that it is fun. Playing with rhyme is learning but because it is fun, children are willing to spend a lot of time rhyming and learning more about rhyme. This makes rhyme a great teaching tool and a great motivator for learning. Rhymes are easier to learn and remember than non-rhymes and that is why many learning tools for older children and adults still include rhyme. Did someone say learning couldn’t be fun?

A second reason rhyme is important to emergent and beginning readers is because it teaches children about the language. Rhyming helps children learn about word families such as let, met, pet, wet, and get. Rhyming also teaches children the sound of the language. Other important skills include phonological awareness, the ability to notice and work with the sounds in language. Rhymes help children with phonemic awareness, which is the knowledge that phonemes are the smallest units of sounds that make up words. Dr. Seuss Books used rhyme to teach tracking. When one word or only one letter is different than another, it causes children to notice the difference. In this way, rhyming teaches grapheme awareness, a brother of phonemic awareness. This awareness leads to reading and writing success. And did I mention it’s also fun? (Shhh, don’t tell anyone).

Third, rhyme also teaches children who are learning to read about the patterns and structures of both spoken and written language. Songs and rhymes expose children to the rhythm of the language. This will help them read with some animation in their voice instead of just a monotone. Rhyme also prepares children to make predictions while learning words and gives them crucial decoding skills. Students also seem to enjoy reading rhymes. It’s almost as if they’re having fun….

While learning to read is difficult and challenging for most children, rhyme can help make the task both easier and more fun, teach important language skills, and teach language patterns and structure. These three benefits are important reasons to make rhyme a part of a child's early learning.

Many rhymes include particular actions, dances or motions, which children will gradually associate with a particular song or rhyme. Each rhyme, poem or song has a rhythm, which aids kids in remembering the words they contain, ultimately helping in the development of auditory memory skills in kids. Auditory memory is the ability to recall information that has been given orally. The golden age for memory development is widely believed to be between ages 6-9. During this time a child is able to memorize quickly, plus remember things for a greater span of time, rather longer than any other period of time during their life span.
Another subject that can be learned with the help of rhyme is counting. Counting is present in many nursery rhymes, thus children start learning how to count while having fun using nursery rhymes.

Here is an example of a counting rhyme some of you may be familiar with:

A Counting Rhyme

One, two,
Buckle my shoe;
Three, four,
Shut the door;
Five, six,
Pick up sticks;
Seven, eight,
Lay them straight;
Nine, ten,
A big, fat hen;
Eleven, twelve,
Dig and delve;
Thirteen, fourteen,
Maids a-courting;
Fifteen, sixteen,
Maids in the kitchen;
Seventeen, eighteen,
Maids a-waiting;
Nineteen, twenty,
My plate's empty.

Learning the multiplication tables seems to be tough for many kids. However, teachers report phenomenal results when multiplication is taught through rhyme. Here are some of the rhymes used with great success:

Multiplication Rhymes for the Fours
Do this after students know how to multiply by 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 11. Show students how they only need to learn four times 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 to know all the fours. That's only five facts!
Tell this to the king and queen! 4 x 4 is 16.
Learn it now or your brain'll get sore! 6 x 4 is 24.
Say it now and you'll be first-rate! 4 x 7 is 28.
When I think of 8 I say "Achoo." 4 x 8 is 32.
Use your fingers when you're in a fix. 4 x 9 is 36.

Multiplication Rhymes for the Sixes
Do this after students know how to multiply by 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10, and 11. Show students how they only need to learn six times 6, 7, 8, and 9 to know all the sixes. That's only four facts!
I know now and you do too! 6 x 7 is 42.
Learn it now and don't be late! 6 x 8 is 48.
Lay your fingers on the floor, cause 6 x 9 is 54!
It's a rhymer. You know 5 x 5 is 25, now say 6 x 6 is 36!


A large number of nursery rhymes contain mathematical concepts, such as time, height, counting, measurement, temperature, position, weather, volume, etc..There are also rhymes about the States, the Presidents, How to Pass a Bill, just to name a few. It seems the topics that can be learned through rhyme are virtually limitless.

Good teachers use rhythm and rhyme to help students focus on phonological and grammatical structures. The use of songs, raps, and rhyme facilitates linguistic development. In essence, words and linguistic rules are processed in the brain’s left hemisphere and music, memory, and problem solving are processed in the right hemisphere. Using rhythm in conjunction with linguistic structures stimulates activity between the two hemispheres resulting in stronger cerebral interactivity. Additionally, repetition provided by rhyme strengthens memory, and rhyme also serves as a mnemonic device. The phrasing of songs, raps and rhymes, enables learners to process linguistic structures in more manageable segments.

Teachers, you really can “have your cake and eat it too.” If you’ve always dreamed of really boosting your students’ learning skills and them enjoying the process, your dream can come true. Using rhyme as a group activity in the classroom creates a more relaxed atmosphere, in which children are engaged and eager to learn more. Why? You got it. They’re having fun!
Here are some links to a few resources for using rhyme to help children learn:

http://www.atozphonics.com/nurseryrhymeactivities.html

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=259

http://www.succeedtoread.com/rhyme.html