A Rhyme a Week
Nursery Rhymes for Early Literacy
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Links to the 28 weekly units of instruction:
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Thirty Featured Rimes and Rhymes
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Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhyme
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ABOUT A-Rhyme-A-Week
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If "an apple a day will keep the doctor away", then perhaps a-rhyme-a-week will keep school failure at bay. WIL's A-Rhyme-a-Week phonological awareness program features 28 different nursery rhymes. The phonograms or "rimes" emphasized in our program were first identified by Richard Wylie and Donald Durrell in 1970. Examining a list of 1, 437 words commonly spoken by children in primary grades (Murphy, 1957), Wylie and Durrell identified 37 rimes that accounted for almost 500 words of Murphy's list. In determining the order of rhymes and rimes to present each week, we are following Fry's (1998) suggested consideration of frequency.
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Understanding A-Rhyme-A-Week Components
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We at WIL provide four different types of downloadable items each week for use with A-Rhyme-A-Week:
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the featured nursery rhyme card
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the rhyming picture sets
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Riddle Rhymes
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lesson plans
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If you do not have Adobe Acrobat 4.0, you must download it to open and use our PDF files.
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Although you can use these materials in any way that suits your individual needs, here is how we have used them with our New Mexico Head Start partners:
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1. Download the featured nursery rhyme card. We've enlarged the card to an 11x17 size (and laminated the card) to make a poster-size version.
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2. Download the picture card set. We've laminated these as well to add to their durability. We've also been punched holes so the cards can be used to create rhyming books for the classroom library. The last card in each set ("Our ILL Book", for example) serves as the cover.
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3. Download the Riddle Rhyme Cards.
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4. Download the Lesson Plans. Lesson Plans follow approximately the same format each week.
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On Mondays, we revisit favorite rhymes, then introduce this week's new rhyme. Whenever we've been able to locate the tune, we teach children the rhyme through song. We also chant the rhyme, and work on its rhythm.
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On Tuesdays, we emphasize acting out the rhyme, using our various Monday chants to provide the accompaniment for our "actors".
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On Wednesdays, we introduce the rhyming picture set, explaining the new vocabulary that comes with the picture set.
On Thursdays, we work with the picture sets and the Riddle Rhymes.
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On Fridays, we review, using new Riddle Rhymes, acting out, singing, and chanting.
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Below you'll find links to the 28 weekly units of instruction for the A-Rhyme-A-Week curriculum. We have selected the ordering of the rhymes, in general, by the frequency with which the rime unit appears in reading materials for young children. You are welcome to change the order to meet your own program needs.
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Thirty Featured Rimes and Rhymes
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Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhymes
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