Rhyming is one of the first ways children learn to hear the parts of words: cat and hat sound the same at the end, so they rhyme. These picture worksheets need no reading — say each picture out loud and listen. Pick a worksheet type and download a fresh PDF, free.
Each sheet above is free, one at a time. The bundle puts 126 worksheets for every sound skill before reading into one file, ready to print.
Two print-ready PDFs: the worksheet book (254 pages) and the sound games (38 pages), black and white. Instant download.
Step 1
Beginning soundsHear the first sound
Step 2
Ending soundsHear the last sound
You are here
RhymingHear the word parts
Step 4
SyllablesClap the beats
Step 5
Short A wordsBlend cat, hat, map
Step 6
First books to read79 Level 1 mini-books, $14 for all. Each one is free to print.
See the whole order on the reading path.
Every rhyme on these sheets is a true rhyme — the words share the same vowel and ending sound, like cake / rake / snake. We check rhymes by pronunciation, not spelling, and leave out pictures a child might call by another name (a calf that looks like a cow, a kitten that looks like a cat), because a picture that isn’t named the way you expect breaks the rhyme. Each download mixes the pictures, so you can print as many different sheets as you need.
Two words rhyme when they sound the same from the vowel to the end: cat and hat, cake and snake, bee and tree. The beginning sound changes, but the rest stays the same. Hearing rhymes is part of phonological awareness — noticing the sound parts of spoken words.
Children who can hear rhymes are learning to split words into a beginning and an ending, which is exactly what they do later when they read word families like -at (cat, hat, bat). Rhyme awareness in preschool is one of the early signs a child is ready for phonics.
Many children start to recognize rhymes around age 3 to 4 and can make their own rhymes by age 5. Rhyming worksheets are most common in pre-K and kindergarten. Recognizing a rhyme (does cat rhyme with hat?) comes before producing one (what rhymes with cat?).
Read rhyming books aloud and pause before the rhyming word so your child can fill it in. Play "does it rhyme?" with pairs of words. On these worksheets, say every picture out loud together — rhyming is about listening, so saying the words matters more than looking at them.
We check rhymes by sound, not spelling. Words can look alike and not rhyme, or rhyme without looking alike (bee, key and tree all rhyme). We also leave out pictures a child might name differently — if a picture of a kitten gets called "cat," the rhyme falls apart.
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