The “onset” is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. /c/ in cat) and the term “rime” refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. /a/ /t/ in cat). Not all words have onsets. Similar to teaching beginning readers about rhyme, teaching children about onset and rime helps them recognize common chunks within words. This can help students decode new words when reading and spell words when writing.
Onset-Rime Games
| How to use: |  Individually |
With small groups |
Whole class setting |
More phonological awareness strategies
Why teach about onset-rime?
- They help children learn about word families, which can lay the foundation for future spelling strategies
- Teaching children to attend to onset and rime will have a positive effect on their literacy skills
- Learning these components of phonological awareness is strongly predictive of reading and spelling acquisition
Whiteboard: explaining onset-rime
This video explains the phonological awareness skill onset-rime and shows examples. (From the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide: Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade.)
Make a word: using onsets and rimes
Students blend onsets with rimes and listen to see if the blend is a word. See the lesson plan.
This video is published with permission from the Balanced Literacy Diet. See related how-to videos with lesson plans in the Phonemic Awareness section as well as the Letter-Sounds and Phonics section.
Collect resources
From the Florida Center for Reading Research, download and print these activities:
These articles offer suggestions for how to use simple onset and rime activities to help students develop phonological awareness.
Construct-a-word: "ig" in Pig. The link below outlines a strategy that can be adapted to teach different onset and rime word patterns. This activity helps teachers isolate and teach the rime "ig" using the book If you Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. There is an instructional plan that accompanies the activity and extension ideas included to advance the learning process. See example >
Download blank templates
See the link below for more help building word families using onset and rimes.
Differentiated instruction
for second language learners, students of varying reading skill, and for younger learners
- Have students create and write word sorts of the target word pattern
- Use pictures instead of words in activities for younger and lower level readers
See the research that supports this strategy
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Chard, D., & Dickson, S. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines.
Ellis, E. (1997). How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities.
Goswami, U., & Mead, F. (1992). Onset and rime awareness and analogies in reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 153-162.
Wise, B. W., Olson, R. K., & Treiman, R. (1990). Subsyllabic units as aids in beginning readers word learning Onset-rime versus post-vowel segmentation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 4, 1-19.
Children's books to use with this strategy
Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City
Rhyming couplets describe city sounds with illustrations embedding the onomatopoeic sounds.
Cha Cha Chimps
Chimps from one to ten counting sneak out to dance their rhyming way around and through this very funny counting book.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
This title needs no introduction nor do its spin-offs like Baby Bear Baby Bear, What Do You See?, Panda Bear Panda Bear, What Do You See? or Polar Bear Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
A Huge Hog Is a Big Pig
This rhyming words game is illustrated with crisp photographs and is sure to tickle the imagination as another rhyming description is sought. For more experienced readers (grade 2-3), try Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonym Riddles by Marvin Terban — just what the title indicates.
To Market, To Market
A child and his mother go to a farmers' market to get fresh produce and goods. On alternating pages, the person responsible for growing each kind of food is introduced, bringing to light many unknown jobs as well as food sources. The bold linear illustrations are created by handsome paper cut-outs.
Time for Bed
It's bedtime for an ewe and her lamb, a cow and her calf and for a mother and her child. Watercolor illustrations show mothers and their babies settling in for the night.
Fantastic resources , simple yet leaves a room for retention - highly recommendable