Rhyme Rockets

What your child learns

Rhyming and clapping out syllables are listening skills, and they're some of the best early signs that a child will pick up reading smoothly. Teachers call it phonological awareness: noticing the sounds inside words, not just what the words mean. Rhyme Rockets practices four parts of it, all from the Kindergarten reading standards.

• Hearing rhymes: which word rhymes with cat, hat or dog?
• Counting syllables: how many claps in but-ter-fly?
• Odd one out: bee, tree and car. Which one doesn't rhyme?
• Making rhymes: change the first sound to turn cat into hat, the step that leads into word families like -at and -og.

How it works

A card at the top shows a picture and the question, with a big red speaker button to hear it again. Three rockets sit on launch pads at the bottom, each with a picture and a word. Every word is read aloud, so kids who can't read yet just listen and look at the pictures. Tap the right rocket and it flies up into the sky and becomes a star.

A round is 8 questions and takes two or three minutes. Finish it and the constellation is complete. There are 12 to collect in the Star Map. Rockets start with a fire trail, and finished rounds unlock new ones: rainbow after 2, sparkle after 4, hearts after 6 and bubbles after 9.

On a computer, keys 1 to 3 pick a rocket (or the number of claps), and the space bar repeats the question.

Levels and how it adapts

The words come from 35 rhyme families (like -at, -og, -ake and -oon), all true rhymes in US English. Kids start with the easiest 8 families and new ones open as they master them. Early on, the wrong answers sound very different. Once your child is doing well, the choices get closer, like cat and cap, so they have to listen to the very end of the word.

Stars come from first-try answers (all 8 for 3 stars, 6 or 7 for 2). Two stars, or three finished rounds, open the next level. Each word has its own practice score saved on the device, so the tricky ones come back more often.

Mistakes teach instead of scold. Tap a word that doesn't rhyme and the game says both words, then gives a real rhyme to compare. Miss a clapping question and it claps the word out slowly, one beat at a time. After two misses it shows the answer and brings that word back a few turns later. No timer, no lives.

Today's challenge

Every day there's one shared set of 8 rhymes, a mix of Rhyme Match and Odd One Out. It's the same for everyone that day, and finishing it keeps a day streak going and earns a sticker for the Sticker Book.

Tips for grown-ups

• When you read rhyming picture books, pause before the rhyming word and let your child fill it in.
• Clap names at dinner: Grand-ma is 2 claps, Al-ex-an-der is 4.
• Trade rhymes in the car: you say cat, your child answers with a word that rhymes. Silly made-up words count.
• Ask why two words rhyme. "They both end with -og" is exactly the idea.

Privacy and safety

No ads, no accounts, no chat, no tracking and no names to type. Stars, constellations and stickers are saved only in the browser on your device. Links inside the game only go to our other learning games and the Sticker Book.

Questions