Activities

Five Little Squirrels Rhyme

Objectives

Children will:

• Distinguish spoken rhyming words from non-rhyming words.
• Orally produce rhyming words in response to spoken words.
• Use ordinal numbers.

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Materials

• Squirrel Rhyme Printout

View more squirrels preschool and kindergarten activities and lessons

Directions:

Introduce the following rhyme to children:

Five Little Squirrels
Five little squirrels sitting in a tree. (Hold up five fingers.)
The first one said, “It's getting cold for me.” (Hold up one finger.)
The second one said, “The leaves are falling to the ground.” (Hold up two fingers.)
The third one said, “Let's get busy; there are nuts to be found.” (Hold up three fingers.)
The fourth one said, “We better not wait.” (Hold up four fingers.)
The fifth one said, “Fall is really great!” (Hold up five fingers.)

Reread the rhyme with children two lines at time. At the end of each two rhyming lines, ask children which words rhyme. Then ask them to tell you other words that rhyme with those words. For example, in the first two lines, the words “tree” and “me” rhyme. Other words that rhyme with “tree” and “me” are bee, flea, free, key, knee, pea, see, sea, she, ski, tea, and wee.

Extension:

1. Help children create new rhymes from the list of words. For example,

Five little squirrels drinking tea.
The first one said, “I’m eating a pea.”

2. Say: I am going to say some words that rhyme with the word “tree.” Each time I say a word that rhymes with the word “tree,” I want you to take a giant step. Each time I say a word that does not rhyme with the word “tree,” I want you to sit down. (Repeat game with other rhyming words from the “Five Little Squirrels” poem.