Printable Rhyming Mats with CVC Words

My 5 year old is a very beginning reader.  He’s still working on nailing down all of the letter sounds and I noticed that he also needs some work with rhyming.

Two of my three girls were later readers and one glaring similarity with both of them was their inability to rhyme well (or at all).

This past week, I noticed that my little boy needed some work with rhyming, so I dug out these rhyming mats that I created way back in 2016.  They looked tired and dated, so I have given them an update!

Note: This packet was originally published April 2016.  It is completed updated and revised with a new layout, fonts, and graphics.

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Printable Rhyming Mats with CVC Words

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My 5 year old and I just finished his second week of Memoria Press’ Kindergarten Curriculum.  The phonics and reading portion of the curriculum starts out slowly the first few weeks, which is just fine with me!  My Kindergartner is not fond of holding a pencil – much like a few of his older siblings – so I do not require much writing at the moment.

Since that is the case, I make sure I have a multitude of hands-on printable activities for us to work on during the week.

We used this set of rhyming mats with CVC words this week, and he loved them!

Since he is a very early reader, I only set out oen mat at the time with the mat’s correct pieces and 2-3 others.

When a task is hard for a young learner, it is best to offer very limited options from which to choose.  Only include the correct option and only 1 or maybe two more.

Too many options leads to confusion and overwhelm.  And nobody wants that!

For moderate beginning readers or children that rhyme well, you could use this as a supplemental activity and lay out several mats with multiple pieces at the time.

This Rhyming Mat with CVC words set includes 15 mats – 3 mats for each short vowel sound.  There are three boxes on each mat where your child is to put the pictures that rhyme.

I print the mats and matching pictures on cardstock so they will last through multiple uses.  However, you can certainly print on plain printer paper and use this as a cut & paste activity.

I’ve included the following words in this rhyming mats set:

Short A:
tap: nap, cap, map
rag: tag, wag, bag
sat: cat, hat, bat

Short E:
met: jet, vet, net
led: red, bed, fed
beg: leg, peg, egg

Short I:
fin: win, pin, tin
bit: hit, lit, pit
dig: pig, wig, big

Short O:
cot: hot, pot, rot
hop: mop, pop, top
fog: log, dog, jog

Short U:
tug: hug, bug, jug
bun: nun, sun, run
cub: rub, tub, cub

Books with Rhyming Words

There are only a million rhyming books (thank you, Dr. Seuss!), however, here are a few my younger girls turn to time and time again.

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss  “Mr. Brown is out of town!”  → Our favorite line!

Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever – a favorite, even with my bigger kids!

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins – just the best!

And I just bought this one and can’t wait to read it!

Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutsky

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Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill is a Christian mom to 5, ages 19 to 7. She homeschools her children in the classical education tradition and is currently in her 15th year of homeschool. She creates engaging worksheets and hands-on printable activities for Preschool and Elementary age children to supplement their daily studies.

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