This adorable rhyming turkey center is a playful way to work on rhyming skills this Thanksgiving. Just print and play!

NOTE: Rhyming is one of the critical skills children need to learn before they’re ready to dive in and start reading. (You can see the 4 signs kids are ready to read HERE.)  And when they’re finally ready to take the plunge, our Rhyming Centers are here to help!

Getting Ready

To prep the rhyming center, I first printed the cards on white cardstock to keep them extra durable for little hands.

Then I used my paper trimmer to cut around the outside border.  

I grabbed a small bucket to store the rhyming cards, but you could also keep them in a pencil box or a storage baggie.

The entire set of Rhyming Turkey Cards includes 54 pairs: shell-bell, dog-log, etc. 

Rhyming Turkey Center

From small groups to independent literacy centers, I love this activity because there are a variety of ways to use the cards with students.

Option One: Find a Rhyme

First, my students started with the full pile of cards and searched through the stack to find the matching rhyme: bat-cat, fan-can…

They continued until all of the rhyming turkey cards had been matched.

If you find that using ALL of the cards at once is too overwhelming, simply pick a smaller amount and work up to matching the complete set.

Option Two: Rhyming Cards Memory

Another day, students played a motivating memory game with the set!

They shuffled the cards and then turned them face down on the ground.

Children took turns turning over two cards at a time, looking for rhyming pairs.

For instance, one player turned over nest-vest. It was a match so the child placed both cards in her keep pile.

After all of the rhyming pairs were found, the student with the most rhyming pairs was declared the winner.

Again, the activity could easily be adjusted to meet the needs of your students by using all of the rhyming cards or just a few.

Grab Your Download

Ready for some rhyming turkey fun?!  Just click the button below to grab your free download and then hop over to  grab our mega pack of Rhyming Centers!