With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it’s a great time to find “perfect matches” with rhyming words. The motivating game includes 15 different rhyming pairs to give students plenty of practice with a variety of rhyming words.

Grab the freebie below and then snag our Ultimate Preschool Activity Pack for more fun!

Getting Ready

This matching game was super simple to prep.

I starting by printing all of the cards on cardstock. Of course, you can just use regular paper, but the cardstock was much more durable and I knew it would pay off later when lots of kids were turning over cards.

I then cut out each of the 30 individual cards and laminated them, making 15 different rhyming pairs.

I placed the set in a Ziploc bag to keep the pieces together until we were ready to play.

Valentine Rhyming Match Up

To give the students some context, I reminded them of a typical “Memory” game where players try to find two of the exact same cards. We have a few of theses games in our classroom, so they were familiar with the concept.

Then, I explained that instead of trying to find two of the exact same cards, in this game we would be looking for two cards that RHYMED.

I showed them one card with the picture of the sock and asked them to brainstorm possible words that rhymed with it.

They came up with rock, dock, lock, and tock.

Then, I showed them the lock card. I explained that since these two cards rhyme – lock and sock – they were a pair, and I would get to keep them.

Next, we started the game.

I started by placing all 30 cards face down on the table. I chose to use all 30 cards, but you could easily modify this for new readers by using fewer rhyming pairs.

The first player flipped over two cards, reading them aloud: “hen” and “mouse.”

Since the words did not rhyme, we flipped them back over and it was Player Two’s turn.

She flipped over “map” and “clap.” The words rhymed, so the student got to keep the cards and take another turn.

On a side note, sometimes I eliminate the extra turn, just so each player gets equal practice with the rhyming words, but that’s totally up to you.

We continued playing until all of the rhyming pairs were matched. Then, each player counted their cards. The player who had the most cards was the winner.

The Valentine’s day match up game was such a fun way to practice rhyming words!

Grab Your Set

If you’re ready to play “matchmaker” with rhyming words, click the blue download button below and then grab our Ultimate Preschool Activity Pack in or shop!

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8 Comments

  1. Valentine Rhyming Match Up looks great. Would love to be able to download.

    1. Hi Whitney,
      Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry you’re having trouble downloading. We never want that. Please check out our troubleshooting video HERE for help. You’ll also want to make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader Other and that you’re allowing pop ups from our site. If you still can’t get it to work, you can email me at hello@www.playdoughtoplato.com
      Warmly,
      Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

      1. I’m having same problem … clicking on the blue button does absolutely nothing! I can’t even get to the point of entering my email! I’ve tried a couple of your resources with same result. I’m a volunteer in kindergarten at a nearby school and was really hoping to be able to print these out to use in February. I did watch the video, but it’s not a problem with my email address or having the right Adobe….I can’t get the button to do anything!

          1. don’t know what’s different but I tried again tonight and got the downloads. Thank you for creating them. I will play the games with the kindergarteners where I volunteer.

          2. Awesome!
            So glad it worked!
            Warmly,
            Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

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