Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Activity with Rhyming Words

This Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity uses free printable rhyming cards to engage children in a fun spin-off of a favorite nursery rhyme. Once you’re done here, be sure to check out the rest of my free preschool printables.

Rhyming is a huge part of early childhood education, and children love it. There’s something innately silly about manipulating words and sounds, which makes it fun for the kiddos. So this simple rhyming words activity will keep the kids laughing as they learn.

Be sure to get a copy of the free printable at the bottom of the post!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the most well-known nursery rhymes, at least in my experience. Many parents often sing it to their children as babies, and the nursery rhyme is in many children’s books. Even if children don’t have prior experience with it, this simple rhyme is quickly learned.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Activity

I put together a super simple pocket chart activity for my students. We love using the pocket chart, so I made sure to incorporate that. If you don’t have a pocket chart, that’s okay! You can use a table, a white board, or a simple chart for this.

How to Set Up the Rhyming Activity

Start off by grabbing the supplies you need. Here’s what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

• Printer
• Laminator
• Sentence strips
• Orange marker
• Pocket chart

As I mentioned earlier, you can tweak things a bit if you don’t have a pocket chart. Use whatever works best for you and your students!

Once you have your materials ready, it’s time to prep the rhyming fun. Here’s what to do:

• Print the star rhyming cards and cut them apart.
• Laminate the stars.
• Write Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on sentence strips.
• Place the sentence strips in a pocket chart.
• Put the rhyming stars at the bottom of the pocket chart.

Then you’re ready to invite the children over for the Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity. Keep in mind, I just wrote the first verse of the nursery rhyme. I know there are more verses, but I wanted to keep things simple. Plus, those are the words the kids generally know the best.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Activity Directions

Let the children use a special pointer to help you read the words on the chart. I love keeping a stash of pointers near our circle time area. The kids really enjoy using them!

Encourage the children to locate the words that rhyme after reading, either by pointing to the written word or saying them out loud. Talk about what rhyming means. I usually say, “rhyming words sound the same at the end.” The explanation doesn’t need to be a long one!

The next day, sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star together. Then bring out the rhyming stars, and tell the kids they get to help pair up the stars that sound the same at the end.

Have one child choose a star card. The child with the first card should hold it up and name the picture found there. Choose another student to come up and find the matching rhyming card. This should be a fun, simple activity you can play with the kiddos in about 5 minutes.

Once the children understand how to use the rhyming word cards, you can put the pocket chart activity in your literacy center. This way the kids can have some independent practice with it, and they can use it with their peers.

A Few Other Ideas

The Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity can be used in more than one way! So don’t feel like you have to do things exactly the same way we did. Here are some other ways to use the printable rhyming cards:

• These rhyming stars could easily be turned into a memory game. Instead of finding exact matches, the children have to find rhyming matches. 
• The cards could be used as a rhyming scavenger hunt, too.
• Make your own rhyming stars! Have the children help come up with even more rhyming pairs to add to this activity.
• Consider making rhyming stars with the kids’ pictures on them. Then the children can come up with goofy, made-up rhymes to go along with their names. This elicits a TON of giggles, let me tell you!

So, how would you incorporate this Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity into your classroom? Don’t forget to grab a copy of the printable at the bottom of this post!

More Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Activities

If your students enjoyed this Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity, I have even more ideas for you:

• Star Sensory Bottle
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Books and Craft
• Little Star Sticky Wall
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Printable
• Starry Night Glitter Art
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Playdough
• Fizzy Stars

More Nursery Rhyme Activities

AND here are a few more nursery rhyme activities to try with the kids:

• Humpty Dumpty Printable
• Wooly Letters Writing Activities
• Frog Sensory Bag
• Mary Had a Little Lamb Craft
• Little Miss Muffet Free Printable
• Jack Be Nimble Gross Motor Activity
• Hickory Dickory Dock Printable
• Mary Mary Quite Contrary Pattern Activity
• Baa Baa Black Sheep Name Activities
• How Does Your Garden Grow with Preschoolers
• Humpty Dumpty Sensory Activity
• Muffin Man Activities
• Nursery Rhyme Letter Writing

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Lesson Plans

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Our Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star lesson plans come with weekly plans, detailed daily lesson plans, book suggestions, video and song suggestions, whole group activities, small group lessons, center activities, and related printables. Click on the image below to get your own:

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Free Star Rhyming Cards

This free printable Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star activity is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. If you’re a member, fill out the form below and the download links will be sent to your inbox. If you’re not a member, you can join us by entering your information in the form. Then you’ll receive the printable as a welcome gift!

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