Have your students take apart and put together onsets and rimes with a Google Interactive set of Onset-Rime Clip Cards. The onset is the part of a single-syllable word before the vowel. The rime is the end part of a word, including the vowel and the following letters.

Applying this learned reading skill is similar to following a roadmap—following the route one sound (phoneme) at a time until you reach the endpoint. 

Teaching onset and rime becomes playtime with our Onset and Rime Interactive Clip Cards, in which students build words using onsets and rimes.

Master Reading through Play with Onsets and Rimes 

This resource can be used as a reading center activity for fast finishers, with your guided reading group, or as a whole class activity to practice forming words by blending onsets and rimes. 

To use, assign the activity in Google Classroom or another LMS. Students will open the file in edit mode. Students will click and drag icons to identify the rimes needed to make complete words.

Turn This Activity into Even More Onset and Rime Games!

We think you’ll like these extra opportunities for blending onsets and rimes.

Word Families

Students can practice their word families. Have students take a sheet of paper and write other words that use the same rhyme as a word on the cards.

Onset-Rime Awareness Scaffolding & Extension Tips

Once students have built all of the words, encourage them to add them to a personal word wall or student dictionary, use them in sentences, or reset the slides and play again!

Invite students to use a visual reminder such as an onset & rime anchor chart or an alphabet chart to sound out difficult words.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Assign the resource to Google Classroom, go over the directions with your students, and they are ready to go! 

Before You Download

Use the Download button to download the Google Slides resource.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Practice onset and rime, beginning sounds, phonemes, and more with these early reader-approved activities: 

teaching resource

Onset and Rime Match-Up or Interactive Clip Card Activity

Practice forming words by blending onsets and rimes with this set of 15 rime cards that match their picture/onset card.

teaching resource

SPLAT! Phoneme Segmentation Game

Practice segmenting one-syllable words into their phonemes with this printable game.

teaching resource

Beginning Sounds Sorting Activity

Practice identifying beginning sounds of words by sorting this set of 24 picture cards.