Beginning Sounds Worksheet: Identify and Color Rhyming Words!
This worksheet combines two early literacy skills for children ages 3-5: identifying and writing the beginning sound of a picture, and recognizing which words rhyme with 'dog'. Beginning-sound awareness is one of the first steps toward spelling, while rhyme recognition builds the auditory pattern-spotting that later supports word families. Practicing both together helps children notice that words can be related by their starting sound or by their ending sound.
Curriculum
How to use this worksheet
Look at each picture together and say its name slowly, listening for the very first sound. Have your child write that beginning letter in the space provided next to the picture. Next, look at the bubbles containing different words and read each one aloud, asking your child to decide whether it rhymes with 'dog'. Have them color only the bubbles that rhyme with 'dog', leaving the non-rhyming ones uncolored.
Materials needed
- Pencil
- Crayons
Extension activities
- •Think of three more words that rhyme with 'dog' and say them together, like 'log', 'fog', and 'jog'.
- •Play a rhyming clap game: say two words and clap once if they rhyme, twice if they don't.
- •Go on a 'first sound' hunt, naming objects around the house and identifying just their beginning sound.
- •Make up a silly short rhyme using 'dog' and other rhyming words your child suggests.
- •Draw a picture of a dog and label it, sounding out the beginning letter together.
Tips for parents and teachers
Rhyming is often trickier for young children than beginning sounds, since it requires holding a word in mind and comparing its ending to another word — if your child struggles, exaggerate the ending sounds when you say each pair aloud. Writing letters is still an emerging skill at this age, so accept reversed or wobbly letters as long as the correct sound is identified. Keep sessions short and end on a word your child gets right to build confidence.
Written by
Hemsweta Jain · Teacher Cheena
MBA and Early Childhood Educator, teaching since 2014 · Founder of RaisoActive, Mumbai
Every RaisoActive worksheet is designed and checked by the founder before publishing.
Published · Last reviewed
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