The Rhyming Rabbit

Product Information

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. His books can also instill confidence in young readers as many of them heavily rely on short rhyming words and can easily be decoded once a child has a solid understanding of the concept of rhyme.

For this game you’ll need to create a set of index cards with pairs of rhymes written on them. For every pair of rhymes you write, also write a card that doesn’t rhyme. You then give your child a set of 3 cards, two of which rhyme. Your child will need to read the words and determine which two words rhyme and set the other one aside. As you read these books with your child (or have them read them to you), be sure to take note of and discuss the rhyming words in the book and how they are useful in decoding unknown words. His books contain casts of colorful characters and tongue twisting tales of fun and imagination. His silly antics have been bringing giggles to home for decades.To introduce this strategy, I begin with the book, The Rhyming Rabbit. This is a story about a lonely rabbit with an affinity for creating poems. None of the other animals in the forest appreciate his rhymes, until one night he meets a friendly sheep who loves to rhyme too. His books are in fact, partially the inspiration behind this next reading strategy that does not typically appear on classroom walls.

This book is the story of a rabbit who likes to make up poems about his surroundings and events that happen to him. Unfortunately for him, none of his family or friends appreciates his rhymes. They find it annoying when he recites his poetry aloud as they try to sleep so the Rhyming Rabbit decides to dig himself a long burrow and set off on a night time adventure, reciting poetry as he goes. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. The Rhyming Rabbit loves to make up entertaining poems, inspired by everything he sees, but the other rabbits don’t appreciate his talent for rhyme. Sad and lonely, the Rhyming Rabbit sets off one starry night all on his own – will he ever find someone to share his poems with? For the purposes of this game I create about 10 pairs. The objective of the game is to find the corresponding matches and correctly read them.Enjoy all the stories from Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks: Sharing a Shell, The Princess and the Wizard, The Rhyming Rabbit, The Singing Mermaid, Sugarlump and the Unicorn, Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox, What the Ladybird Heard, What the Ladybird Heard Next and What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. In fact a study from the Center for Early Literacy Learning showed that there was a strong correlation particularly with nursery rhyme experience and stronger phonological skills early on. My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

I think this book would be a good book to read aloud to children in the early years and lower key stage one. There is a simple repetitive rhyme while the rabbit is digging the tunnel which allows for whole class participation and children to engage with poetry. In addition to this, the book could also be used to aid the learning of different animals in the early years. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. In the burrow he meets a worm and a mole but they too don’t appreciate his rhymes. It’s not until he digs his way out of the earth and into a field where he meets a friendly sheep that he finally finds a friend who likes rhymes as much as he does. The Rhyming Rabbit and the sheep spend the whole night and the next day making up new rhymes together. When he has to leave, the Rhyming Rabbit vows to return again the next day to see his new friend. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.

Want to save more time

Match it – rhymes This is a simple and fun way to practice rhymes. On index cards, write a series of rhyming words. Do not repeat endings so as to make sure there aren’t multiple options for matches. For example, only include one set of rhymes that ends in at – like that and sat. I then introduce them to our strategy, Rhyming Rabbit and discuss how he can be useful when reading. We look at several short sentences and identify words for which we know rhymes. For example: The ball rolled to a stop. We look at the word stop and discuss words we know that rhyme with stop and how they could help us decode the word stop if we didn’t already know it. We practice this with several other sentences. This is because rhyming essentially teaches children how language works. Specifically, it introduces them to the rhythm of language and helps them to notice the patterns sounds make in words.