Short A Rhyming Words - Back to School Activities

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Short A Rhyming Words – Back to School Activities is a fun and simple way to help little ones practice rhyming with the short “a” sound. Designed for Kindergarten and 1st graders, kids read words on a cute backpack graphic and then circle the ones that rhyme. It’s a perfect back-to-school activity that builds important reading skills without feeling like a drill.

How you can use it:

In small groups or literacy centers during those busy first weeks
Independent work or homework that’s quick and easy
Morning work to get kids focused and ready for the day
A quick warm-up before phonics lessons
Something for early finishers to stay engaged
Works great for both in-person and virtual teaching

Why teachers like it:

Focuses on the short “a” sound, helping kids hear patterns in words
Combines reading and listening in a way that keeps kids interested
The backpack theme adds a seasonal, back-to-school vibe that kids enjoy
Super easy to prep, just print and hand out
Helps build vocabulary and spelling skills
Flexible for different skill levels and learning styles

Pdf file includes 2 pages.

Enjoy!

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Read short-a CVC words and other short printed words independently
Identify which words rhyme with a target word from the -at, -ad, -an, -ap, or -ag family
Reject non-rhyming words with different vowels or endings, such as bug, dog, and pen, while circling

Teaching tips

Have students read each backpack's word bank aloud before circling — the direction line makes reading the words the first step of the task
Use one page during the first week and keep the second parallel page for review or a quick re-check later in the unit
Ask students to say the target word with each word they circled to confirm the pair rhymes, since every bank hides look-alike non-rhymes

Skills covered

Rhyme recognition — students circle the words on each backpack that rhyme with a target word such as cat, pad, fan, or bag.
Short-a decoding — the banks are built from short printed words like sat, mad, pan, and tag that students read before deciding.
Sound discrimination — non-rhyming words such as bug, dog, pen, and cup must be read and left uncircled.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

Do students circle every word on a backpack, or only some of them?

Only some. Each backpack's bank mixes true rhymes for the target word with words that do not rhyme at all — bug, dog, pen, cup, top, and similar — so students have to read and test each word instead of circling the whole bank.

Which short-a word families does the set cover?

Five families across the eight backpacks: -at (cat, hat), -ad (pad, bad), -an (fan, man), -ap (cap), and -ag (bag), with rhyme banks drawing on words like sat, mad, van, nap, and wag.