Phonics #10

Summary: In order to understand onsets and rimes, you have to understand that they go hand in hand and really cannot be taught without the other. The onset is the consonant letters preceeding the vowel(s) in a syllable.  The rime is the vowel phoneme and consonants following.  So, for one syllable words, the word is composed of the consonant(s) at the beginning (the onset) and then and then is the vowel phoneme and rest of the consonants (rime).

While rime is related to rhyme, rhyme has more to do with the sound of the word and rime has to do with the spelling of the word. That is to say, words rhyme if their phoneme sounds the same and have the same rime in relation to the ending graphemes.  Specific examples comparing the two are:
-weight, bait, mate, and wait all have the same rhyme
-hop, drop, stop, and mop all have the same rime

Using activities associated with rhyme can be beneficial when teaching English. This allows students to compare and contrast words, graphemes and phonemes. If students are able to distinguish which words sound alike, this can help build spelling, and sometimes meaning. Doing word sorts based on spelling, onsets, and rimes is a great way for them to distinguish the similarities and differences.

Words do not always have to have onsets: ask, ouch, am, old, of
Using the following one-syllable words, the onset is underlined, and the rime is bolded:
could, hop, high, say, fun

Examples of Onset 

pig

smile

chip

wish

splash

thirteen

pumpkin

garden

Rime

-ant            -ug            -op

plant           bug           hop

slant            rug           drop

grant           chug         mop

Rhyme

weight

bait

mate

wait

Fox, B. (2010). Phonics and structural analysis for the teacher of reading. (10 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.