State and Model the Objective 
Tell the children that they will play with clay as they recognize and produce words that rhyme with clay, such as tray, spray, pay, and day.

Literacy Activities

Play with clay

• Give each child a piece of clay on a tray and let them play with the clay, reminding the children that clay and tray rhyme.
• Have the children mold various items out of clay to put in a pretend store. 
• Allow the children to pretend to pay for clay items in the store using play money (found below).
• Ask the children to put the clay away and spray off their trays with a spray bottle.
• Invite the children to share words they heard in the activity that rhyme with clay (support as needed).

More Practice

Produce words that rhyme with clay

• Remind the children of the words they played with (clay, play, gray, spray, tray, pay).
• Help each child to think of a word that rhymes with clay (support as needed).

March and say rhyming sounds 

• Have the children blend word parts into whole words by marching right when they say the beginning of the word, then marching left when they say the ending, and finally jumping with both feet when they say the whole word together. For example: cl (march right) + ay (march left) = clay (jump with both feet).
  • cl + ay = clay
  • h + ay = hay
  • r + ay = ray
  • m + ay = may