State and Model the Objective
Tell the children that they will pretend to teach dogs to stay and play as they recognize and produce words that rhyme with stay, such as lay, obey, and astray.

Literacy Activities
Obey and stay

• Choose three children to pretend to be dog trainers and give each of them name tags.
• Have all remaining children pretend to be dogs.
• Ask the children to listen for words in the activity that rhyme with stay.
• Help the dog trainers take turns giving the "dogs" a command using words that rhyme with stay, such as:
  • Play dead
  • Lay down
  • Stay when I walk away
  • Don't go astray
• Remind the "dogs" that they need to obey their trainer.
• Rotate trainers and dogs so everyone has an opportunity to be a dog trainer.
• Help the children recall the words they heard that rhyme with stay (lay, say, play, obey, astray).

More Practice

Produce words that rhyme with stay

• Have the children sit in a circle on the floor.
• Remind the children of the words they played with (stay, lay, say, play, obey, astray). 
• Walk inside of the circle, pausing at each child to give them a turn to say a word that rhymes with stay (support as needed).
• Continue this until every child has said a word that rhymes with stay (repeats are acceptable).

Recognize rhyming words

• Have the children repeat a set of two words (e.g., stay, play).
• Ask the children to show you thumbs up if the words rhyme and thumbs down if the words do not rhyme (support as needed).
• Repeat with other sets of words (e.g., bay, day; hay, way; play, cat; fray, stay; pay, say; tray, truck; stray, may).