Halloween is such a fun time of year to bring a little seasonal magic into reading and literacy activities. With little monsters, little ghosts, little pumpkins, witches, a black cat, little bats and plenty of spooky words to play with, Halloween gives us so many opportunities to practice rhyming words in a way that feels more like Halloween fun than schoolwork.
Rhyming is especially useful for young children and kindergarten students because it helps build phonological awareness, listening skills and early language skills. Kids begin to notice that words can sound different at the beginning while sharing the same ending sound, such as cat, bat and hat.
These activities can be used as part of Halloween lesson plans, during circle time, for morning work, in literacy centers or during a small group activity. We have also put together a simple Halloween Rhyming Words Printable Pack that you can download and use alongside the ideas below.
Why Are Rhyming Words Important?
Recognizing rhyme is an important early literacy skill. Before children are expected to read and spell independently, they need lots of opportunities to listen closely to the sounds within spoken language.
When children recognize that cat rhymes with bat or night rhymes with light, they are developing their understanding of sound patterns.
Rhyming activities are a great tool for working on:
- Phonological awareness
- Listening skills
- Language skills
- Vocabulary
- Letter sounds
- Sound discrimination
- Early reading confidence
Halloween season is the perfect time to practice because so many Halloween words naturally lend themselves to simple word families.
Related: Summer rhyming words
Halloween Rhyming Words
Here are some Halloween-themed words and easy rhymes you can practice together.
Cat Rhyming Words
A black cat is one of the easiest Halloween characters to use when introducing rhyming words.
Cat rhymes with:
Bat
Hat
Mat
Rat
Sat
Flat
Pat
Chat
You can make these into silly sentences too.
“The black cat sat on the mat wearing a hat.”
The sillier the sentence, the more likely young children are to remember it.
Bat Rhyming Words
Little bats are another easy Halloween theme for rhyme practice.
Bat rhymes with:
Cat
Hat
Mat
Rat
Flat
Sat
Pat
Most of these are part of the simple -at word family, making them particularly useful for kindergarten students.
Night Rhyming Words
Halloween night gives us another brilliant group of rhyming words.
Night rhymes with:
Light
Bright
Fright
Sight
Might
Right
White
Flight
Tight
These words are perfect for making spooky little poems about the darkest night, glowing pumpkins or bats taking flight.
Ghost Rhyming Words
Ghost can be a slightly more challenging Halloween word.
Ghost rhymes with:
Most
Post
Toast
Coast
Host
Roast
Boast
One of our favorite silly examples is:
“A little ghost loves eating toast.”
Moon Rhyming Words
Moon rhymes with:
Spoon
Soon
June
Tune
Noon
Balloon
Raccoon
Try asking children to make up something silly about a witch flying past the moon with a spoon.
Bell Rhyming Words
Bell rhymes with:
Spell
Tell
Well
Shell
Yell
Smell
Fell
This one works perfectly with witches and magic.
“The witch rang a bell as she started her spell.”
Treat Rhyming Words
Treat rhymes with:
Feet
Sweet
Meet
Street
Neat
Seat
Beat
This is an easy one to connect with trick-or-treating during the Halloween season.
Pumpkin Rhyming Words
Pumpkin is a useful example because it does not have many simple perfect rhymes.
This is a great way to show kids that not every word has an obvious rhyme.
Instead, you can use another pumpkin-related word, such as patch.
Patch rhymes with:
Match
Catch
Hatch
Scratch
Batch
Latch
That also makes a pumpkin patch a fun theme for word games and activities.
Easy Halloween Rhymes for Kids
Short rhymes are a fun way to reinforce rhyming sounds without turning the activity into a formal lesson. Use them during circle time, add movements or let kids listen for the words that sound the same.
Little Bats Rhyme
Little bats fly through the night,
Past the moon so big and bright.
Flap your wings and take your flight,
Happy Halloween tonight!
Have kids stretch out their arms and flap like little bats as they say the rhyme.
Little Ghosts Rhyme
Little ghosts say, “Boo, boo, boo!”
One for me and one for you.
Floating softly, dressed in white,
Dancing through the Halloween night.
Kids can wiggle fingers in the air and float around like little ghosts.
Little Pumpkins Rhyme
Little pumpkins in a row,
Smiling with an orange glow.
In the pumpkin patch they stay,
Waiting for Halloween day.
This one is easy to combine with counting little pumpkins too.
Black Cat Rhyme
Black cat, black cat, where are you?
I see your big eyes shining through.
On your mat beside a hat,
There you sit, my little cat.
Silly Monster Rhyme
Little monsters stomp their feet,
Showing off their big teeth.
Big eyes, big nose, big mouth too,
Then they shout a giant “BOO!”
Add actions for the big eyes, big nose, big mouth and big teeth and let the kids make their silliest monster faces.
Witch’s Pot Rhyme
Bubble, bubble, witch’s pot,
What is cold and what is hot?
Add a spider, add a spell,
Ring the witch’s magic bell.
This is a fun rhyme to pair with our witch’s pot printable activity below.
Darkest Night Rhyme
On the darkest night I see,
A tiny ghost beside a tree.
A little bat flies out of sight,
Then disappears into the night.
Halloween Rhymes to Familiar Tunes
Using favorite songs can make rhyme practice even easier, especially with younger children.
You can take a familiar tune such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and give it a Halloween twist.
Twinkle, twinkle Halloween light,
Glowing brightly in the night.
Little pumpkins shining bright,
Little ghosts all dressed in white.
Twinkle, twinkle Halloween light,
Guide us through the spooky night.
You can do the same with counting songs, little monkeys songs and other familiar nursery rhymes.
Making up a new Halloween song together is also a great way to work on rhyming words. Say one line and ask the children to suggest a word that could rhyme at the end of the next.
Related: Toddler songs with motions every parent must know
Halloween Rhyming Words Printable Pack
We have put together a simple black-and-white Halloween rhyming printable pack to go alongside these activities.
The pages are deliberately kept clear and uncluttered, with simple Halloween pictures and plenty of white space. This makes them easy to use with young children without making the activities feel too visually busy.
The pack works well for kindergarten students, homeschool, morning work, literacy centers, small group work and special education settings where clear visual choices can be helpful.
Halloween Rhyming Words Cover Page
The first page is the cover for the Halloween Rhyming Words Printable Pack.
There is space for children to write their name and date, along with some simple Halloween characters including a ghost, pumpkin, black cat, witch hat, moon and little bat.
Rhyming Picture Match
On this page, children draw lines between pictures that rhyme.
They will match pairs including cat and hat, bat and rat, ghost and toast, moon and spoon, bell and spell, and treat and feet.
This is a great starting activity because the pictures give children plenty of visual support while they listen for the matching sounds.
Halloween Rhyming Puzzles
Next we have simple two-piece rhyming puzzles.
Children can cut the pieces apart and then find the two pictures that belong together.
The rhyming pairs include cat and hat, bat and rat, ghost and toast, moon and spoon, bell and spell, and treat and feet.
You could print this page on cardstock or laminate the finished pieces if you want to reuse them in literacy centers throughout the Halloween season.
Cut and Paste Rhyming Words
This page gives children a hands-on cut-and-paste activity.
The main pictures include cat, bat, ghost, moon, bell and treat. Children cut out the pictures at the bottom and glue each one beside its rhyming partner.
Activities like this combine early literacy with cutting and fine motor practice too.
Pumpkin Word Family Sort
This page introduces three simple word families using big pumpkin sorting mats.
Children sort the word cards into:
- -AT
- -IGHT
- -OON
The words include cat, bat and hat; night, light and bright; and moon, spoon and balloon.
Word family sorting is a great way to move beyond simply spotting two rhyming words and start noticing the sound pattern shared by a whole group of words.
Color the Rhymes
This activity asks children to look at a target word and color the pictures that rhyme with it.
For BAT, they can identify words such as cat, hat, rat and mat.
For MOON, they can find spoon and balloon among the picture choices.
Because children are choosing from several different images, this page encourages them to listen carefully rather than simply matching one obvious pair.
Rhyme or Not?
This simple checklist activity introduces another important skill: deciding whether two words rhyme at all.
Children look at pairs including cat/bat, moon/spoon, ghost/toast, witch/broom, treat/feet and bell/spell, then check whether the words rhyme or do not rhyme.
Including some non-rhyming pairs is useful because it helps children understand the concept rather than simply assuming that every pair they see should match.
Witch’s Pot Rhyming Sort
The witch’s pot activity is another hands-on sorting page.
There are two witch’s pots labeled CAT and NIGHT.
Children sort bat, hat, rat and mat into the CAT pot, while light, bright, fright and sight belong in the NIGHT pot.
You can cut out the cards and physically place them onto the correct witch’s pot, or simply draw lines from each card to its matching pot.
Which One Does Not Rhyme?
On the final activity page, children look at groups of four words and find the one that does not belong.
For example:
Cat, hat, bat, moon
Light, night, bright, spoon
Ghost, toast, most, rat
Children circle the odd word out in each row.
This is a slightly more challenging activity because they have to recognize a group of three rhyming words as well as identify the word with a different ending sound.
How to Use the Halloween Rhyming Printables
There is no single right way to use the pack.
You could complete one page each day as morning work, add individual activities to your Halloween lesson plans, or place laminated pages and cut-apart activities into literacy centers.
For young children, say the words aloud together before asking them to complete the page independently. Rhyming is primarily a listening skill, so children do not need to be confident readers before they can start recognizing rhymes.
You can also exaggerate the ending sounds at first:
C-AT.
B-AT.
N-IGHT.
L-IGHT.
Once children hear that shared ending, it often becomes much easier for them to spot more words in the same family.
Halloween Rhyming Activities for Circle Time
Circle time is a perfect time to introduce rhyming words before using the worksheets.
Say two words and ask:
“Do they rhyme?”
Try:
Cat and bat.
Moon and spoon.
Ghost and toast.
Cat and pumpkin.
You can have children give a thumbs up for a rhyme and a thumbs down if the words do not rhyme.
Another fun way is to leave out the final word in a short rhyme.
“Little bat flying at night,
Past the moon so big and…”
Pause and let the children shout:
“Bright!”
This makes rhyme practice interactive and gives kids a chance to predict words using both meaning and sound.
Add Movement to Halloween Rhymes
Rhyming activities do not have to mean sitting at a table.
Add simple actions and let children:
Wiggle fingers like spiders.
Flap their arms like little bats.
Stomp like little monsters.
Float like little ghosts.
Pretend to stir a witch’s pot.
Make big eyes and a big mouth.
Show their imaginary big teeth.
Crouch like little pumpkins growing in a pumpkin patch.
Movement is a fun way to keep young children engaged while repeating the words and sounds.
Halloween Rhyming Words for Older Kids
You can also take the idea further with older elementary kids or even use Halloween rhyme as a quick creative writing activity with high school students.
Give them a Halloween word and challenge them to create a short poem, rhyme, song or spooky riddle around it.
They could write about:
A haunted house
A pumpkin patch
Halloween night
A witch’s spell
A mysterious black cat
A group of little ghosts
A monster hiding in the dark
It becomes less about basic phonological awareness and more about vocabulary, rhythm and creative language skills.
Download the Halloween Rhyming Words Printable Pack PDF
Download the Halloween Rhyming Words Printable Pack below and use the pages throughout the Halloween season.
The activities cover picture matching, puzzles, cut and paste rhyming words, word families, coloring, sorting, identifying rhyming pairs and finding the word that does not rhyme.
Print the pages you need or use the whole pack as a mini Halloween literacy unit.
More Halloween Activities for Kids
If your kids enjoyed these Halloween rhyming words and printable activities, take a look through our other Halloween crafts, printables, coloring pages and learning activities for even more seasonal ideas.
- Halloween Jokes Printable Cards
- Free Printable Halloween Playdough Mats
- Printable Halloween Puzzles Craft
- Rocking Mummy Halloween Craft
- Halloween Bat Coloring Pages
Halloween is a great time to mix learning with a little silliness, whether that means little ghosts eating toast, a black cat wearing a hat or little bats flying through the night.
And when kids are laughing at the rhymes while also building important early literacy and phonological awareness skills, that is definitely a win.
