Nothing Rhymes With Orange

As you probably know, no single word in the American English language rhymes with "orange." But you can certainly make one up! That's what this tune invites your class to do. It also helps your kids with rhyming as well as discerning real words from pretend ones. And it's just fun! Since odds are you'll be using this tune with younger kids, you might want to reinforce that they shouldn't use made up words in "normal" conversation. The phrase "lose them" helps with that: If it's real, use it; if it's pretend, lose it or don't use it.

If you wanted to carry the concept further or use it with your older students, make it more of a game. Have students not only make up a word, but use it in a sentence. It could be total nonsense or an actual marriage of words that might make sense. (For example, Anne likes to call a blood orange a "blorange.") It could be a short and simple word or absolutely ridiculous: "kworange" or "aftaplakasorange." So then, in a sentence, one might say, "The aftaplakasorange is a large round dinosaur with a really big navel." You could either interject the words and/or sentences into the song during the intro or interludes, or do it separately from the song.

You could also switch up the first half of the song if you wish. Here are a few other options that rhyme: mop, hop, clop, pop; flat, mat, bat, rat; or man, tan, ran, can.