In this study, an extensive episode of teachers working with the intention of developing children's understanding of rhyme is analysed. The data for the analysis consist of a video-recording of two teachers and seven children (aged 3–5 years) working with a type of rhyme-card and trying to construct a poem. The analytical interest lies in the opportunities that the teachers provide children to develop a notion of rhyme. The result shows that what a rhyme is to large extent remains implicit in the talk. The critical distinction between a relation between words based on sound (i.e. a rhyme) and a relation between words based on sense also remains unverbalized. This means that while some children may discover this distinction themselves through participating in this activity and encountering a variety of examples, a child who has not understood this difference is not actually helped to do so. Relevance and implications of this study to the practice of preschool are briefly discussed.
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