Whether it is for teaching phonics or writing a children's book, alliterations can be fun for everyone.
Alliteration is the repetition of an initial sound. It can be a sentence, poem, or story where all or nearly all of the initial sounds of each word are the same. For example:
Cindy swam steadily on Sunday.
Tongue twisters are often alliterations:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Dr. Seus’ ABCs uses alliteration to teach children the alphabet: “Aunt Annie’s alligator…”
The truth is, anyone holding a dictionary can write alliterations. The trick to writing a saleable alliteration, though, is to make the string of words “fit” together. Read the words you have written out loud. Is there a rhythm to the sentence? Can you clap to it or chant out the words? Does the sentence slide off your tongue like a slithery snake? If not, you’ll need to rework the sentence, perhaps use different words with more or fewer syllables.
For children, alliterations are an excellent way to explore phonics. Take the /f/ sound. It can be written with an f or a ph. The /s/ sound can be written with a ps, s, or c.
Blends and digraphs can also be used. For example, have the children write a list of words that begin with sp or th. Next, have the children use their list to write a sentence, or even a short story.
Group projects can include students creating an alphabet book: each child uses a letter of the alphabet to write a sentence. The sentence is then illustrated and the children’s work is hung up for display.
Alliteration is a fun and challenging project for everyone. It forces writers to take a closer look at words and syllables. For children, alliteration is the perfect way to explore phonics and, with a dictionary, learn new words.
