When you think of teaching alliteration to K-2 students, you think of silly sentences like Peter Piper and Sally by the Seashore. Alliteration activities for kids can be so much more than some tongue twisters! Here are just a few ideas on teaching alliteration for kids from classroom teachers.
When it comes to learning alliteration for kids, it’s related to learning standards on hearing the initial sounds in words. Alliteration is a phrase or sentence with the same initial sound in most of the words. It’s usually meant as an emphasis and sometimes an attention-getter. Let’s see the most popular alliteration activities to do with young children typically used in primary classrooms.
Alliteration Videos
Search your favorite video site for “alliteration” and many videos that introduce or review alliteration come up and are great for primary students.
I saw one from Have Fun Teaching and also a WBT (Whole Brain Teaching) video where the teacher uses the tune from Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”.
Alliteration Books
Books…so many books! Reading a book is one of the easiest alliteration activities to do with children. Dr. Seuss’ famous The Butter Battle is a favorite, but there are others that are awesome too, like Some Smug Slug and Bedhead to name a few. Make sure to check out this Alliteration eBook that includes extensions, audio, and a print-friendly option. This digital book teaches alliteration on the level of primary students.
5 Alliteration Activities
Here are just a few alliteration activities you can do with kids.
- Phonemic awareness pictures with same initial sounds are a great way to get kindergarteners and special education students to orally write their own silly sentences!
- Name craftivity with the student creating a sentence with the following frame and making a cut-out version of themselves to put up on the display wall or bulletin board: My name is J_____ and I like j_______.
- Have 1st and 2nd grade students write their own tongue twisters and illustrate them.
- Review phonics digraphs and blends by creating sentences with them. The blends would be quite challenging and terrific for enrichment!
- Assign everyone a letter to draw as a large bubble letter on colored paper. Students then write an alliteration sentence and illustrate inside of the bubble letter.
I’ve curated a Pinterest board related to alliteration activities for primary kids. If you like these lessons and you would love to see more, click here to follow the Alliteration K-2 board.