Why Do We Use Alliteration?

Alliteration can make your words more engaging and entertaining. When your writing
engages your audience, they're more likely to pay attention and remember what you say.

Alliteration gives musicality and rhythm to your words. That’s why poets decided to use it
long ago and continue to do so. It can help keep the poem moving, giving it pace that
encourages you to keep reading.

In time, alliteration has been included more and more in everyday activities.

For example, advertisers and musicians often use alliteration in their works. That’s
because sentences and phrases sound more playful and are easier to memorise when
they include alliteration. That’s one of the reasons why sometimes a commercial line or a
song lyric can get stuck in your head!

Also, alliteration can be used to express a certain emotion to the reader or the listener.
When you listen to a song that uses soft, smooth sounds you'll normally feel calm or at
peace. But when the sounds used are harsh or loud, you’ll feel that agitation too.
Many powerful speeches in history have used alliteration to underline the importance of
the subject. For example, one of Martin Luther King's famous speeches used this
feature to make people understand that racism should be stopped and people should be
treated equally, no matter what:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

The 'c' sound is repeated through the speech.

How Do You Write Alliteration?

Alliteration can be used anywhere. However, in writing, it's often found in sayings and
poetry.

Alliteration can be a great tool for children to try in their creative writing activities to
create masterpieces and spark their readers attention and interest. They might also fall
in love with writing when they’ll see how playful their pieces have become. Using this
feature can be a great opportunity to accentuate ideas and names and make them
memorable.

There are different ways that we can use alliteration, depending on where the repeated
sound is.

Make a mountain out of a molehill.

Matthew met Michael at the Moor.

In these examples, the repeated sound ('m') is in the first letter of the words.

However, alliteration can also be achieved with the first syllable.

 Busy buzzing, the bee behaved beautifully.

This example actually includes two examples of alliteration. While they all begin with the
letter 'b', there are two repeated sounds: 'bu' and be'.

Alliteration in Everyday Sayings

Some phrases that we use in everyday life contain alliteration. Here's some examples.

Cream of the crop;

french fry;

hit the hay;

pecan pie;

super- Size;

tough talk;

trick or treat;

rocky road;

no nonsense;

tough talk;

quick question;

picture perfect;

high heaven;

busy as a bee;

dead as a doornail;

home sweet home;

living life;

out of order;

right as rain.
Alliteration in Stories & Nursery Rhymes
Alliteration is often used in children's stories and nursery rhymes to help engage
children. These texts are usually written to be read aloud, so alliteration helps the flow of
the writing too.

'Three grey geese in a green field grazing. Grey were the geese and green
was the grazing.' (Three Grey Geese - Mother Goose)

'Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said, this butter's bitter; if I put it in
my batter, it will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make my
batter better.' (Betty Botter - Carolyn Wells)

'There's a worm at the bottom of my garden, and his name is Wiggly Woo.'

Alliteration in Poetry
Alliteration has been used for hundreds of years poetry , novels, and dramas. Here are
two great examples:

'From forth the fatal loins of these two foes...' (Romeo and Juliet - William
Shakespeare)

'Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary.' (The Raven -
Edgar Allen Poe)

'Shining sun / Green, green grass / Birds building / New nests' (Sunny Spring
- Twinkl)

How to identify Alliteration

The best way to spot alliteration is to read out the sentence, making sure to listen for
the words with the identical consonant sounds. This will become more noticeable if read
out loud.

Have a look at our fun Alliteration At the Zoo game to teach your children how to spot
alliteration. Or try our video for more ideas:

Alliteration Tongue Twisters

Now that alliteration become clearer for everybody, you can try these four amazing
alliteration tongue twisters with children. They’ll surely love them:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck
of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

A good cook could cook as many cookies as a good cook who could cook
cookies.

I saw a saw that could out saw any other saw I ever saw.

A big bug bit the little beetle, but the little beetle bit the big bug back.
How Can Alliteration Be Improved?
Teaching children about alliteration can be tricky. That’s why we thought of some simple
ways to teach kids about this topic. Here's what you can try:

Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down Game:

Ask your pupils to give a thumbs up if the phrase you say includes alliteration and
thumbs down if it doesn’t. Contrast the phrases to make the game interesting and to
keep them entertained. Emphasise the sounds as much as possible to help them and tell
them to repeat the words to underline the alliteration when is the case.

Movement Game:

If you know your class likes to move around, dance or run, take advantage of it. Come up
with lines that include alliteration and with lines that don’t, and ask them to dance, jump,
wiggle or tap their feet for each case. For example, they can jump when you use
alliteration and tap their feet when you don’t.

Childish Names Game:

Pick a day of the week and transform it into alliteration day. Ask your children to call one
another using alliterative phrases, such as Creative Caroline or Magical Matt. You can go
further and rename all the names of the classes from that day together. They’re going to
love this day and, maybe, they’re also going to love alliteration!

I Spy:

Transform this popular game to suit your needs when talking about alliteration.Point to
different objects around you and ask children to create a phrase using alliteration based
on that object. How many phrases can they think of?

Curriculum- related Alliteration Games:

Include alliteration into any other lesson you’re teaching. Are you learning about animals
in science? Pick an animal and ask children to create alliterations starting with this word.
You’re in reading class, and you're focusing on a story? Why not ask them to underline
some alliteration in it? The more natural you include this topic in your day, the better
they’ll understand it.

Teaching Children About Alliteration

Save time when preparing your next lesson and try our resources to teach children what
alliteration is.

If you’re a parent and could use some help before doing homework with your child, look
no further because we put together our best ideas to make sure you have everything you
need.

All of our resources are teacher- made, so you can be sure they’re relevant and in line
with the national curriculum.

1)KS2 Alliteration PowerPoint

Use this handy PowerPoint to start a discussion about the topic with your class. The
resource answers questions like 'What is Alliteration?', 'Why use it?' and 'How do you
identify it?. It also provides your children with some easy alliteration examples they
might already be familiar with to teach them that alliteration isn't actually that difficult.

At the end of the PowerPoint, you’ll find some fun games to do in class to make sure
everyone understands the topic. For example, children will be asked to look at pictures
and improve sentences by using alliterative descriptions for each one.

2)Spring Alliteration Poem Resource Pack

Using the theme of spring, this resource pack is the perfect way to show children how
alliteration works in poetry. It includes a spring poem that features lots of alliteration as
well as fun activities for children to complete. They can even have a go at writing their
own alliteration- filled poem. At the end of the lesson, your budding poets will be experts
at alliteration!

3)At the Zoo Alliteration Game

Take children on a digital trip to the zoo using this fantastic alliteration game.
Thisresource encourages children to come up with examples of alliteration for each
animal they see. This is a great way for children to think creatively and have a go at
creating alliteration for themselves. Why not write a poem all about the zoo together as a
class, using the alliteration they've thought of?

4)Awesome Alliteration Worksheet

This worksheet will no doubt prompt some lively discussions about hurricanes and
mother nature, while also encouraging your kids to produce practically perfect pieces of
alliteration every time!

The worksheet is great as an introduction to writing techniques or as an alliteration

refresher, and slots perfectly into any weather or nature topic. It tasks pupils with writing
their own alliteration about different types of buildings that people live in, such as
caravans or castles.