Why do Kids Learn Alliterations?

To understand why it’s important for kids to learn alliterations, we first need to know what alliterations are.

What are alliterations?

Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Simply put, alliteration is when the beginning sound of words is repeated in close succession.

For example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Alliterations does not depend on the letter, but rather the sound.

For example: “Kim came” is an alliteration

When do we use alliterations?

Alliteration is used to make poems and texts more interesting and memorable.

We use alliterations in:

rhymes and stories

For example: "Slowly the slug started up the steep surface, stringing behind it scribble sparkling like silk." – “Some Smug Slug” by Pamela Duncan Edwards

tongue twisters

For example: Sheep should sleep in a shed. Or How much wood would a woodchuck chuck; If a woodchuck would chuck wood?

brand names

For example: Dunkin' Donuts, Spongebob Squarepants and Wonder Woman.

song lyrics

For example: “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.” The Beatles.

phrases and quotes

For example: busy as a bee; or make a mountain out of a molehill

Why is it important for kids to learn alliterations?

Alliterations helps students to think about reading in a different way. When certain letters are grouped together, young readers pay closer attention to the sound that letter or letters make. This will help them sound out difficult words more easily and become faster readers.

For example: "through thick and thin". Students practice the sound “th”. The word “through” is a little tougher to learn to read. In conjunction with “thick” and “thin”, students learn to more easily identify “th-rough”.

By learning to identify and pay close attention to the sounds in a series of repeated words, they’re about to work out how sounds make up parts of words and are able to decode sounds in more difficult words.

Alliterations worksheets

In our grade 2 grammar section, we’ve created a series of worksheets for students to practice writing their own alliterations.