Alliteration and Rhyme helps students play with sounds and understand relationships.

Step 2 of Phonological Awareness is alliteration and rhyme. This is gonna be fun. I love playing with words and watching the students have fun while they are learning.

Even though these go together for Step 2, they are equally impressive.

All About Alliteration

Alliteration and Rhyme: Step 2 Phonological Awareness helps students productively play with words

(See how I did that?) I was on a trip to New Orleans with my best friend last year and we were in and out of several souvenir shops, like we all do.

We looked at t-shirts and sweatshirts and cups and BOOKS.

Did I mention my best friend was also a teacher?

I found this book, Zoo Krewe.

It was a delightful book about New Orleans with alliterative sentences. So. Much. Fun.

Alligator adds andouille. Bear burrows in beads. Crawfish creates a costume. What fun!

Alliterations are all around us…and we use them every day. Best Buy. Coca-Cola. Lululemon. Cap’n Crunch. And my favorite Duck Donuts!

Students can make alliterative sentences BEFORE they know letters, because they are just playing with sounds. Using picture cards, students can find their beginning sound match to create alliterations. In the title picture, the students are matching draw and drink by listening to the beginning sound. Once they find a partner, they can create a sentence ORALLY: “He can drink juice and draw a picture.”

So many activities can be done with alliteration. Matching sounds, making sentences, and sorting pictures will help the students fully understand matching beginning sounds. Here are a few activities for Alliteration.

1. 2-Part Alliterations and 3-Part Alliterations

Matching sounds is easy, especially when they can find another partner in the class. They have to move around the room, saying their sound until they find their partner.

2. Alliteration Thumbs up, Thumbs down

You say the pairs, they make the vote. Simple. Quick.

3. Alliteration Sort by Sound

Don’t introduce letters, just match sounds. Students should match picture cards to picture cards and recognize when they are the same.

4. Make Awesome Alliteration Sentences

Students can find many words starting with the same sounds and then they make a sentence…a crazy sentence…a sentence that makes them smile.

Patty and Peter pain a parrot and peel peaches for a pie.

Pretty Perfect!

If you’d like to check out the Alliteration Set, click the link and the picture.

Rhyming is the opposite!

Alliteration Activities Phonological Awareness Small Group Science of Reading

Phonological Awareness Step 2: Alliteration and Rhyme helps students play with sounds and understand relationships.

Where alliteration is matching the beginning sound, rhyming is matching the ending sound.

Rhyming matches rimes. (wink)

Rhyming is a skill we’ve talked about and taught for years…but sometimes we put too much emphasis on writing the rhyme…and we need to be talking more about hearing the rhyme.

Students need practice with hearing the rhymes.

Many times they “know” cat and hat rhyme, but they really just know they “go together.” We have to make sure they KNOW what rhyming means. The only way to do that is to play with the sounds.

1. Rhyming Yes or No (This can be Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down)

Listening to rhyme means students need to take away the first thing they hear and focus on the last thing they hear. They need to disregard the beginning part of the word. Teachers can emphasize the ending while they are sharing the rhyming pairs. /p/-AT and /c/-AT. /h/-OUSE and /m/-OUSE.

2. Rhyming: Which Doesn’t Belong?

Being a child of the 70s, I remember the Sesame Street song, “Oe of these things is not like the other?

One of these things doesn’t belong?” We need to give them choices to compare and contrast.

In a pocket chart, we have a target word (red) and two other options (fed, cup).

I like to do a “kangaroo hop” and point to each picture: “red-fed, red-cup.”

Once they can distinguish between two, move to three. “red-hoe, red-bed, red-can.”

3. Rhyming: Sorting and Matching

Students have to have lots and lots of practice with rhyming. Make sure they are sorting and matching over and over again.

If you’d like to check out the Rhyming Set, click the link or the picture.

When you have students matching beginning and ending sounds ORALLY, you are setting them up for success. When they can attend to part of a word (beginning or ending), they are ready to talk about all the sounds in the words.

What are your favorite rhyming activities?