Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds.
"A florid woman was flapping a pink feather fan" (Esther Forbes, Johnny Tremain, 75). "Each day, they watered and weeded....They heaved and they ho'd....They grunted and they groaned....They teamed and they towed....They stretched and they swayed....They hollered and they hauled" (Vladimir Vagin, The Enormous Carrot). "And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground" (Exodus 16:14). Barbara Bottner builds her alphabet book An Annoying ABC around alliteration, each of the characters performing an action with the same initial letter as his/her name: Adelaide annoyed, Bailey blamed, Clyde cried etc. "Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world" (Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 21).For more mentor texts, go here. |
Imagine teaching a classroom of 26 students or, if you're a
homeschooling mom, having a crew of the same size in your house. One
cherub annoys another and sets off a domino reaction of blaming and
crying, drooling, elbowing, and fuming.On second thought, you don't need to imagine the scene. You are either watching it in real time with your own brood or you can see it described and illustrated in Barbara Bottner's An Annoying ABC.
Possible activities for students to do with this book:
Read the book and make observations about the text or illustrations.
List the verbs, either verbally or in writing.
annoyed, blamed, cried, drooled....
Talk about alliteration (the repetition of initial sounds). Where does it occur?
Flora fumes, Grover grabs, and Joshua jabs, for instance.
Cover an advanced topic. Read about transitive and intransitive verbs. Categorize the verbs from above in one of the two categories.
Annoyed is transitive. The direct object is Bailey. (Poor Bailey!)
Cried is intransitive. It has no direct object.
Review alphabetization. Write the names, one per index card, and shuffle. Put the cards in alphabetical order.
Talk about cause and effect.
Some of the sentences, such as "Bailey blamed Clyde," are simple. Young students can identify their subject and verb.
Possible writing connection:
Write a similar alphabet book, choosing an adjective other than annoying. The characters don't have to be children in a classroom. They can be animals or insects or professional athletes. Follow Bottner's example and include alliteration.
If your student writes an alphabet book, give us a taste of it in the comments.
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