Write Santa Claus-Themed Alliteration

What You Need:

• Lined paper
• Pen or pencil
• Thesaurus (optional) 

What You Do:

1. Discuss the concept of alliteration with your child. For a refresher, alliteration is a literary device in which the same consonant letter sound is in the beginning of several words in succession. A common use of alliteration is in tongue twisters.
2. For example, alliteration is used in the phrase, "Karen collected coins in Kentucky." Even though the words in the sentence don't all begin with the same letter, it represents alliteration because all the beginnings of the words use the same letter sound. "Shelly showed Sean her shiny new shoes" would be another example of alliteration, as most of the words begin with the “sh” sound. "Tony thought twice about it" would not be alliteration because the words do not all begin with the same letter sound.
3. Have your child divide a piece of lined paper into three sections lengthwise. Write What Santa Looks Like on the top line of the first column. Next, write "What Santa Does" on top of the second column. Finally, write "What Santa Says and to Whom" on top of the third column.
4. Ask your child to write words or phrases about Santa Claus under each corresponding column. For example, under "What Santa Looks Like," your child may include: red cheeks, white beard, large belly, etc. Under "What Santa Does," your child may include: brings presents, rides in sleigh, eats cookies, etc. Finally, under "What Santa Says and to Whom" he may write, "On Dancer, on Prancer... to his reindeer."
5. Help your child come up with other words that begin with the same letter sound as some of the descriptions and brainstorming ideas that she has come up with, and put these words together to form alliterations. For example, "Santa sneaks silently past sleeping sweethearts. "
6. Use a thesaurus to help find synonyms for words to discover more letter sound options.
7. Challenge your child to put these alliterations together to form a paragraph about Jolly Old St. Nick. She may also choose to turn her ideas into an alliteration poem. Have her rewrite it neatly into a final draft and display it for her family's entertainment this holiday season!