Pre-K Alliteration Songs

Emphasize the Alliteration

• Educators and parents often use songs with alliteration as a precursor to teaching a child how to read. Alliteration teaches a child which letters make which sounds. This tool helps a child recognize phonics, and eventually leads to reading. The Government Services Association recommends emphasizing the alliteration in a song. For instance, the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," can be turned into, "Bed, Boulders, Bees, and Bows," and the B words should be emphasized throughout the song. According to the GSA publication, "Examples of Quality Phonological Awareness Activities," commonly known children's songs can be transformed into alliterations easily. GSA says stressing the letter being repeated reinforces the association of the letter with the sound to the child.

Incorporate Books

• The National Association for the Education of Young Children recommends incorporating books into alliteration songs in the publication, "Phonological Awareness is Child's Play." They advise parents and educators, when choosing books to read to a child, to choose ones that can be made into songs. For instance, if there is a cow mooing in a book, the reader can say, "The cow went 'moo, moo, mock-a-moodle moo'." Then, the child can take a turn making up an alliterative sound for the cow to make on her own. The NAEYC says this transforms a story into an interactive alliterative song and reinforces phonics to the child.

Use Objects to Create Simple Songs

• Everyday objects can be used to create alliteration songs at anytime and in anyplace. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association published an article titled, "Emergent Literacy," in which they encourage parents to turn everyday objects and places into alliteration songs. For instance, playing ball at the park can be turned into a song by singing, "Bouncing ball goes, boing, boing, boing!" By bouncing the ball to the rhythm the words are said, a song is created. ASHA recommends parents and educators encourage a child to participate in these fun, learning moments in order to gain the phonics skills necessary for literacy.

Use Creativity

• The publication, "Pre-K Teaching Times," published by Bright Horizons, stresses the importance of creativity when using alliterative songs with children. The online newsletter recommends allowing a child to make up his own silly words starting with the same letter, in order to demonstrate his understanding of alliteration. The article says this makes learning more fun for the child, and keeps him interacting while practicing phonetics at the same time. Bright Horizons recommends making up songs with a child, and singing them often to keep reinforcing the letter and sound association. The more a child gets to use his creativity to learn, the more he will love learning.