Kate Williams

Alliteration is fabulous fun for clever kids to craft! Here’s a cool, creepy, cunning l–l-l-lion poem to get your class started: ‘L-L-L-Look Out!’

It’s from my book of animal poems – Squeak! Squawk! Roar! – where you’ll find countless other handy launch pads for creative writing too!

Your children can also watch and listen to ‘L-L-L-Look Out!’ here (click to view) –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqIRE4YCKiE

How to:

– Read out the poem and show them the printed version on the page (its shape loosely resembles a lying down lion!’

– Help the children identify all the words starting with ‘l’ (They’re all gathered up together on the last line, with the sinister addition – ‘licking lips’ – eek!)

– Can they think of any more? Perhaps prompt for ‘large’, ‘lovely’, ‘listless’, ‘leisurely’ or, as nervousness builds up, ‘lurking’, and perhaps to finish up with, ‘leaping’.

– Now help your children to write a SSSSSnake poem, with a similar alliterative format, but with‘s’ as the special, repeated sound.

– Build a relevant ‘s’ word/sound bank together first, focusing chiefly on verbs and adverbs. It might contain:-

slow, sleepy, slithering, sliding, slinking, swirling, swishing, swerving, subtly, slyly, sneaking, stretching, staring, springing.

– Invite children to select and order their words for an effective build-up of tension. ‘Staring’ or ‘springing’ could be a good one to finish with, adding ‘at you’! or ‘AT YOU!!!