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CURRICULUM AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT * 2 HOURS * LEVEL 2

Shelebrate with Shel Silverstein
Phonemic Awareness

Page 8
Exposing children to repetitive letter sounds will give them the skills they need to begin to recognize those sounds and eventually read and write them. Poems with alliteration are a goldmine of phonemic awareness practice. Children from a young age can benefit from alliteration, or the repetition of two or more beginning consonant sounds in a group of words. 

Before being able to recognize the letter names, children can recognize the letter sounds. Silverstein poems with alliteration use those letter sounds in a fun and repetitive way that gives children the exposure to the sounds of the letters used in the alliterative sequence. 
Here is an example of a Shel Silverstein poem that uses alliteration:
Picture Puzzle Piece 
by Shel Silverstein

One picture puzzle piece
Lyin' on the sidewalk,
One picture puzzle piece
Soakin' in the rain.
It might be a button of blue
On the coat of the woman
Who lived in a shoe.
It might be a magical bean,
Or a fold in the red
Velvet robe of a queen.
It might be the one little bite
Of the apple her stepmother
Gave to Snow White.
It might be the veil of a bride
Or a bottle with some evil genie inside.
It might be a small tuft of hair
On the big bouncy belly
Of Bobo the Bear.
It might be a bit of the cloak
Of the Witch of the West
As she melted to smoke.
It might be a shadowy trace
Of a tear that runs down an angel's face.
Nothing has more possibilities
Than one old wet picture puzzle piece.
You can see that this poem has a great deal of alliteration. Though it is a long poem, you can take sections from it to work on phonemic awareness with students. Recite one of the lines and ask students to recall the beginning sounds they hear by imitating. Eventually they will be able to tell you the letter names that they hear as well. This can be a valuable tool for assessment and furthering their knowledge of phonemes.