Explore Rhyming and Alliteration in Acrostic Poems

In this activity, we are going to be looking at poems. 

Here is a rhyming poem:

Danger danger look up high

Roaring and flying in the sky

Angry beasts breathing flames

Go away and don’t play games

Over the hills leave us alone

Never ever make us groan.

Can you see the rhyming words at the end of each line? 

High rhymes with sky, flames rhymes with games and alone rhymes with groan.

There is alliteration in this poem.

Alliteration is where two or more words which are very close together begin with the same sound.

For example, 'Brilliant Beth ate ten biscuits.'

Can you see the alliteration in our poem?

It’s in this line:

'Angry beasts breathing flames'

This poem is also called an acrostic poem.

If we join the first letters of each line in this poem, it spells the word DRAGONS. The poem is about dragons.

This acrostic poem rhymes but not all acrostic poems rhyme.

To write an acrostic poem, pick a topic you’d like to write about and write that word down the side of the page.

If we wanted to write about flowers, we'd write the word 'flowers' down the side of the page like this:

F

L

O

W

E

R

S

Each line of the poem must then begin with a letter of the word 'flowers'.

Can you think of a line to go with each letter of 'flowers'?

In this activity, we will read some acrostic poems and answer questions about them. Make sure you’re on the hunt for rhyming words and alliteration.

Good luck.