The letter R brings you the rhyming alliterisen, an invented form which combines a few poetic devices together. And as for the rest, read on…

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🎯 Poetry Lesson Plan: Writing a Rhyming Alliterisen

Grade Level: 3rd–5th Grade
Time: 1–2 class sessions (30–45 minutes each)
Poetic Form: Rhyming Alliterisen (from ShadowPoetry)

📌 Objective

Students will compose a seven-line Rhyming Alliterisen poem using two alliterative words per line, seven syllables per line, and an aabbccd rhyme scheme to build vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and poetic expression.

🔗 Connections

• Learning Connection: Phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary development, and creative expression.
• Poetry Connections: Structure, alliteration, syllable counting, and rhyme scheme
• Book Connections (Suggestions):
  • If You Were Alliteration by Trisha Speed Shaskan and Sara Jean Gray 
  • Rosie’s Roses by Pamela Duncan Edwards with art by Henry Cole 
  • Twimericks: The Book of Tongue-Twisting Limericks by Lou Brooks 

Materials Needed

• Chart paper or whiteboard
• Copies of sample Rhyming Alliterisen poems
• Word lists for alliteration (grouped by starting sounds)
• Syllable counting tools (fingers, counters, online syllable helper)
• Writing paper or poetry notebooks
• Optional: rhyming dictionaries or classroom word wall

🪜 Lesson Flow

Introduction (15 min)

• Ask: What’s a poem that made you smile? or Do you know any tongue twisters?
• Introduce alliteration (same starting sound) with fun examples.
  • Brainstorm words that start with a single sound (e.g., “S” words: slither, slide, small, smart…).
• Read aloud a sample Rhyming Alliterisen (see below for examples)
  • Highlight what the form is: 7 lines, 7 syllables per line, two alliterative words in each line, rhyme scheme aabbccd (source).

Forest Frolic
Frogs flip, flying fast and free,
Tongues flick, flashing, full of glee.
Buzzing bees buzz near the bush,
Bouncing birds with wings that swoosh.
Rustling, rattling, reeds and trees,
Rushing rivers run with ease.
In the forest, it’s fun always!

Big Words Are a Blast
Sometimes simple words are neat,
Sometimes big ones—bold and beat!
Thoughts turn truly tantalizing,
Eloquent, entertaining!
Say stupendous stuff with style,
Witty words will win a smile—
Big words give your voice a vaunt!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Note: Forest frolic has many alliterative words but we only need one pair per line for this form; so frogs and flip; flick and flashing; buzz and bees; are all examples here. Similarly, I have many more alliterative words across both sample poems, but remember we need only two, like with ”bouncing birds’ or ‘forest and fun’ in the last line of the first poem above.

Explore and Model (10–15 mins)

• Clap/count syllables together using lines from the sample poem.
• Color-code or underline the alliterative pairs and rhyming words.
• Create a class poem together on a chosen theme (e.g. snacks, animals, weather).
• Brainstorm alliterative word pairs as a group (e.g., fizzy float, twinkly toast).

Independent or Partner Writing (15 – 20 min)

• Students choose a theme, and write their own Rhyming Allitersen poems, by themselves or in pairs.
  • eg: animals, school, weather, feelings, imaginary worlds, or any other of their choice
• Use a graphic organizer:
  • Line #:
  • Alliterative pair:
  • Syllables counted:
  • Rhyme partner:

Share & Reflect (10 min)

• Share poems in pairs or aloud.
• Reflect on how rhyme, syllables, and alliteration changed how the poem “felt” or sounded.

Adaptations

• Grades 1–2: Shorten to 3–5 lines, use one alliterative pair per couplet (the pair of alliterative words across the rhyming couplet), focus on fun sounds and simple rhyme.
• Grades 6+: Add figurative language, encourage advanced vocabulary, or assign theme-based topics.

Extensions

• Vocabulary Boost: Try to see if you can include a multi-syllable, or big word (or two) in the poem.
• Art Connection: Illustrate completed poems.
• Cross-Curricular: Link poems to science, social studies, or SEL topics (themed poems about the water cycle, a historical event)
• Publish & Perform: Create a class anthology or hold a poetry reading.

Real-ity-v Check-ins? Or Roll Calls?

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt(always optional) asks us to take inspiration from Sawako Nakayasu’s poem “Improvisational Score,” which is a rather surreal prose poem describing an imaginary musical piece that proceeds in a very unmusical way, and try our hand at writing a poem in which something that normally unfolds in a set and well understood way  — like a baseball game or dance recital – goes haywire, but is described as if it is all very normal.

I also checked out today’s resource, the Shanghai Museum, and discovered the guqin, which is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. You can give it a listen in the video below (after the poem)

My Attempt

(a)Rhythm-etic
Roll Call in Rectangles

We all log in for class, same as always.
Laptops flicker to life across the town.
Faces settle into their familiar rectangles.
Someone is eating cereal, their screen freezing mid-chew. Another, adjusting their curtains.
A cat walks across a keyboard, unnoticed. A dog barks once, then lies down with a sigh.

The professor isn’t there yet, so we chat about lunch, our assignments, and the sound of distant honking.
No one can agree on the direction of the honking sound.
Someone suggests it might be geese.
Someone else says it’s a truck with opinions.

Then the principal appears.
A few moments later, more rectangles pop up, filling with unfamiliar faces—strangers waving politely from various parts of the world.
One wears a stunning scarf that seems to shimmer in pixels.
Another is eating a fruit none of us can name.
“Hello,” they say. “We’re part of the exchange program from your sister cities around the world. Thank you for inviting us today! What are
we doing today?”

We open our instrument cases.
Someone tunes a ukulele with a wrench.
Someone else adjusts the mouthpiece of a bassoon and taps it like a microphone.
I position the guqin across my lap and begin playing.
The tuning is unfamiliar. Still, it works.

We begin the performance.
Each person sings a different song, loudly and without agreement.
Everyone marching to their own invisible band.
Some hum national anthems.
Some play rhythms on tabletops, books, or the radiator.
A guest juggles three apples in silence. Another holds a snow globe and shakes it, as if keeping tempo.
No one watches the clock.

Because really, what better way to entertain guests
than with a medley of “new” songs — and together too, on top of that —
in that familiarly imperfect harmony of twenty voices,
their hands playing instruments they had just picked up for the first time.

The principal claps politely. The strangers nod.
One of them writes something in the air with their finger —
a looping script none of us can read.
They all sign off as he finishes with a final swish and swirl to say goodbye.

The professor logs in, holding a triangle.
She taps it once. “Apologies for the delay,” she says.
“Let’s start on our arhythm-etic essays.”

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, when you write a rhyming alliterisen, do share it here! And any other comments and thoughts on my post are welcome as always.

I am linking up to A-Z, Blogchatter, UBC, NaPoWriMo.

And you can find all my A-Z posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:

A to Z Challenge Posts