Activity 1 & 2
‘Gary the Gardener’ by Sue Largier
Reading yourself smart!
Making music with words
Did you know that you can make music with words? Writers sometimes
make music with words to help make nice sounds or to help create a
picture with words. Making music with words also makes writing more
interesting. Listen when people are talking for the music in what they
are saying. Listen for the pictures that words can make in your mind.
Alliteration
Alliteration is when you use the same letter or sound at the beginning of
two or more words that are close together. The repeated letters in
alliteration are usually consonants.
Tongue-twisters and rhymes often use alliteration. Here are some
examples of alliteration:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better
Round the rugged rock, the ragged rascal ran.
In “Gary the Gardener” there are some examples of alliteration. They
are not as obvious as these examples. On the first story page of this
book, the first example of alliteration is:
“In that pretty little garden there were birds and bees and butterflies.”
As you see from this example the words beginning with the same letter
can have other words between them.
Making Music
www.redrondavel.com
Activity 1 & 2
‘Gary the Gardener’ by Sue Largier
Reading yourself smart!
Activity 1
Read “Gary the Gardener”. Find as many examples of alliteration as
you can. Write them down in the box.
Activity 2
See if you can write your own tongue-twister about Gary the Gardener.
Your tongue-twister should be as long or as short as you like. You might
like to write more than one.
Making Music
www.redrondavel.com