Jimbo, Jambo, Jiggle
Animalians love to have fun with words,
and Iggy is the King of language play.
Focus: alliteration
Materials needed: just your brain
Who doesn’t love alliteration? Where would
Edgar Allen Poe be today if there weren’t such
a thing as alliteration? “While I nodded, nearly
napping..” from “The Raven”. And who knew
that President Thomas Jefferson was also a big
fan of alliteration? Pre-TV and computers,
people gathered together to play games in the
evening, often word games. Jefferson made up
this simple game we still can enjoy today. And,
every page of Graeme Base’s Animalia contains
a clever alliterative sentence, each one tied to a
letter of the alphabet.
There is a handy chart
on page 2 of this pdf.
What to do and how:
1. Explain to kids what alliteration is, and you
can certainly read “The Raven” to your
older kids, or find a poem or book from
this website for the younger ones. http://
bridgew.edu/Library/CAGS_Projects/vcain/
children’s%20books.html
2. Play the Game: The basic structure of
this game is to complete this sentence,
using alliteration: “I took my friend
to____________, with a __________, and
___________ Example: “I took my friend to
Seattle with a snail and sweated.”
3. Play the game whenever you have a
transition or a bit of free time.
Variations/Extensions: A natural
extension of this game would be to write
poetry with alliteration.
Further exploration: What other games did
people play that involved language earlier,
and what games do people play still?
“Pictionary” is one.
Animalia © Animalia Productions PFTC. Licensed by BBC Worldwide Ltd.
The Animalia Website was commissioned by and is owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd.
BBC Worldwide Ltd is the commercial consumer arm of the BBC
Letter
A
I took my friend to....
with a (an).......
and........
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Animalia © Animalia Productions PFTC. Licensed by BBC Worldwide Ltd.
The Animalia Website was commissioned by and is owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd.
BBC Worldwide Ltd is the commercial consumer arm of the BBC