Grade 5 Language Arts Activity - Teaching Alliteration and Onomatopoeia

This Grade 5 language arts activity has students pick an object and list examples of alliteration and onomatopoeia that describe their object. These words can be added to a word wall at the end of the lesson. The students will then use the words they have gathered to create a poem using alliteration and onomatopoeia literary devices.

I chose to do this activity about my corrective eyeglasses for my near-sightedness (myopia, where light focuses in front of the retina), which requires a concave, divergent lens. This means that lens will diverge (spread) the light coming through and pushes the light back towards the retina.

Here is a picture of my glasses, which I wear only sometimes (like when I'm sitting in the 'nosebleed' section of the Rogers Centre in Toronto).

Fun with Alliteration and Onomatopoeia

Name your object: Eyeglasses

List some examples of alliteration that describe the object above, make sure to use the same consonant sound to begin each word;

Clear	Crafted
Crisp	Coated
Corrective	Costly
Convergent	Crystalline
Crystal-clear	Concave
Conductive	Convex

List some examples of onomatopoeia that describe the sounds your object could make:

Crack	Bam
Clunk	Boink
Smash	Clatter
Scratch	Click
Thud	Clink
Whack	Plunk

Use the words above, create a poem in the box below that describe your object:

My Captivating Corrective Eyeglasses Clear, crisp, and well-crafted My corrective lens is concave and divergent I carefully move the arms back which causes a CLICK And comfortably clunk the glasses on my nose The camel in the distance becomes so crystal-clear That a caterpillar can be seen crawling along its cranium THUD! I was so captivated by the camel That I cluelessly tripped and crashed into the concrete BAM, SMASH, CLINK, CRACK, CLATTER, CRACK My once crystalline glasses become convoluted and cracked Everything becomes cloudy and cluttered I commend the creator of such a crafty invention Because I clearly need the correction To comprehend the crispness of every crevice and crack Whether the lens is concave, convex, convergent or divergent Corrective eyeglasses capture all of the captivating colours That make the world so beautiful!