Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Blog | Classroom Instruction, Intervention & More

Fun With Tongue Twisters

Written by Fountas and Pinnell Team | Wed, May 20, '20

Fun With Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are an entertaining way to play with letters, sounds, syllables, and meaning. Pick a few famous tongue twisters, and talk them through with your child. What makes the phrase a tongue twister? Notice repetition of first letters, number of syllables, rhyming word endings, and so on. What does each word have in common? What makes tongue twisters silly? - She sells seashells by the seashore. - Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers. - How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Can you make up your own tongue twisters? Use this formula: number noun action adjective object. Follow the rule that as many words as possible should start with the same letter, for example, Five friends found fuzzy footballs. Or, for a bigger challenge, follow the rule that the final syllables should rhyme, for example, One nun runs under the sun. Pick your favorite tongue twister and draw an illustration that represents it.