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Growing up, we used to love trying to tackle Tongue Twisters, so I simply cannot wait to start this fun activity with my grandkids. And there’s no better day to start than on National Tongue Twister Day! This is an easy holiday to celebrate from a distance!
In This Post
What’s a Tongue Twister exactly?
According to the Oxford Dictionary a tongue-twister is “a sequence of words or sounds, typically of an alliterative kind, that are difficult to pronounce quickly and correctly, as, for example, tie twine to three tree twigs. Whoa! That one’s tough!
How Are Tongue Twisters Used?
In addition to being fun, tongue twisters are actually a great tool! They are used by public speakers to warm up speech muscles before a speaking engagement. Teachers use tongue twisters to introduce alliteration or include them in memory work. Speech & Language Pathologists might use tongue twisters to help build phonetic awareness. ESL teachers often use tongue twisters as a tool for helping students improve English pronunciation.
3 Ways to Celebrate National Tongue Twister Day
For National Tongue Twister day, it’s just all about the fun, so here are 3 ideas for making this random holiday great, even across the miles!
1. Read Together
Check your bookshelves, your local library, or Amazon for some great titles to read together. Dr. Seuss cornered the market when it comes to tongue twisters and these are two of my favorites: Fox in Socks and Oh Say Can You Say.
2. Write Your Own
Write Your Own! Tongue twisters are so fun to create. You could create a tongue twister for each of your grandkids based on their name or maybe something they love to do. Or write one about yourself. That will have them laughing for sure.
For example, my granddaughter loves animals and making animal sounds, so we could have some fun with “Morgan mimicks mammals.” Or she might think it’s really silly to hear that “Grandma grates gouda grinning gleefully!”. Here’s a great tutorial from Kim Nesbitt’s Poetry4Kids site on How to Write A Tongue Twister .
3. Play the Tongue Twister Game
Start by downloading the free tongue twister printable below, and cut them apart. Place them in a container. Then, when you are face timing, skyping or using your Alexa device, pull one out of the container. Take turns saying the tongue twister. Depending on the age of your grandkids, you could award points for who can say it the fastest, for who makes the fewest mistakes or for who can say it the most times in 15 seconds. If you’ve got the grownups on board, you could email them the printable as well and literally take turns selecting the next tongue twister.
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We hope you have a ton of fun celebrating this Random Holiday, and remember that to ‘decrease distance do delightful deeds’ with your grandkids – that’s an easy one to say and do!