How to Write a Tongue Twister

Tongue twisters are a favorite activity among children. They challenge children to enunciate and think about their words as they speak and, of course, they're fun. Follow the steps below to write your own tongue twister with or for your kids.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Understand alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables in a phrase. It is the key ingredient of an effective tongue twister.

2. Read examples of tongue twisters (see Resources) to familiarize yourself with the format. Famous tongue twisters include "Sally sells seashells by the seashore," and "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

3. Pick a consonant to use in your tongue twister. The easiest are b, d, l, m, p, s or t. Tongue twisters tell a story, which means they have a character. Write down a name for the character of your tongue twister that starts with the consonant you chose.

4. Determine the following, using the consonant you chose, about your tongue twister character: what the character did or does, where and when your character performs this task, and a number of reasons why.

5. Include at least one noun (your character), one verb, one adverb and several adjectives to make your tongue twister more interesting.

6. Put the information you came up with in Step 4 and the words you listed in Step 5 into a story and complete sentence format. Tongue twisters tell silly stories.

Tips & Warnings

• Not every word in your tongue twister has to start with or have a stressed syllable using the consonant you chose. Additionally, it's not required that your tongue twister or rhyme have any sort of specific poetic style, other than the use of alliteration.

Resources

• Go here for tongue twister examples.