T is for Tongue Twisters

Welcome to my 2020 Blogging A-Z April Challenge. Each day, I will post a brief Journal On! Daily Writers’ Workshops lesson and prompt. Teachers, parents, and students may use the material to encourage daily writing practice, spark insight, and embrace mindful reflection.   

Tongue twisters are silly to say and great fun to create. The alliteration, homophone wordplay, rhyming, and vocabulary search challenge the writer within us. I like to jot the tongue twisters in my journal when I hear them (reinforces the idea to bring your journal with you everywhere). I never know when I may need to find a just-right tongue twister.  

Tongue twisters use words we can see and feel. The action comes to life. The words paint the pictures in our mind’s eye. Tongue twisters do not contain too many words that are not visible or touchable, such as is, are, was, and were.

Example: Slink snakes slither silently under stones.

Under is the only word that does start with /s/, but it describes a place and carries important information. 

Sometimes novel tongue twisters inspire a story idea. 

Example: One slinky snake, named Sneed, did not like slithering with all those snake relations.

Let’s play with words and sounds in words. Let’s journal tongue twisters. 

Tongue Twister Sampler

1. Primary Prompt: Pick a tongue twister from the above list or make up your own. This tongue twister can be the title of today’s journal entry. Draw a picture that would go with your title. Write sentences about the tongue twister.
2. Intermediate Prompt:  Make up several of your own tongue twisters. Pick one of your newfangled sentences to expand on, question, or add an even more newfangled comment.
3. Upper-Intermediate Prompt: Make up a tongue twister. Be sure the action is visible and that you can see the picture of your sentence in your mind’s eye. Expand on the sentence to write a short story.

Until tomorrow, Everyone.