Looking for something fun to do? Here are some clever ideas to keep your tongue busy!
What You Will Need:
- Your Tongue!
- A Sense of Humor
What You Do:
- Say the alphabet, out loud, slowly. Feel how your tongue and your lips move as you say each letter.
- Now, keep your tongue up against the roof of your mouth and say the alphabet again. What letters were hard to say? Are there any letters you couldn't say at all? Can you say your name this way?
- Now keep your tongue down at the bottom of your mouth and say the alphabet again. Were there different letters that were hard to say? Could you say your name?
The Science:
When you talk, your mouth, lips, and tongue all work together to make one sound right after another, so you can say words and sentences.
Toungue Twisters
Tongue Twisters are groups of words with sounds that are hard to say together. Try saying these tongue twisters out loud. They may look simple, but can you say them 5 times as fast as you can?
- Toy boat
- Selfish shellfish
- Mixed biscuits
- Red leather, yellow leather
- Green grapes
- Unique New York
- Knapsack straps
- Black bug's blood
- Shredded Swiss cheese
Ready for more of a challenge? Try these...
- Which is the witch that wished the wicked wish?
- Pass the plain pliable painted paper plate, please.
- A bloke's bike's back brake block broke.
- Shave a cedar shingle thin.
- Does the wristwatch shop shut soon?
- "Mrs. Smith's Fish Sauce Shop", said the shiny sign.
- Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.
- The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick.*
* According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this is the hardest tongue twister in the English language!
Did You Know...
Speech therapists have used tongue twisters to improve people's pronunciation. By giving you a difficult series of sounds, tongue twisters make you aware of how you move your mouth to make sounds.
Can you come up with your own tongue twisters?
Have fun!
