This game can be adapted for just about any topic, can be done in the classroom and never gets boring!
It encourages the children to speak clearly and confidently, and shows them the importance of pronunciation and volume when speaking.
First, choose a tongue twister. It could be a simple favourite like ‘Red lorry, Yellow lorry’, or pick something that fits in with your topic. Some of our favourites are:
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”
“She sells sea shells on the sea shore”
“Flora’s freshly fried fish”
Get the children to stand, preferably in a circle, and rehearse the tongue twister all together until you’re confident that they’ve got the hang of it at a normal speed of speech.
Then, get each child to say the tongue twister as fast as they can, in a loud voice without shouting, and emphasise how important it is to be accurate and pronounce each word. You can go around as many times as you like, building the speed/volume as you go. It will probably be virtually impossible for them to get it right when they’re saying it really fast, so encourage them to get as close as they can, but make sure they know it’s OK if they make a mistake.
You might want to try it in pairs, getting them to say the tongue twister to each other. This will give them a chance to practice and a build their confidence before having to say it to the whole class.
When they get really good at it, why not try a whole poem, such as:
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
"But," she said, "this butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter!"
So she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.
For more drama activities to use in the classroom, book a Freshwater INSET session.
