Timid Tanya Thanked Tina for the Tall Tulips

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• Do you recognize the type of poem above?

Try this. Ignore those yummy-looking cookies briefly, and try reading the words. Once you have it memorized, try saying it faster and faster!

Now try saying it really, really fast.

• What happened?
• Did your words get all jumbled together?

You have excellent pronunciation and diction if you could say all the words quickly without getting stuck. If you can't say all the words clearly, that's okay. Everyone has difficulty with tongue twisters.

What are tongue twisters?

Tongue twisters are a fun type of poetry that follows a rhyme scheme, uses alliteration, and has a definite rhythm.

In addition to usually having a silly and nonsensical topic, tongue twisters are called that for a reason. They are typically pretty difficult to say, especially when you try to say them quickly.

Here is another example of an American tongue twister.

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
• A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
• If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
• Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Look at this tongue twister and take a minute or two to notice everything about this little poem that makes it unlike any other poem you have studied.

• What did you notice about the poem?
• Did you mention all the words that begin with the letter P?

Good observation! The repetition of the P sound is called alliteration.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of each, or most, of the words in a sentence. The easiest way to use alliteration would be to repeat the starting letter of the words, as you see in this tongue twister.

• Okay, what about the rhyme scheme or pattern?

This should be easy to spot since the words in every other line rhyme. For example, the end word in line one is peppers. The end word in line two is picked, so you know lines one and two do not rhyme.

However, the end word in line three is peppers, which not only rhymes but matches with line one. The end word of line four is picked, again an exact match with line two.

• Given that lines one and three rhyme and lines two and four rhyme, what type of rhyme pattern do you have?

If you assigned letters to your rhymes, you can call the sound of line one A and the sound of line two B.

• How would this pattern repeat itself throughout the poem?

ABAB, that's right. Now you know that this tongue twister uses an ABAB rhyme scheme and alliteration of the P sound. That leaves one primary element left to study, and that's rhythm.

Usually, when you think of rhythm, you think of music.

• But what specifically is rhythm, even regarding music?

In music, you know rhythm as pulses and beats. Rhythm is what carries the music, It's the drum beat. It's what makes you tap your foot or makes you want to dance.

In poetry, it is very similar. Rhythm gives poetry and similar types of writing a sing-song-like quality. For example, read these few lines from the Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat out loud.

• Did you notice a certain beat to the words, a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line?

That pattern is the rhythm.

First, take a look at the following sentence.

My mother ate an apple, and my father ate a pear.

Read the sentence out loud a few times until you can hear the stressed syllables.

• Can you hear that every other syllable is stressed?

Here is one way that you can write the sentence to show the rhythm.

my MOTH-er ATE an AP-ple, AND my FATH-er ATE a PEAR.

Now, try another quote from Dr. Seuss' famous The Cat in the Hat.

• “I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny,
• but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”

First, read the quote out loud. See if you can tell where you stress the syllables most.

Next, click the blue audio button below to hear the quote read out load to you.

Then, re-write the quote and mark the syllables you think are stressed. Think carefully about the words that have two or more syllables. Typically only one syllable will be stressed.

Repeat the words several times or listen to the audio again until you think you've got it!

You should have something that looks like this.

• i KNOW it IS wet AND the SUN is NOT sun-NY,
• but WE can HAVE lots OF good FUN that IS fun-NY

Again, this line shows a pattern where every other syllable is stressed, starting with the second syllable in the line. Therefore, you can say that the rhythm pattern is:

da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA

This particular pattern gives you 12 syllables per line, which is fine for your tongue twister. Now, all you need is a topic and some words that begin with the same letter. Then, you must put them together and test them on someone.

Start collecting words!

1. First, pick your letter. This example will use the letter T.

2. Next, list common nouns that begin with the letter you selected. Don't be shy. Think of at least eight for each list. It will make it easier later.

3. Third, make a list of proper nouns beginning with your letter.

4. Next, make a list of verbs that start with your letter.

5. Finally, you need some adjectives and adverbs that begin with the selected letter.

Once you have your word lists, write down the first line of a story that makes sense. Be sure to keep with the rhythm of da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA.

This means we need 12 syllables, with the stress on every second syllable.

For example The talkative toddler talked to timid Tara.

Add a second line that advances the story using words from your list.

Timid Tara tried tickling the tiny toddler.

Clap, count the syllables, and say the lines aloud to ensure they fall into the rhythm pattern.

Once you have the first two lines, try to work on the last two lines. These will be more of a challenge since you need to include end rhymes.

The rhyme pattern is going to be ABAB.

Make sure that your rhythm stays:

• da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA (A)
• da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA (B)
• da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA (A)
• da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA (B)

A good place to look for words that rhyme with tiara and toddler is a rhyming dictionary, such as RhymeZone.

You may find that you need to use what is called a near rhyme: a word that has the same end sound and, in this case, begins with the same letter but does not have the same starting or middle vowel sound like the words clamp and damp.

This example continues with simply using the same words to rhyme with themselves.

The tearful toddler terribly troubled Tara.

And the final line...

So Tara gave her tiara to the toddler.

Now, put all four lines together and see how it works as a tongue twister:

• The talkative toddler talked to timid Tara.
• Timid Tara tried tickling the tiny toddler.
• The tearful toddler terribly troubled Tara,
• So Tara gave her tiara to the toddler.

It's no Peter Piper, but it's pretty good for a first try. You can revise for rhythm and rhyme once you have four lines of 12 syllables.

Check out these 12 silly tongue twisters to try telling for more inspiration!

Then, move on to the Got It? section to practice what you've learned!