Show children what tongue twisters are by reading some examples. "She sells seashells by the seashore," or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Encourage children to invent their own tongue twisters using similar repeated sounds at the beginning of each word in the phrase. Share the invented tongue twisters with the rest of the group.
Play a tongue-twisting game suggested by Sue Edwards in "Fun Literacy Activities for After-school Programs: Books and Beyond." Play a game with tongue twisters. Divide a group into two, and give each group a set of tongue twisters. One player represents his team for each turn as he tries to say a tongue twister. If he says it correctly the first time, his team gets two points. If he needs two tries to say it, his team gets one point, but if it takes three or more tries, his team does not get a point, and the other team says a tongue twister. The play continues until all team members on both teams have had turns. The team with the most points wins.
Conduct a treasure hunt to search for tongue twisters instead of gold, recommends Cathie Hilterbran Cooper in "ABC Books and Activities: From Preschool to High School." Ask children to find tongue twisters in books they are given. This activity works for advanced preschoolers who can already read. For those children who have not learned to read, you can read age-appropriate books to them and have the children raise their hands when they hear a tongue twister. Stop reading, and have the children practice the tongue twister you just read.
Take the typical notion of tongue twisters just being based on letters and turn it upside down. In "Counting Your Way Through 1-2-3: Books and Activities," author Cathie Hilterbran Cooper suggests having preschool children create tongue twisters based on a number. The sound at the start of the number serves as the repeated sound throughout the tongue twister. For instance, a tongue twister based on the number four would have most of the words start with the same "f" sound that begins the number four. For example, "Four foul feet flip forward." Use number tongue twisters to combine lessons on letters and numbers into one.