edHelper.com Puzzles Day Theme

"Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms

---

"Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.88

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		fatherly, Hoobert, hypodeemic, hypodermic, kisstomary, metathesis, moo-leltered, nerdle, nosy, over-large, pink-white, pushover, Rindercella, shife, slayer, slerd
	content words:		Hoobert Heever, Herbert Hoover, William Spooner, Oxford College, Pransome Hince, Beeping Sleauty

---

Print "Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms

Print "Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on "Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms

Leave your feedback on "Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

"Tips of the Slung" - Having Fun with Spoonerisms By Toni Lee Robinson

---

¹     Have you ever said something and then realized your words came out just a little tangled up? Maybe you accused your little brother of "chipping through the flannels." Of course, you meant "flipping through the channels." A simple slip of the tongue. But now your little brother isn't just laughing at you; he's rolling on the floor and scaring the cat. How humiliating!
 
²     Don't feel too bad, though. Everyone, including your little brother, trips over his or her tongue once in a while. There is even a name for this kind of slip. The Greeks called it metathesis, which means to change the position of things.
 
³     These "tips of the slung" can involve just mixing up the first one or two letters of words (like "chipping the flannels" or telling Mom you don't want "keys and parrots" for dinner. It can also be getting syllables of words changed around. A radio announcer once introduced a U.S. president as Mr. "Hoobert Heever." (He meant Herbert Hoover.) It can even mean exchanging one word for another, as in an old joke about a bunch of cows. The cattle, it seems, were sent into orbit. After that, they were known as "the herd shot round the world."
 
⁴     In England in the 1800s, people loved word jokes like these. In that day, word play was a favorite sport. The champion word slayer (or slerd weigher) of all time was a man named William Spooner. He was born in 1844. Spooner was first a student, then a professor at Oxford. He was also an Anglican priest. Eventually, he became warden (head) of the college.
 
⁵     Rev. Spooner was a smart man though not a handsome one. He was an albino with pink-white skin. He had squinty eyes and terrible eyesight. His head was over-large for his small body. Those who knew him described him as cheerful and kind. He had a fatherly manner with his students, but he wasn't a pushover. He could be very firm with those who strayed. A historian reported that Spooner "looked like a rabbit, but he was as brave as a lion. He was prepared at any moment to stand up to anybody."

Paragraphs 6 to 13:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Puzzles Day Theme

Puzzles Day Theme

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Education Teaching Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2013 edHelper