discovering spoonerisms

RIP THE PAGE! Adventures in Creative Writing
by Karen Benke - Shambhala Publications, 2010
ages 4 to 10 years / funny, language
 

A few years ago Max and Louisa discovered spoonerisms and it was quite the craze for a while. They'd make them up as we drove – some were funny, some were nonsense and some were a bit boring really. The interest was sparked by one of the writing exercises in Rip The Page! Adventures in Creative Writing – it’s chock full of fun and accessible writing ideas. 

The spoonerisms page comes with a little story about William Spooner – he was a teacher who would mix up sounds when he spoke: 

“One day, he accused a student of missing his history lecture but accidentally said: ‘You hissed my mystery lecture!’” 

There are also some phrases to make into spoonerisms and some to unscramble.

It’s a fun concept to play around with—and there are heaps of other fun ideas for writing and otherwise playing with words in the book. It was really good for Max, who didn’t like writing much, because many of the exercises get creative juices flowing without requiring enormous amounts of ‘serious’ writing.

You might enjoy this short video with author Karen Benke - I did.

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