Slip of the tongue past the tip of the teeth

What a to do

What a to do to die today
At a minute or two til two.
A thing distinctly hard to say,
But harder still to do.
For there'l beat a tat, too,
At a quarter til two,
A rat-a-tat, tat-a-tat. tat-a-tat, too.
And the dragon will come
When he hears the drum,
At a minute or two til two today,
At a minute or two til two.

A fifth grade reader's theatre warm up exercise.


Don't you feel like sometimes your life is a tongue twister. Today I have encountered two slips of the tongue past the tip of the teeth.

I have a poster on my wall with the Peanuts characters walking on the top of the globe and the poster says "Everyone smiles in the same language!" A kindergartener walked past it and said,

"Everyone Smells in their own Language."

How true that is.

I was teaching third grade today and I was talking about the song Harlem Airshaft of Duke Ellington's. The song is about an Airshaft in New York City. I said...

"Harlem Airshaft is about the noise that you can hear in an Air shaft in New York Sh**y"

Oh yes, I accidental swore at a class of third graders. They totally heard me do it too. They said,

"Did she just say S***y?"
"What did she say??"
"Giggle giggle giggle (unintelligible third grade girl speech) giggle giggle"

I explained my slip of the tongue with the city and shaft getting combined...

And yah, I think that they might forget it before they go home and swear to their parents. At least I hope they do.