Curious Creatures, Wild Minds part six, Collective Nouns

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

Image source: Bas Blu

Collective nous are curious and often so inventive in the way they describe a group of creatures. My mind goes wild when I think about the different words.

Image source: National Geographic

Here are a few examples I found for butterflies:

• A flutter of butterflies
• A flight of butterflies
• A kaleidoscope of butterflies
• A shimmer of butterflies

Image Source: Daily Express Swans on the Thames

Here are examples for swans:

• A ballet of swans
• A drift of swans
• A lamentation of swans
• A whiteness of swans

Here are some examples that I adore

• A circus of puffins
• A parliament of owls
• A chatter of budgerigars
• A galaxy of starfish
• A tower of giraffes
• A loveliness of ladybirds

Resources:

Animals and English - this site is very comprehensive and well worth exploring.
Twenty Five strange names Video
An ambush of Tigers (Kirkus star review)

There are a host of books that explore this topic:

Previous Curious Creatures, Wild Minds posts:

1. The curious Giraffe
2. Guessing
3. Emotions
4. Our Platypus
5. ABC

The weird and wonderful world of words by Charles Hope

Do you know what 'crutch' words are?  I didn't until I read this book!

I really enjoy reading books like this.  Finding this is also perfect timing as my school staff will begin to explore different ways to develop the vocabularies of our students.  Perhaps in this age of 'devices' there is less talking but I know many teachers are finding children often ask questions about quite simple words.  Here are a few recent examples from books we read in our library oval (Poor Fish by Jane Godwin ) meaning a sports ground, coward (Elmer on stilts by David McKee) and shawl (My name is Lizzie Flynn by Claire Saxby).  In a National test from last month our Grade Three students encountered the word limb as it applies to your arms and legs - nearly every child had no idea about this word.

Here are a few facts from The weird world of words :

• An average person will speak 123,205,750 words in their lifetime
• The longest word in the world has over 189,000 letters (it is the name of a chemical)
• The average adult knows 20,000-35,000 words
• Children know about 10,000 words

As teachers I think it is our role (along with parents of course) to 'bridge' this gap.

Having a large vocabulary is important for developing your reading and writing skills and communicating with other people.

Using and learning words should be done in context but it should also be fun.  I love the page in this book which lists four great words from other languages :

GUGRA - Arabic word for the amount of water than can be held in a hand
LUFTMENSCH - Yiddish for a dreamer who lives with their head in the clouds
AGE-OTORI - Japanese to style your hair and end up making it look worse than before
PALEGG - Norwegian for in addition to for example adding extras to your sandwich


This makes me think of Frindle by Andrew Clements which is a book every Grade 5 or 6 child should hear.

You might also enjoy these books :

The weird and wonderful world of words touches on so many topics which could be explored further in a Primary classroom : spoonerisms, word origins, rebus, oxymorons, portmanteau words, isograms, malapropisms and kangaroo words.

Today I have been reading Olive of Groves and the slurp of time by Katrina Nannestad.  One of the characters in this second book about Olive is a rat called Wordsworth.  He is a walking thesaurus.  I adore the way he expounds on words.

Using books like The weird and wonderful world of words along with all the wonderful books in our school library is, I think, one of the best ways to introduce and enrich the vocabulary of children and even adults.  Make sure you take a look at the web site for Charles Hope.  We have 16 of his books in our school library.

Here is another interesting collection of word books (collective nouns) you can find in our library :

Dewey and the 2020 Book Week slogan

Image Source: National Library of New Zealand

Previously I have shared seven posts with ideas for exploring the Book Week slogan:

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

My wild mind took an imaginary walk around the library and I realised nearly every Dewey section links with this slogan. (Here is a pinterest of Curious Creatures books)

001.944 monsters such as Yeti, Bigfoot, Kraken,  Loch Ness Monster, Bunyips and more. These are all CURIOUS CREATURES!

220.9 OR 222 Noah's Ark

Here are some books which retell the story of Noah.

398.20938 Aesop Fables

398.24 Tales and lore of plants and animals
For example: unicorns, mermaids, dragons, griffin, Pegasus and more

428 Language
Collective Nouns

590 Animals

595 Insects

597 Fish and reptiles

598 Birds (Pinterest of Australian bird stories)

599 Mammals

599.20994 Australian mammals such as Platypus

636 Pets
Unusual pets: Axolotl, hermit crab, silkworm

750 Art

782 Music
Carnival of the Animals

821 Poetry

900 History and Geography
Animals listed below come from Ann Jonas Aardvarks, disembark! Julia MacRae, 1991.
Curious Creatures from wild lands:

Africa - addax; aoudad; bongo; dik-dik; duiker; eland; fennec; gerenuk; guereza; hammerkop, hartebeest; kingspringer; kudu; marabou; oribi; serval; vervey; zoril (Pinterest of Picture books)

Middle East dromedary; lammergeier; markhor
Europe mouflon; wisent;
South and Central America caiman; capybara; coatimundi; guan; jagurundi; paca; pudu; tamandua; tuco-tuco; uakari; unau; vicuna, vizcacha;

North America condor; jabiru; margay; nene; pika; pronghorn; wapiti;
India chital; gaur; gavial; nilgal; wanderoo
Asia babirusa; barasingha, binturong; fancolin; ibex; jerboa; onager; ounce; pangolin; pecccary; peludo; rasse; ratel; siga; sika; tahr; takin; tapir;

New Zealand kiwi; takahe; tuatara;
Australia bandicoot; cassowary; echidna; emu; kookaburra; quokka; wallaroo; wombat

Paws, Claws, Tails and Roars illustrated by Brian Wildsmith

Brian Wildsmith's breathtaking animal paintings are accompanied by new lyrical text, inviting readers to pause a while and linger over the glorious wild animals, birds, and fishes within. Whether already a fan of Brian Wildsmith, or discovering his work for the first time, readers will cherish this book for a lifetime.

I previously talked about the wonderful Brian Wildsmith exhibition in Barnsley, UK. The featured book at the exhibition was Paws, Claws, Tails and Roars but over 90 pages and in hardcover this book was way too heavy for my luggage. Now my copy has arrived.

The art in this book comes from works by Brian Wildsmith Wild Animals (1967); Birds (1967); and Fishes (1968).

If you are looking for a very special gift for a child perhaps when they are born or for a christening gift Paws, Claws, Tails and Roars [9780192784216] would be perfect. It is a large format book to treasure and revisit.

In his introduction Michael Rosen talks about his first experience of art by Brian Wildsmith in the Oxford Book of Children's Poetry: "Again and again, either the subject or the background flooded out from the book: the pictures didn't obey the margins. They weren't contained by convention. It was as if the luxuriousness of the colours was too rich to be confined by something as mundane as a page."

"The pictures tell us that the Earth and its creatures are precious. ... I'm as delighted as his jolly hedgehog ... I hope you enjoy (this book) and that you and the children in your life snuffle through these pages with the many feelings this vibrant art conjures up."

The other wonderful thing that your child will experience reading this book is the encounter with familiar and unfamiliar animals. I well remember my childhood alphabet book contained a Yak - a creature that fascinated me. In this book there are less well known animals (especially to children here in Australia) - raccoon; badger; hedgehog; pheasant; jay; heron; snipe; woodcock; minnow; stickleback and porcupine fish. My favourite illustrations are the tiger; the hedgehog; the robin and the kingfisher.

Children will also discover the intriguing names we use as collective nouns: a cete of badgers; a round of robins; a walk of snipe; a party of rainbow fish; and a corps of giraffes. 

You can see all books by Brian Wildsmith here. And if you are unfamiliar with his work take a look at this blog post. 

There is quiet knowledge in the design of each spread. The colours are vivid or subtle in accord with the animals’ own colours and the worlds they inhabit and the brush strokes splash, smear and wash the settings for each animal, evoking swirling waters bursting with flying fish, iridescent bubbles reflecting the many colours of the angelfish, the mottled camouflage of the woodcock. Paws, Claws, Tails and Roars: Brian Wildsmith’s Animal Kingdom is a book to be shared over and over again, joyfully, with readers of any age. Just Imagine

What I love about his work is that behind all the wondrous colour, pattern and texture there always lies the fundamental essence of whatever he’s depicting. Words and Pics

"This is a book I'd like to see in every classroom from the foundation stage upwards as well as on family bookshelves. And, what a wonderful present it would make." - Jill Bennett, Red Reading Hub