Enthusiastic Gardeners Bite Dirt Frequently

It has been a week of mnemonics.  Those silly rhymes you were taught to help you remember things.  My head is full of them, so full that I sometimes wonder if I had just learnt the things I was trying to remember, rather than all these rhymes then I might have more room in my head and wouldn't have to keep looking for my keys in the fridge.

I have lots in my head for spelling things. There is one about elephants that I can't quite remember to help me spell because. I can work it out because I know how to spell because but was it the rhyme that helped me learn the spelling or the spelling that helped me learn the rhyme.  I do find that Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move helps me to spell rhythm - especially when writing it on the whiteboard.  I don't know if proper teachers have the same problem but I find I can spell perfectly well until I have to write something on a white board in front of children.

This week I sang the 9 little planets song with EYFS.  It all goes along nicely, "one little, two little, three little planets, four little, five little, six little planets, seven little, eight little, nine little planets, orbiting around the sun. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.  Next comes......" Oh dear, what does come next?  I scuttle back to a mnemonic.  My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Set Up Nine Planets but while I'm doing that some very clever small child informs me that there aren't 9 planets any more because Pluto doesn't count any more because it's a dwarf planet.  I think that that it a bit politically incorrect, surely dwarves are planets too!

Then I was teaching year 3 and 4 how to read music.  Musicians have always used a mnemonic to remember the names of the lines of the treble clef.  I told the children that when I was learning I was told Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit but the boys in my orchestra changed it to football because they said that fruit wasn't really a treat.  My daughter was taught, 'Every Green Bus Drives Fast' and my particular favourite was ' Every Green Boagy Deserves Flicking.' Obviously, this is the one they will remember and go and tell their parents it's all my fault when they flick a particularly juicy green piece of snot across the dinner table.  They were so thrilled at the idea of naming the lines of the stave they decided to make some up for themselves.

Here are a few:

Evil Goats Bump Dirty Farmers

Every Gross Boy Does Farts

Every Good Boy Decides Forhimself

While I was at the allotment this morning I tried to remind myself that singing and digging do not go well together. "Keep your mouth shut when digging," I spat through a mouthful of mud, instantly coming up with a new mnemonic for remembering the notes on the lines of the treble clef.  "Enthusiastic Gardeners Bite Dirt Frequently!"