A Pandemonium of Parrots? An embarrassment of pandas?
I’m a word person: fascinated by unusual appellations and semantics. Maybe you are too? Perhaps I take after my mom. She’s a word person, writer, and Scrabble aficionado. (Seriously, she could play the word aficionado. That, and land every X, Q and Z in the bag on a triple letter space.)
So I was pretty excited when a creative gift giver gave Charlie this unusual Christmas present last year: Collective Nouns Flash Cards from A to Z. I wasn’t excited ’til he opened the box, because I didn’t know the treasure inside. Then I was thrilled by the creative artwork and amazing compilation of collective nouns for twenty-six animals, A-Z, by Woop Studios. Clever: that’s exactly what these cards are.
The other night after dinner we had so much fun. Pulled out the cards and explored the creative collective nouns together. Here’s what’s amazing: while Hudson can’t articulate many words, he knows his entire alphabet A-Z. On one side of the card is a large alphabet letter, and on the other, a collective noun for that letter. So I held up the card with the letter, and with great excitement Hudson yelled it out. Then we all guessed what collective noun might be on the reverse side. We didn’t have many correct guesses. Thought I’d share them with you today, see if it rings your bell too.
Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…(I think I’ve heard that somewhere before…)
A – Aurora of Polar Bears
B – Bale of Turtles
C – Caravan of Camels
D – Down of Rabbits
E – Embarrassment of Pandas
F – Family of Porcupines
G – Galaxy of Starfish
H – Hum of Bees
I – Implausibility of Gnus
J – Journey of Giraffes
K – Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
L – Leap of Leopards
M – Movement of Moles
N – Nest of Crocodiles
O – Ostentation of Peacocks
P – Pandemonium of Parrots
Q – Quiver of Cobras
R – Raft of Otters
S – Shiver of Sharks
T – Troubling of Goldfish
U – Unkindness of Ravens
V – Venom of Spiders
W – Watch of Nightingales
X – Exaltation of Larks
Y – Yoke of Oxen
Z – Zeal of Zebras
Here’s a couple more fun ones: a CRASH of rhinoceroses and a HERD of moose.
Surely there’s a little (or big) person in your life who’d be delighted by this set of large, sturdy and artistic cards. (Maybe even you.) They’d be a great educational birthday gift, perfect in the Easter basket. The cards measure 6 1/2″ wide by 8 1/4 ” high and are heavy duty cardboard. They’d be sweet framed in a playroom, classroom or nursery.
You may be able to find these locally. If not, they’re available on Amazon.com here: Collective Noun Flashcards from A-Z
Amy says
Fantastic! And yes, they would be so perfect framed for wall art. Thanks for sharing, Allie!
nancy mcmahan says
My mother was incredible with anything that had to do with words. At almost 96 she has lost a lot of that ability. I remember about 4 years ago doing crosswords with her and figured out she was pretending not to know all the answers so that I would not feel bad that I could not get them all. I laughed and told her I was ok with her being smarter with words than i was.
Linda Jenkins says
What a great gift idea. I will keep this in mind for Lucas and Landon. Sounds as though my little guys would enjoy this. Thank you for sharing this suggestion.
Tracy Costa says
Yes, thanks for sharing Allie! I just love the art work.
Barbara B. says
What a unique gift – I’m not going to incriminate myself by telling you my score – just say it is a marvelous gift for children of an younger age (:-)…….
The great pictures are beautiful and very colorful, it’s fun to see and admire them!!!!
jen says
Never heard of these before but LOVE the idea and the photos! Sounds like a lot of fun, too! And HOORAY for Hudson!