Saturday night at Ethan Allen Elementary School, Karen
Mitchell won first place in the citywide spelling bee. Although the competition was stiff,
twelve-year-old Karen emerged on top.
Karen’s father, Tom Mitchell, when asked to comment, said, “Yes, we are
very proud of her. She spelled words I
can’t even spell, and I am a college English professor!”
Karen’s winning word was a hard one—megalopteran. Some of the other words she knew were
palaestra, sacerdotal, and varicella.
All are very hard words.
Later this week, Karen’s sixth-grade class will all go out
for lunch and an afternoon of skating to celebrate her win. Her teacher, Mrs. Amanda, Killbro, said that
all had worked jard toward Karen’s triumph.
Breath Control Boosters
The fifty states: Try to name as many of the fifty states as
you can in one breath. We have grouped
them by the number of syllables to facilitate rhythmic reading.
Maine Iowa Wisconsin Pennsylvania
Kentucky Wyoming West Virginia
Georgia Maryland
Kansas Michigan Alabama Louisiana
New York Missouri Arizona North Carolina
Texas Montana California South Carolina
Utah Nebraska Colorado
Vermont Nevada Connecticut
New
Hampshire Indiana
Alaska New
Jersey Massachusetts
Arkansas Ohio Minnesota
Delaware Oregon Mississippi
Florida Rhode
Island New Mexico
Hawaii Tennessee North Dakota
Idaho Virginia South Dakota
Illinois Washington Oklahoma
“P/B” Sounds
1. The boy put back the pack, but leapt past the bike.
2. The lump in his blue lapel, a bruise, brought a yelp from
Bud.
3. Parliament passed a bill approving the purchase of
surplus barely from Nebraska’s bumper crop.
4. Is it bravado, aplomb, or pluck, or is Pam just plain
brash?
5. Place in Pat’s laba tube, precious herbs, barbells,
plenty of paper and ballpoint pens , and a lamb-pelt lab robe.
6. Blond people in public blimps shouldn’t throw pebbles.
7. Thumps and gasps about the tomb made proud Bob blubber
for Pop.
8. People exploit the deep blue ebb for bass, carp,
bluefish, and blubber.
9. Pete bunted, passed, pitched and punted. His double beat the Cubs; his triple play
helped trip Pittsburgh.
10. Please prepare a papal brunch; boiled parsley, prime rib
of pork, baked beets with bread crumbs, and pasta parmigiana.
11. Rob abruptly dropped the props and rubbed the lump in
the magic lamp.
“T/D” Sounds
1. Dot and Todd did the Te Deum as a duet.
2. It is your duty to study the dusty tunes
3. The stud kicked mud on Matt’s sand dollar, then strode
toward the tundra.
4. The idea of daguerreotype did wonders for photo
development.
5. The undergraduate students attended North Texas State
University in Denton.
6. The desperate agent defused the time bomb before it
ticked to its detonation deadline.
7. The dead-letter office takes hundreds of undelivered
bundles to the dump each day.
8. Truman Capote told of two desperadoes in his story called
In Cold Blood.
9. Better to put little buttons into big buttonholes than to
try to force bulbous buttons into bitsy slits.
10. The rudder on the boat caught in the reeds below the
water and split down the middle.
11. The Best Western Motel rented suites with double doors
to traveling tourists.
12. The bride wore white as she walked beside her dad down
the petal-covered aisle.
13. Doctors treat contagious diseases while dentists drill
teeth to remove decay.
14. The telephone and telegraph brought together isolated
cities, states, countries—and continents.
15. Dylan Thomas wrote poetry, Tennessee William drafted
dramas, and Danny Thomas acted in Make Room for Daddy.
“G/K” Sounds
1. Grab the crab by the back to avoid the grip of its claw.
2. Gil haggled with the hack over the cost of a cab to
Gloucester.
3. Gullible Ken could not kill cranes with big green beaks.
4. Frank won cups of guppies and glasses of goldfish at the
carnival for guessing Gilda’s weight in kilograms.
5. Agriculture involves the difficult task of gradually
cultivating good crops.
6. Eggnog is a creamy, sugary drink heavy in caloric
content.
7. Big quarterbacks from the Cowboys, Kansas City, Green
Bay, and Pittsburgh kicked pigskins across goal lines.
8. The musical Oklahoma! was taken from the Green Grow the
Lilacs, a folk drama of agrarian America.
9. Kennedy guaranteed that he could win the election from
Nixon in Connecticut, Arkansas, and the
Great Lakes states.
10. Lady Godiva galloped quickly down the cobblestone
pavement as the goggle-eyed folks of Coventry gawked and gazed.
11. Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Look, and
Psychology Today are among my selections of magazines.
12. Graces Kelly gave up the glamour of Hollywood to become
queen of Monacan society.
13. The ox looks sick and weak as he kicks flecks of straw
at the back of his cage.
14. The Mexican cavalry galloped in expectation of
encountering the Texans and Crockett’s crew confined in the Alamo.
15. Querulous quidnunes complained that the quantity of
gossip was considerably below the quarterly quota.
“EE” Sounds
1/ People eat meat, peas, green beans, and ice cream.
2. The bleak street
was free from vehicles in the evening heat.
3. Cecelia feels ill with a feverish spleen.
4. Being discreet means not revealing secrets.
5. My niece is pleased with the antique fleece.
6. Police walking the beat must keep their feet clean.
7. She feels the peaceful breeze blowing through the green
trees.
8. She leaped easily over the heap of leaves that the breeze
had freed from the tree.
9. A theist is a believer, a Christian devotee, who feels he
will be redeemed in eternity.
10. Even Pete, it seems, got cold feet. The wedding vows he would not repeat.
11. The treatise deals with the theory that disease is
caused by extreme heat.
12. James Dean was featured in the screen version of East of
Eden.
13. The keen, clean stream was used by the lean, mean man to
water his green beans.
14. Meet me, leaning on a street post at the pizza parlor,
around three.
15. Eating cheeseburgers at convenient beaneries increases
calories and obesity.
“F/V” Sounds
1. Fervent believers in evil will never go to heaven.
2. Seven-Up is an affordable, effervescent beverage.
3. A salve of sulfur relieved the fever of the inflicted
convict.
4. The video featured Fannie Flagg and Phil Silvers in
Vanity Fair.
5. Chef Victor served veal fried in olive oil and covered
with fresh chives.
6. The first verse refers to the adverse effects of the
fruit of the vine.
7. A conference of five chiefs convened on the river rafts
in the fjord.
8. The safest advice is to save, give no gifts, and avoid
foolish investments.
9. Uvulas aquiver, the frightened nymphs vanished into the
verdant forest.
10. Alvin, the elfish knave, gave a lofty gift to his
fearful lover, Vera.
11. Even half a heifer is barely enough for Val to have for
breakfast.
12. Floats are available at the fountain in seventy-five
flavors, from vanilla to fresh alfalfa.
13. The Soviets’ fear of television was proved valid when
their first version of the fission formula was viewed in Finland.
14. Fiddle evokes a frame of reference significantly
different from that of the more formal violin.
15. The Volkswagen service foreman, Vern, phoned Freda Von
Cleff to inform her that foreign vermin had infiltrated her flivver’s valves.
“V/SH” Sounds
1. A shimmering vision of Krishna arose from the marshes.
2. A foolish shout of “fire” caused a crush of confusion at
the Bijou.
3. Sharon O’Shea wore a plush beige negligee.
4. That Russian said Brezhnev ate a fresh dish of Quiche
once in Central Asia.
5. Measure by measure the brash soloist played a wishful,
wistful adagio.
6. Persian fashion calls for a fusion of fuchsia leisure
suits and shiny gumshoes.
7. A sure sign of diminishing vision is difficulty
distinguishing Zsa Zsa from Sha Na Na.
8. Sheets of shiny snow diminished Zhivago’s vision.
9. Flashy fashion models take pleasure in showing their
sharp-looking leisure suits.
10. Sure-handed nurses should establish a triage to treat
soldiers shot with shrapnel.
11. A sharp flash of sunshine gave full disclosure to
Shawn’s camouflaged position.
12. Six patient Hoosiers shared toothbrushes on a pleasure
cruise to Chicago.
13. Gigi washed the rouge off with dishwashing lotion.
14. Marsha Pershing’s treasure chest should contain a
splashy collage.
15. When the sheriff fired three shots, Portia stopped her
shameless seizure of buried.
Sentences Contrasting [æ], [ə], [α], [o], and [ou]
1. Dan and Don don’t get up before dawn.
2. I caught the cat asleep on the coat I’d thrown on the
cot.
3. We sowed the sod with seed and sawed arms for a
scarecrow.
4. The hockey tem – the Philadelphia Hawks – looked hokey as
they hacked at the puck.
5. I taught the girl to tat when she was a small tot; she
made a tote bag.
6. It means naught to a gnat if you do not write him a note.
7. A rat took the letter I wrote you, carried it under the
wrought-iron sofa, and left it to rot.
8. Although the hotel room was hot, the haughty lady would
not take off her hat.
9. Do not shock Shaw by showing him the shack.
10. Maw mopped the floor while Paw moped because she lost
his map.
11. The politician was appalled to find that his pals did
not vote for him at the polls.
12. The loan of some artificial laws made of nylon helped
the lawyers sell the land.
13. On the bottom of the boat Bob bought were boxes of
baseball bats.
14. Hal found a hole at the end of the empty, hollow hall.
15. I woke up early, walked to the Japanese restaurant, and
had breakfast cooked in a wok.
Sentences featuring [m], [n], and [ŋ]
1. Tomorrow is an immensely long time from now.
2. Immerse nervous nerds in boiling cauldrons of molten ink.
3. Pringle seems to be moving minute by minute, moment by
moment.
4. Mouth the sounds, feeling the formation of the English
language.
5. Do not mix ammonia amongst the manicotti.
6. Mending, minding, and knowing are not proper nouns: New
England is.
7. “What’s new?” mumbled the gnu as the gnome from Nome
meandered home.
8. A malingerer imagines ill feelings in an attempt to shun
unpleasant things.
9. Strip mining lingers as a major environmental issue from
Montana to Pennsylvania.
10. Manuel knew Nancy would enamel everything, including the
kitchen sink.
11. I never met a man named Naomi in North America.
12. Pandas are mammals hailing from the mountains near
Nanking.
13. In anger the monkey mangled my ankle, bringing me pain.
14. Uncommon Women is a compelling contemporary drama.
15. Many moons ago, when hungry animals roamed the
swamplands, there came a stumbling, grinning primate with a penchant for
thinking: the human being.
1. The doctor, a young neurosurgeon, had her medical
insurance docked by deterring an unjust claim.
2. The National Council of Churches furnishes judgments on
major moral dilemmas.
3. The early bird gets the worm; the suburban bird gets the
perm.
4. In a verdant jungle I encountered muskrats, mynah birds,
and mallard ducks.
5. I had no idea hush puppies were considered a luxury in
northern Iowa.
6. Merlin suggested we attend a performance of the
contemporary drama The Runner Stumbles.
7. Gussie’s shirt got stuck in the turnstile in front of the
public facility, Municipal Stadium.
8. Unable to sustain pennant fever, the struggling Cubs fell
even further from first place.
9. Wyatt Earp is features in another western television special.
10. Conjunctions are not generally considered to be as
humorous or funny as verbs.
11. Divers have discovered a buried treasure where once a
disaster occurred just off of Bermuda.
12. Mums, petunias, and some other flowers must grow better
in sunny Southern California than in Russia.
13. Serve pumpernickel buns fresh from the oven for an early
supper.
14. If Virginia appears jumpy, just remember that she
suffers from a nervous disorder.
15. Unencumbered by any other blockers, a tough tackle
tenderly crushed the hurt quarterback into the dirt.
Sentences featuring [m], [w], [j], [r], and [l]
1. The Prince of Wales’s ailing whale rides the rail from
Vail to Yale University.
2. The whetstone was wet, yet Rhett let me borrow it.
3. What Eunice installed on her rotting yacht was a
fifty-watt lamp/
4. In broad daylight they drifted near the Isle of Wight, in
a dispute over white rights.
5. In lieu of being able to woo Koo, he ruefully warbled “I
love you.”
6. A wan, shipwrecked Ron awoke on a manicured front lawn in
Ireland.
7. The whiny steward served white wine and watermelon rinds.
8. Lynn began to grin at the whinny of the winning horse in
the race at Baltimore.
9. When his friend lends enough yen, Roland will rent a
vessel to wend his way across the Atlantic.
10. She wanted to know what fool drew those unique, loony
runes.
11. Sheila whipped a yipping wimp, bloodying his lip and
ripping his clothes.
12. “Yare,” yelled the admiral from his private lair, where
he wore a rare uniform.
13. The young leader tried to rise above the lies by asking
herself the proper whos and whys.
14. With a whack on the back of the black yak, Jethro
saddled the yoke to the rack.
Sentences featuring all diphthongs
1. Time and tide are known quantities that are bound to
change.
2. The round royalty tried all kinds of dieting, to no
avail.
3. Five players posed, poised and ready to shout out loud.
4. Invite the cowboy to tape a toaster to his eyelash
hourly.
5. I know that Boyce’s renowned sinus problem most likely
originates in his brain.
6. No one is afflicted with goiter in the famous play Our
Town by Thornton Wilder.
7. O say, you can sigh—Blake may have found those lousy
soybean-flavored sundaes.
8. Oily Joe told a tasteless joke about fried pies to his
pouting spouse.
9. How did Goya paint such bold, bright portraits?
10. Nine thousand houses employ maids who mistakenly bake
the daily paper while reading a souffle’.
11. The Boy Scouts loaned their adenoids to a nice old lady.
REMEMBER: 20 MINUTES A DAY EVERY
DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!