Developing Memory Continued: Mnemonics

Mnemonics are memory devices that help recall larger pieces of information. I have listed examples, but you can create these for anything your child needs to remember.

In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each word in a list of items is used to make a name of a person or thing.

– Roy G. Biv for colors of the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.)

– Pvt. Tim Hall for Essential amino acids (Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isolucine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine)

To make an Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a list is arranged to form a phrase or word.

– Classification of life (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety) is “Kings Play Cards On Fairly Good Soft Velvet”.

– Charles’ Law (for a constant volume, pressure is directly proportional to temperature) with “if the tank’s too hot, you’re blown into muck.”

– Henry’s Law (the solubility of a gas increases with pressure) with “the bubbles in the shaken coke you drank.”

– The 7 coordinating conjunctions in English (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) is Fanboys.

– The order of operations for math (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, and Subtract) is “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.”

– Mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets from the sun outward (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) is “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas”.

An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information in the form of a poem.

– A Rhyme Mnemonic for the number of days in each month is, “30 days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31. Except February my dear son. It has 28 and that is fine. But in Leap Year it has 29.”

– Spelling words with I and e, “I before E except after C or when sounding like A in neighbor and weigh.”

– The nerves (olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, acoustic, glassopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory and hypoglossal) is “On Old Olympus’ Towering Tops, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops.”