What is a mnemonic (pronounced new-mon-ic)?

 A mnemonic is a trick that helps us remember something!

It can be a symbol, rhyme, acronym, or association that helps us learn and remember. Many students have already learned some mnemonics. See if you know any of these:

1) To remember the number of days in each month:
 
          Thirty days has September,

          April, June, and November.

          All the rest have thirty-one

          Except February, which has twenty-eight in fine

          And in a leap year twenty-nine!

2) My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nuts.

          helps us remember the planets:

    Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.)

 

We can create mnemonics for almost anything we learn. To remember that synonym means a word with the same definition, we can use the letter S fromsynonym to write the word same:

S Y N O N Y M

A

M

E

If you wanted to remember your grocery shopping list which consisted of these 5 items:

salt, apples, eggs, honey and raisins

you might use the acronym ASHER! Each letter stands for another item you need, rearranged into a word you know!

In science, we use the acronym LAWN to help us remember what plants need:

Light

Air

Water

Nutrients

Create mnemonics with your spelling words to remember how to spell them!

Example: TOMORROW   TOM OR ROW

Or - there is ONE Monday in a week, so there is only one M in tomorrow!

Example: CALENDAR   Can a lion eat nice deer after recess? 

Try to create your own mnemonics to help you remember facts you learn in class. If you have a particularly creative idea, we might put it on this page, too!