Abc's of Versability

By Roger J. Maderia

VERSABILITY takes the enjoyment of verse that you may have had with
nursery rhymes, jingles or songs and puts it into a dictionary of common
nouns. Then it takes these common nouns and groups them into categories
rather than alphabetical order. Finally a RHYME TIME challenge is added
to encourage repetition and a family or friendly game.
Build a great vocabulary.
Its one key to succeeding.
Share some time together.
Have some fun with reading.
Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503541351

Roger J. Maderia

Roger Maderia was a teacher for 35 years in the town of Wilmington, MA. He always enjoyed poetry and tried to incorporate some of this enjoyment into his teaching. In his retirement, he has tried to use verse in advertisements and cards, along with song writing, label making, and story telling. He considers VERSABILITY as the ability to put any written work into verse and works at it diligently. As the father of five and the grandfather of fourteen, he now has a new audience for his verse. With his Books of Versability, he hopes to make that audience much larger.

Book preview

ABC’s of Versability

Roger J. Maderia

Copyright © 2015 by Roger J. Maderia.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5035-4134-4

                eBook          978-1-5035-4135-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/27/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

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Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Foreword

A

B

C

DEDICATION

To a most fantastic family

I give this dedication,

extended by students and friends

who have been my inspiration.

Introduction

Roger Maderia was raised in Cambridge, MA near Longfellow’s spreading chestnut trees. Maybe this is why he has always enjoyed poetry. Now he is a retired teacher, having 35 years of experience in Wilmington, MA. He has always tried to incorporate this enjoyment into his teaching of Reading and Language Arts.

In his retirement, he has finally had the time to use this poetry in a new and innovative way which he calls Versability : the ability to enrich vocabulary and put other writing into verse. It has been used in ads, cards, labels, invitations and songs.

This is a dictionary of common nouns, but meanings are in the context of verse, so it is far more enjoyable to read and hear over and over again. This repetition can build a vocabulary of new words and enhance vocabulary that is already known. The added RHYME TIME challenge just makes retention better. It encourages rereading and adds a challenge and some fun to learning.

Blue Ink Reviews calls Versability a delightful device to remind adults and students alike that stretching one’s vocabulary can be a noble - and surprisingly challenging - pursuit. Think Dr. Seuss meets Wheel of Fortune.

FOREWORD

Versatility is the ability to do many things competently. We have created the word versability which is the ability to put many things competently into verse.

Because simple phrases and rhymes are often remembered much more easily than dictionary meanings, these books are created to give the reader a brief meaning of a word, in the context of verse. They also focus on only common nouns to be less confusing and to enrich the vocabulary through the knowledge of things.

This book consists of about 140 pages of verse to include almost 3000 common nouns beginning with the letters A, B, and C. Naturally, some books will consist of more letters until we get to the final one which will be the UVWXYZ Book of Versability.

In the versability dictionary words will not occur in alphabetical order because these books will attempt to group things by categories to assist with meaning retention. Therefore, when the reader is trying to remember the meaning of the word auk, he may remember that it rhymed with hawk, which is a bird. That’s versability.

Each page will also contain a challenge called RHYME TIME. It uses one of the underlined words to fill in one blank and the reader has to think of a rhyming word for the second blank. A navy foot covering is a _____ _____. (blue shoe). Sometimes the challenge will be PRIME RHYME TIME: A recently purchased navy foot covering is a ____ _____ _____. (new blue shoe). In each full book there will be a PRIME RHYME TIME SUBLIME to figure out four rhyming words from the clues. Answers always appear two pages away from the puzzle.

Each page is designed to be read three times. Once for the meter and rhyme. Again for learning new words and lastly to solve the RHYME TIME puzzle.

An index, in alphabetical order, of all words with pages on which the words appear, is provided at the end of each book so the reader can easily refer back to each word, its verse, and its versability.

A

Our A book starts with animals,

since aardvark is its first word.

It is long eared and eats termites.

But an albatross is a bird.

Another bird is the avocet.

Accipiters are families of hawks.

Sea birds of some northern regions

are commonly known as auks.

Amazons are tropical parrots.

Their plumage is typically green.

Accentors are much like our sparrows.

Avadavats are caged birds we’ve seen.

The alpaca is one type of camel.

It has wool and stands quite tall,

while the little one-celled amoeba

is so microscopically small.

The antelope is a long horned deer.

The appaloosa is one type of horse.

Aoudads are North African sheep.

Anteaters do eat ants, of course.

Apes are some tailless primates.

The asps and the adders are snakes.

Amphibians, like axolotl salamanders

live on the land and in lakes.

RHYME TIME

An angrier snake

is a ________ _______.

Arthropods are invertebrates

with appendages that are jointed,

and insects like those aphids

have antennae and mouth parts so pointed.

A tiger moth is an arctiid.

Acarids are small ticks or mites.

An apiary is a setting for beehives.

Bees and honey are quite common sights.

The arachnids, all those spiders,

are the very same branch of the tree.

But annelids, or segmented worms,

are a most different family.

The archerfish hunts for insects,

spitting water to make them get wet

Adaptations existing in nature

bring the most astonishment yet.

Reptiles, another type of animal,

contain the fierce alligator,

the agama and anole lizard,

and anaconda, which is so much greater.

The armadillo is a mammal.

It’s the strangest of them all.

It protects itself with armor

and rolls up and floats in a ball.

RHYME TIME

A thick protective coat damager

is an _______ _________.

Agoutis and acouchis are rodents.

They have short ears and clawed feet.

Aye-ayes have teeth like rodents,

but are primates with a bushy tailed seat.

Angoras are goats, cats and rabbits.

They all have such long silky hair.

Albinos have no pigmentation.

White hair and pink eyes exist there.

Alewives are migrating herring.

They are found within the sea.

An anthozoan like a flower

is the sea anemone.

Albacore is a larger tuna

with a long pectoral fin.

Abalone is an ear-shaped shellfish

with a pearly gloss within.

Archosaurs are related to crocodiles.

Armored was the ankylosaur.

The albertosaur was much larger,

weighing three tons and sometimes more.

The apatosaur lived in North America:

a plant eater with long neck and tail.

The allosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur

was on the upper Jurassic scale.

PRIME RHYME TIME

Three plus one additional tuna

are ______ ______ ____________.

Pg. 1 answer (madder adder)

Some of our animals are humans

to whom we owe a lot.

We could not do things out in space

without an astronaut.

An athlete excels in sports.

An architect draws out plans.