To be shocked that not even one y4 child knew the meaning of the word velvet?

[Utterlybananas333]

My sister is a teacher in a South London primary school, she is a year four teacher of around 30 8 to 9-year-olds. She was recently describing her disbelief over the fact that not a single child knew what velvet meant? There were some crazy guesses, and lots of children who thought it was cake (probably relating to red velvet). Is it just the fact that children and adults don't talk anymore? That nobody reads anymore? Or even watches educational TV programs? Would your child know?

In Scotland we call swedes “turnip”. Do you mean white flesh ones or orange flesh ones?

😋

The white ones. They are less easy to find than the orange-fleshed swede.

I call the orange fleshed ones “turnip”. I love it actually. Putting some in my soup I plan making tomorrow.

Are the yellow turnips/swedes called neeps? Or are the smaller white turnips known as neeps? Or both? And is the term neeps commonly used in Scotland?

Sorry for the interrogation! Just something I‘ve idly wondered about in the past 😅

I call the orange ones Neeps 😊. And yes it’s a common word. On Burns Night we have haggis. neeps and tatties

I call the white ones turnip or neeps and the orange ones swedes

I do the opposite!

& we're back to deer! 😆The first time I remember heard the word fawn being used a colour was on an Irish kids TV programme called "The Den" with Zig & Zag, Zig used to always say he was fawn not blonde 😆I. I doubt my son would know it as a brown colour though, just baby deer

Sure kids dont wear velvet, but its not just clothing...what about "these curtains feel like velvet" or granny has velvet cushions etc
Not a single child from a whole class, yes that surprises me!

Is "The Enormous Turnip" no longer a classic fairy tale?

And do no teenagers watch re-runs of Blackadder? "Baldrick, do you have any ambition in life apart from the acquisition of turnips?"

I have a 9 year old boy and I get what that poster meant. A sentence like "the girl had a velvet ribbon" just wouldn't be in any of his books. He reads books that include words like super-sonic and kerpow. The last little chapter book he read was the minecraft movie book, funnily enough minecraft is a game where you can build out of all sorts of materials, but not velvet. He's heard of oxidised copper though and terracotta due to that game.

Hmmm….yes, I teach ETFS too so quite aware of that issue. I maintain that your post, as I read it, implied that having to teach vocab explicitly was scary which is plainly a bizarre statement from a teacher. Nothing mean about it…Anyway, have it your way

What was the title, and why was it funny?

What????!??

Well, that’s cleared that up nicely then 😂

🤣

Not just Scotland, I grew up in London, and we called the orange ones turnips. I didn't know the word swede till till I went to secondary school, and never saw a white (actual) turnip till I was about 15.

Blackadder was very funny

My year 1 kid reads a lot. She said velvet was a type of soft fabric you use to make clothes. Some other words people have mentioned, she said: turnip= a big type of vegetable, handkerchief something people used to blow their nose on in the olden days.

Try your children on this word: perambulator!

It's used in Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World. Perhaps we need a thread of big words, which were once everyday words, to test our children's vocabulary.

You maintain all you like, you’re wrong! Amazing how reading something online can be interpreted how you want to suit your own agenda. Pretty interesting considering you’ve been teaching for the best part of 40 years!

Have a great start to the New Year!

Yes but then the kids still wouldn’t necessarily know it was a fabric. My 9 year old reads extensively and has a wide vocabulary ofbut when asked she said she thought it means soft like velvety. So she will have come across it somewhere but not in the context of it being an actual fabric. I think using it to describe an item of clothing/furniture and it being clear it’s talking about a fabric type vs describing how something feels won’t be that common. Knowledge of any single word amongst a cohort of 25-30 kids isn’t demonstrating anything really. As an example both my kids have read the Harry Potter books which definitely have a mention of velvet dress robes and still haven’t remembered that specific word. They do on the other hand remember lots of ridiculous stuff like the names of the spells and they would most likely say a galleon is a coin vs a sailing ship even though they definitely know about it being a sailing ship as we’ve visited more than one including the golden hind.

Yes but then the kids still wouldn’t necessarily know it was a fabric. My 9 year old reads extensively and has a wide vocabulary ofbut when asked she said she thought it means soft like velvety. So she will have come across it somewhere but not in the context of it being an actual fabric. I think using it to describe an item of clothing/furniture and it being clear it’s talking about a fabric type vs describing how something feels won’t be that common. Knowledge of any single word amongst a cohort of 25-30 kids isn’t demonstrating anything really. As an example both my kids have read the Harry Potter books which definitely have a mention of velvet dress robes and still haven’t remembered that specific word. They do on the other hand remember lots of ridiculous stuff like the names of the spells and they would most likely say a galleon is a coin vs a sailing ship even though they definitely know about it being a sailing ship as we’ve visited more than one including the golden hind.

I think you’ll find that’s the essence of this ‘ conversation’ to be fair!!