Clay Lane is inspired by educational materials created NL Clay, and used in English schools and homes from the 1920s to the 1960s. The Blog is a newsletter of recent additions and some selections from our archive, including brainteasers in grammar and vocabulary, and brief passages from history and literature.
You are welcome to ask for my help with any of the materials on Clay Lane. Drop me a line via email to: nicholas@claylane.uk.
Add Vowels
How many words can you make just by adding vowels to these consonants? See if you can get 5.
swng
Spinner
Make a sentence that uses ALL THREE of these words:
Inflation. Cable. Bear.
These words are served randomly.
You can change e.g. go → went,
or quick → quickly.
St Methodius (815-885) and his younger brother St Cyril (826-869) were Slavs from Thessalonica who brought the Christian gospel to Eastern Europe. In 864, Boris I, King of the Bulgarians (r. 852-889), abandoned his heathen beliefs and was baptised, and according to 11th-century Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes, Methodius was behind Boris’s change of heart.
Describe half an hour in one of the following:
IA vet’s waiting room. IIA broken-down lift. IIIA bus.
What pictures come into your mind? Try to describe them.
From an exercise in Exercises 12-13 (1933) by NL Clay.
Sir Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, has been commissioned to help an old man whose land is troubled by a wicked witch. The journey is fraught with dangers, and Sir Guyon has been cast into an endless swoon by Mammon, the money-god, for refusing to be his slave. As the knight slumbers, Spenser reflects on God’s care for the helpless.
For each word below, suggest other words that seem to go with it, e.g. Pirate → parrot, eyepatch, treasure map etc.. Can you make your words into a lively scene?
ICowboy. IIMermaid. IIISurgeon.
Based on a game in Think and Speak (1929) by NL Clay.
Quexana is a woolly-headed, Spanish country gentleman, bordering fifty, from La Mancha, southeast of Madrid. Bewitched by tales of romance, he has dubbed himself Don Quixote, Knight, and set out in search of ‘adventures’ with his companion Sancho Panza. His quest is to capture a giant as a love-offering to his lady Dulcinea (a pleasing fantasy inspired by an old flame) and he has just been promising Sancho his own realm too.
Study this list of words and commit them to memory. When you are ready, hide the list and see how many you can recall.
ITelevision. IILamp. IIICushion. IVTablet. VChocolate. VISofa.
Variations: See if you can mentally put these words into A to Z order. How many can you work into a single sentence?
Based on a game in Kim (1901) by Rudyard Kipling.