Collective Nouns

An aarmory of aardvarks,
A throat full of pips,
An accompaniment of condiments,
And an armada of ships.
An army of caterpillars,
An array of luminaries,
An assemblage of jigsaw puzzlers,
And a seven of the seas.
An atlas of physical maps,
An attitude of teenagers,
An audit of accountants,
And a hospital of nurses.
An aurora of polar bears,
A hat full of milliners,
A bale of sea turtles,
And a band of mountain gorillas.
A battery of intelligence tests,
A bed of ocean clams,
A bed of rock oysters,
And a candy full of yams.
A bed of writing snakes,
A bestiary of mythological creatures,
A bevy of beauties,
And a movie-house of features.
A bevy of tiny quail,
A bevy of stately swans,
A bloat of hippopotami,
And a stock full of bonds.
A bouquet of scented flowers,
A bout of estimations,
A brace of spangled grouse,
And a chorus of exhalations.
A broadside of artillery shells,
A brood of bust hens,
A buffoonery of orangutans,
And a pocketful of pens.
A building of noisy rooks,
A bunch of seedless grapes,
A burden of yolks,
And stack of hot canapés.
A bury of conies,
A business of flashing ferrets,
A business of annoying flies,
And a chest full of merits.
A buttload of proctologists,
A cackle of hyenas,
A camp of transvestites,
And a suit of dry cleaners.
A candle of jungle tapirs,
A cast of actors,
A cast of fierce falcons,
And a magnitude of attractors.
A cete of busy badgers,
A handful of pinchers,
A chain of desert islands,
And charm of finches.
A chorus of Heaven's angels,
A class of students,
A clench of nervous sphincters,
And a bore of jurisprudence.
A cloud of gnawing gnats,
A cloud of grasshoppers,
A cloud of swarming plankton,
And a beaker of stoppers.
A clowder of prowling cats
A clutch of newborn chicks,
A clutch of any eggs,
And a Karate full of kicks.
A clutch of kleptomaniacs
A clutter of house cats,
A collective of collective nouns,
And a nest of bubonic rats.
A colony of busy ants,
A colony of industrious beavers,
A colony of penguins,
And a basket full of weavers.
A colony of rabbits,
A company of soldiers,
A congregation of people,
And a lane of bowlers.
A congregation of plovers,
A congregation of worshipers,
A constellation of some stars,
And a compilation of rhyming verse.
A constituency of voters,
A convocation of eagles,
A covey of grounded grouse,
And a howl of frenzied beagles.
A covey of flying quail,
A crash of software,
A crowd of gaping onlookers,
A beach of those who bare.
A cry of scenting hounds,
A descent of woodpeckers,
A dilation of pupils,
And a butt of prickly burrs.
A division of soldiers,
A dole of peaceful doves,
A down of wild hares,
And a graveyard of forgotten loves.
A dray of staccato squirrels,
A drift of pungent swine,
A durante of toucans,
And a tree of lime.
An embarrassment of riches,
A falling of dominoes,
A fidget of anxious suspects,
And a surrounding of your foes.
A fleet of noble ships,
A flight of cormorants,
A flight of shining doves,
And a stench of underpants.
A flight of golf balls,
A flight of goshawks,
A flight of refugees,
And a drawer of table forks.
A flight of swooping swallows,
A float of crocodiles,
A flock of docile sheep,
And a rectum of irritated piles.
A flood of incompetent plumbers,
A fold of wooden chairs,
A formation of geologists,
And an armpit of hairs.
A gaggle of giggling geese,
A galaxy of stars,
A gallop of Greyhounds,
And a frequenting of bars.
A gang of stately elk,
A gang of hoodlums,
A greed of litigious lawyers,
And a percussion of drums.
A grind of household chores,
A grip of hand tools,
A groan of painful puns,
And a government of fools.
A gross of fruity farts,
A grove of all trees,
A guilt of sinful pleasures,
And a pants of knobby knees.
A gush of trembling sycophants,
A hand of bananas,
A handful of palm readers,
And a bed of pajamas.
A heap of useless trash,
A herd of elephants,
A herd of horses too,
And an exile of tyrants.
A hide of majestic tigers,
A hill of beans,
A hive of swarming bees,
And a cover of screens.
A horde of insistent gnats,
A skeleton of marrows,
A host of brilliant angels,
And a host of sparrows.
A hover of hummingbirds,
A hover of river trout,
A huddle of hippos,
And a belly of stout.
A hug of teddy bears,
An imposition of in-laws,
An incantation of witches,
And a pad of paws.
An incision of surgeons,
An indecision of managers,
A Jagger of ceaseless tongues,
And a lifetime of Gypsy curse.
A knot of wriggling eels,
A knot of green frogs,
A knot of shoelaces,
And a blaze of logs.
A leap of frisky hares,
A magnum of hitmen,
A mask of raccoons,
And a business of acumen.
A maul of wild bears,
A garden of fairies,
A maze of weathered canyons,
And a meaning of dictionaries.
A mob of kangaroos,
A murder of crows,
A muster of peacocks,
And a stream of flows.
A mute of tracking hounds,
A nest of mice,
A nest of venomous vipers,
And a berg of ice.
A number of mathematicians,
A nye of pheasants,
An obscurity of poets,
And a tree of shiny presents.
An orchestra of musicians,
A pack of hounds,
A pack of suitcases,
And a scenery of surrounds.
A pad of sheets of paper,
A paddling of ducks,
A pander of toadies,
And a fleet of heavy trucks.
A parliament of owls,
A parliament of rooks,
A party of jays,
And a library of books.
A peal of church bells,
A piddle of puppies,
A plague of hungry locusts,
And a trend of yuppies.
A plane of geometrists,
A plump of waterfowl,
A pod of playful seals,
And a night of menacing growls.
A pod of regal whales,
A poke of fencers,
A ponder of philosophers,
And a flap of tissue dispensers.
A prattle of pretty parrots,
A prickle of hedgehogs,
A prickle of porcupines,
And a trap of sticky bogs.
A pride of savannah lions,
A pryde of griffins,
A quake of seismologists,
And a Hobbiton of Pippins.
A rafter of turkeys,
A rain of cats and dogs,
A range of towering mountains,
And a cave of shuffling trogs.
A reflection of narcissists,
A release of anglers,
A rhyme of poets,
And a clutch of cattle wranglers.
A round of refreshing drinks,
A salvo of artillery shells,
A scale of ichthyologists,
And a haunting of personal Hells.
A sedge of watchful cranes,
A sheaf of golden wheat,
A shitload of troubles,
And a shuffling of feet.
A shoal of thrashing bass,
A shock of bursting corn,
A shortage of dwarves,
And a heap of scorn.
A shrewdness of apes,
A stack of unopened boxes,
A siege of attentive herons,
And a skulk of foxes.
A slew of complex homework,
A slice of circumcisions,
A smuck of jellyfish,
And an absence of decisions.
A sneak of stealthy weasels,
A souffle of clouds,
A Sousa of marching bands,
And a sepulcher of shrouds.
A splash of dormant puddles,
A spring of active seals,
A squint of proofreaders,
And a group of squeals.
A staff of reluctant employees,
A stand of flamingo,
A stash of weed,
A tottering of vertigo.
A stench of angry skunks,
A can of past laughs,
A streak of intent tigers,
And a stretch of giraffes.
A stripe of wild zebras,
A stud of brood mares,
A sulk of angry teenagers,
And a begging of bears.
A swarm of cranky bees,
A swelter of blankets,
A tangle of tricksters,
And an excuse of lost bets.
A team of eager athletes,
A team of horses,
A team of oxen,
And a challenge of golf courses.
A tedium of golfers,
A treachery of spies,
A tribe of mountain goats,
And an annoyance of flies.
A trip of mountain goats,
A troop of monkeys,
A troupe of performers,
And a ring of keys.
A tumult of tubas,
A ubiquity of sparrows,
An unkindness of ravens,
And a quiver of arrows,
A vision of optometrists,
A wake of patient vultures,
A watch of nightingales,
And a confusion of cultures.
A wave of aging surfers,
A wealth of information,
A wedge of gorgeous geese,
And a handful of masturbation.
A wedge of flying swans,
A whistle of modems,
A wisp of snipe,
And a necklace of precious gems.
A wriggle of garden worms,
A denouncing of all effective,
All belong to an exclusive club,
The nouns of the collective.

A teacher had called in sick and we couldn't find a replacement. Hence, I had to take the class for the day. I drew up my "bag of tricks" - a collection of well-used and mostly successful lessons. One of these, believe it or not, is collective nouns. I was saying this in the Staff Room when one of the staff remarked, "That class will eat you alive if you teach that boring crap."

Right.

So, I offered, "You watch the lesson. If the class enjoy it, I win. If they don't get into it, you win."

He counter-offered, "Let's make it interesting. If they don't get into it, you owe me $100."

I added, "If we write more than 100, real of made up, you owe me $100. If I can turn it into a poem by then end of the day with the class, you owe me $200."

Anyone need a loan?