Homophone Noticeboard

Every Friday, Little Thunder wrote the farm news on the big noticeboard by the dairy. This week he was very proud.

"Read it!" he said.

Spike read the first line aloud. "The heard will move to the creek paddock on Saturday."

Suzy giggled. "Heard? Did the cows listen to something?"

Little Thunder frowned. "That's how you spell it."

"There are two words that sound the same," Suzy explained. "Heard, with an E-A, means you listened. Herd, with an E-R, is a group of cows. They're called homophones. Same sound, different spelling, different meaning."

"Oh," said Little Thunder. "Let's check the rest."

The next line said: "Please bring your hay to the meating at too o'clock."

Spike tapped the board. "Meat-ing should be meeting. And too means also, or too much. The number is two, T-W-O."

"And hay is fine," said Suzy, "because it's for eating."

Little Thunder groaned and fetched the chalk.

Line three: "Wellington has a new tail to tell about the whether."

"Oh, that's three!" said Spike. "Tale is a story. Tail is on your bottom."

"Weather is rain and sun," added Suzy. "Whether is when you choose between things."

By lunchtime, the board was full of crossed-out words and neat corrections. Wellington the cow wandered past and stopped to read.

"The herd will move on Saturday," she read. "Meeting at two o'clock. Wellington has a new tale about the weather." She smiled. "Perfect. I've got a story about the time it rained frogs."

"Did it really?" asked Little Thunder.

"Come to the meeting," said Wellington, "and you'll hear."