“Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach” (taxonomy mnemonic)

“Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach” is a mnemonic device for remembering the biological groupings used in taxonomy: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
 
The mnemonic “Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach” has been cited in print since at least 2004.
 
     
The Free Dictionary
Acronym Definition
KPCOFGS Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach (mnemonic for taxonomy order: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
     
The Hindu (India)
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004
Tell the tale
K.T. Rajagopalan
Memorising can be fun when you learn the trick. 
(...)
In Biology, the animal kingdom (and the plant kingdom) is divided and subdivided. The hierarchy is not easy to remember, but the sentence “Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach” comes to our rescue. The initial letters represent the classification: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. A variation is “King Philip Came Over For Good Sleep.”
 
Google Books
The Community College Experience
By Amy Baldwin
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall
2005
Pg. 118:
To recall the order of biological groupings used in taxonomy, just remember “Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach” (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).
         
Google Books
Making Learning Fun
By University of the First Age
London: Network Continuum
2006
Pg. 35:
Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach.
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
 
ScrippsNews
A pop quiz on memory skills
Submitted by administrator on Wed, 09/12/2007 - 15:43
By ALISON ROBERTS
Sacramento Bee
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
(...)
7. Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach. (Biological groupings)