“The Lost Words is the beautifully illustrated spell book that has already cast its magic on schools across the UK – from the wilds of Scotland, to Wales, to the South of England. It is a joyful celebration of language, inspiring children to rekindle their relationship with the natural world around them. Join thousands of teachers in rediscovering #TheLostWords this autumn – download our classroom Challenge Cards (see link below) now.”
That quote is taken from an email sent out from Teach Primary Magazine this morning.
The book The Lost Words, by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris was published by Penguin books in 2017 and has been a huge success in primary classrooms around the country. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the book’s publication, Penguin has released twelve challenge cards, freely available for schools to download. The cards all have a nature theme and the activities are based around those words going out of use by children. The activities are matched to the national curriculum with objectives including: ‘cultivating ethical, informed citizens’, and ‘improving the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils’ – among many others.
The Lost Words free pack of challenge cards is developed around nature words that are disappearing from children’s vocabulary. The book is made up of curriculum-linked activities such as
- creating a nature space
- create a nature trail
- creating a lost world
- befriending birds
- designing a wild habitat den
- playing with dandelion maths
- debates
- creating puppets, costumes, games
- and more
The Lost Words challenge cards is a completely free PDF booklet that you can download, print off and use in any classroom, it links closely to a project on wildlife and would be a great addition to the classroom bookshelf. To find out more visit the Teachwire website.
