The found words

Introduction

• Introduce pupils to two books: 'The Keeper of the Wild Words' by Brooke Smith and 'The Lost Words' by Robert Macfarlane.
• Explain that both books help the reader rediscover a selection of words associated with nature removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Why do you think the authors thought it was important to write these books?  

Main activity

• Introduce pupils to a range of plants with common names inspired by the qualities of the plant itself, whether it be its appearance, scent or something else. (See additional notes for suggested plants.) 
• Display pictures of plants or real plants and ask pupils to consider what their names could be based on their appearance. Take some ideas and then reveal their common names.  
• In an outdoor space, pupils search for signs of nature. Encourage pupils to look closely for plants that are not immediately noticeable (e.g. a weed growing through a crack or moss on the side of a building) and examine it more closely using their senses of touch, sight and smell. 
• Pupils should draw on their observations and existing vocabulary and experiences to create a new name, which in some way evokes the qualities of the plant they have found.  
• Pupils write their ‘found words’ in chalk on the playground nearby.  

Differentiation

• Support: Provide pupils with a word bank of adjectives and/or noun phrases (e.g. blooming, vibrant, towering, spiky, glossy). 
• Extension: Pupils repeat this activity for a range of different plants or aspects of nature; pupils use their ‘found words’ as inspiration for a short poem about nature (e.g. an acrostic poem or a haiku).  

Plenary

Pupils explore the outdoor space again, reading the words and phrases written around the playground. Can you identify which plant each word refers to?