• ‘The Keeper of Wild Words’ by Brooke Smith (Chronicle Books, 2020)
• ‘The Lost Words’ by Robert Macfarlane (House of Anansi Press, 2018)
• Examples of plants with distinctive common names (images or real-life plants)
• Playground chalk

• 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?

• 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
• 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

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)

• Support: provide pupils with a word bank of adjectives and/or noun phrases (e.g. blooming, vibrant, towering, spiky, glossy)

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?

Assessment questions

• What would you say to convince someone to start using your new word?
• Can you think of a plant you would like to rename? What would its new name be?

Encouraging pupils to take notice of their surroundings and establishing a shared language for the plants around them can help foster pupils’ sense of connection to the natural world.

Suggested plant species:

• Monkey Puzzle Tree: the Victorians thought the tree’s stiff, spiky leaves that completely cover the branches would puzzle a monkey trying to climb it
• Lamb’s Ear: soft, fuzzy, and silvery leaves, resembling the ears of a lamb
• Bluebell: spring-flowering plants known for their drooping, bell-shaped flowers that are typically blue but can also be pink or white