We had a wonderful week focusing on our whole school text ‘The Lost Words’ by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane. ‘The Lost Words is a ‘book of spells the seeks to conjure back the near-lost magic and strangeness of the nature that surrounds us’. It features words from the natural world that have been taken out of the children’s dictionary e.g. magpie, kingfisher and otter. The book has become a protest at the loss of the natural world and its place in children’s vocabulary, as well as a celebration of the wonders of nature.

Our aim in Year 2, was to learn to write acrostic poem ‘spells’ and to re-create art work from the book. We also took chances to take our learning outside and enjoy nature in our beautiful school grounds.

In art, we introduced the story of Austin’s Butterfly. Austin was a child who responded to feedback and critique to improve his scientific drawing of a butterfly. The story helps children to feel positive about feedback and to understand that it can take lots of tries to accomplish a goal. The children attempted several drafts of their own version of artworks from the book. Between each draft they shared their picture with their peers and looked at ways to improve. The children were so proud of their improvements and we were so impressed with their positive attitude and stickability.

The children coloured their final drafts with pastels and paints and, finally, published their favourite acrostic poem to complete their artwork.

We incorporated sounds of nature into our music learning this week too. The children worked together to create music for the lost words. They thought about how rhythms and sounds could build up and repeat to make beautiful compositions.

On Thursday. we had a visit from the Paddleboat Theatre with their production of Hansel and Gretel. It was such an exciting and interactive performance and the children were a fantastic audience.