We present The Lost Words Activity Packs! Designed to mirror the workshops which we have run in the past around Oxford, these resources can help you and your family recreate the workshops at home. There is a separate pack for different areas of wildlife including birds, plants, and mini-beasts. Do all, or just those which take your fancy.
Recommended for 7-14 year olds as they require some level of reading and writing.
Click on the titles below to download a full PDF of each pack…
(If you’re on a mobile device and/or want to scroll through single pages instead of spreads, download here)
These packs are available for you to use free of charge but if you would like to contribute to Oxford Poetry Library so we can continue to do these kinds of projects, please donate by clicking on this generous bird!
Background to the Lost Words Activity Packs
In 2020, in collaboration with Flo’s Place in the Park and made possible by the generosity of the Midcounties Co-operative and Community Action Groups, we planned to produce a series of workshops for kids inspired by The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in the spring, with public gatherings and events cancelled across the country, we have as yet been unable to bring all these workshops to life. However, you can’t cancel spring, and there is still much glorious nature to be found in the gardens and green spaces around our home, so we put together these activity packs to allow you to recreate our workshops at home.
How do the workshops work?
Each workshop is split into 3 parts:
1) The outdoors bit which will involve going outside either into your garden, or nearby green space. It doesn’t need to be wild or wildernessy – any park or square will do! Just please make sure you are being safe, and if you are leaving your home, make sure it is in line with current social distancing advice.
2) This is where we think about how we used our senses and start putting our outside experiences into words.
3) Finally, the third section is when we turn all these words into Lost Words-inspired poems!
What will I need?
All you will need to do these activities are:
- A pen or pencil
- Some paper
- Some art supplies to illustrate your poem (we usually like to have lots of crayons, coloured pencils, marker pens, collage materials and coloured paper)
- A computer connected to the internet
It might be easiest to print out the packs so you can write on the worksheets and fill in the boxes we’ve made for activities. But if you don’t have a printer, just use any paper you have to take notes and do the activities and that will work just as well.
Share your work!
Please do share what you’ve made! We would love to see your poems and illustrations. At the end of all the workshops, we are planning to collect all participants’ artwork and writing in a zine which will be distributed around the city (and of course be free to all contributors). To submit your work, scan or photograph your masterpieces and send them to us at oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com or share them on social media with the hashtag #TheLostWordsOxford
Be safe, have fun, and most of all – enjoy the beauty and magic of the natural world around you!