Book Week was launched with an assembly on our book of the week – The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris. This beautiful book contains ‘spells’ to bring twenty ‘lost words’ back into children’s lives. These words, which are all to do with the natural world, had been removed from the last edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary as, apparently, they were no longer relevant in children’s lives.
Children at BPS were shocked to discover that words such as ‘acorn’ and ‘conker’, ‘kingsfisher’ and ‘heron’, were no longer in that dictionary. In many subjects this week and next – English, Art, Science, Geography, French, Forest School – our children have done work linked to the natural world theme of this book. Even in Forest School, children looked for lost words hidden in the woods. BPS children certainly know these words – and many of them now also know them in French! This work will continue into next week – Science Week.
During the week, the children have also enjoyed the opportunity to hear stories read to them every lunchtime and on World Book Day they dressed up in colours or costumes associated with a particular season – again, linking to our ‘nature’ theme. There were certainly some imaginative costumes!
Our Book in a Bottle competition has brought in over forty entries, all of which display huge imagination and are a pleasure to view. Judging will take place next week and the winners will be announced the following week.
The original art work from The Lost Words – which is very beautiful indeed – is currently being exhibited at Nymans. The exhibition runs until June so might be a worthwhile place to visit in the Easter holidays.
More photographs and information about Book Week and The Lost Words will be available in the next edition of Reading News.
