From October 31st to November 12th, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Glasgow. To celebrate COP26, we have put together a “Calendar of Events”: for each day of COP26, we are focusing on one specific activity. Some are aimed simply at valuing and appreciating nature, while others are more directly linked to activism and driving change at local level.
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For COP26, we put together a calendar of activity ideas, including the creation of leafy hedgehogs. Here, we offer for downloading a simple leafy hedgehog template with space for children to write the word ‘hedgehog’ in another language, and well as three different templates to encourage people to check their bonfires for hedgehogs, this helping and protecting our spiky friends. Each poster has space to include the message in a language other than English, and we would love to see your results!
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Our multilingual scavenger hunts have been one of the most favourite activities, and this autumn version completes the set. With lots of opportunities to explore the outdoors, this is the perfect activity to get children to use all their languages to explore nature around them.
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Sellincourt Primary School is located in London and its student population reflects the incredible diversity without our capital city. We know that acknowledging and incorporating pupils’ home languages into their formal learning has positive effects not just on language development and learning in general, but also on important aspects of well-being such as integration and belonging. We were delighted to see how Sellincourt Primary utilised Lost Wor(l)ds activities to celebrate the diversity amongst their pupils. The X form entry school dedicated an entire day in June, to celebrating the connection between language, cultural identity and nature with ‘International Languages Day’.
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We have worked with the MakerFutures project to create an activity for children to design and build a robot from recycled materials. Children will identify a role and produce a profile for their robot, which explains how they help the environment, using different languages.
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A perfect activity for music lessons, planning performances, showcasing multilingual talent. While the resources are based on minibeasts, once children have grasped the concept, any topic can be used. Children bring in their home languages to explore the rhythm of language – would you clap “grasshopper” different from “butterfly”? How do long and short syllables […]
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Every year in June, The Wildlife Trusts run the 30 Days Wild challenge – a challenge to do an activity linked to nature, every day, for the whole month. When we recently met up with our local Wildlife Trust (Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust), we suggested the idea of putting together a multilingual version of 30 Days Wild, suitable both for children growing up multilingual, and for those learning another language at school.
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This week we welcome the Berlin Metropolitan School to the blog. We have no doubt you’ve already guessed . . . but this school is not based in the UK, instead it’s located in what is arguably Germany’s cultural capital – the city of Berlin. With a student population of 1000+ pupils hailing from 78 […]
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This week is the launch of ‘Beat the Street’ in Rotherham, a giant game played in real time in the roads, parks and green spaces surrounding throughout the town. Walk, run, cycle, scoot or skip between Beat Boxes, tap in and collect points, whilst exploring every nook and cranny of your local area. ‘Lost Wor(l)ds’ […]
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‘Posters for Change’ is an opportunity to try and make local change in your area a reality. Whilst you’re out and about exploring your school grounds, green spaces, local parks and even the streets in which you live, you might notice or learn about how aspects of your local environment could be improved. This activity […]
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Teach children to enjoy nature without disturbing it, while also enabling them to explore colours in nature and in their home languages. Although timed for Easter, we are sharing two sets of worksheets – one with eggs and one with stars, to ensure the activity is suitable all year round. Children cut out the shape and use the hole as a frame to go on a colour hunt in nature, with space to write colours in home languages, and, if they can, to name some of the items they find in nature.
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The school garden is a prime space to make multilingualism visible, get children interested in nature, healthy eating, and conservation, and to bring creativity to the learning environment. The premise is simple – encourage children to help label the plants, drawing on their language skills. This activity is so straightforward that we have not included a lesson plan as such, but below are some ideas, suitable for different age ranges and materials, for creating suitable labels – please make your own judgment regarding suitability for the children in your care. We would love to see yours, to add them to the photo gallery below!
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This activity is particularly suitable for World Book Day, although it can be run at any time of the year. The Rivers of Reading methodology invites children to create a collage-like piece of work which links their reading experiences to critical incidents in their lives. It lends itself very well to home learning.
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Every month, we are hoping to share schools on our blog who have used one or more of our activities, to gather examples of good practice, to showcase pupils’ language skills, and to enable schools to evidence their engagement with multilingualism in the classroom. Find out the very simple steps to become a Lost Wor(l)ds Feature School!
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If you’re looking to inject some nature and language related fun into your home schooling schedule, then look no further! At the ‘Lost Wor(l)ds’ project we’ve selected five easy activities suitable for mono and multilingual children to enjoy. The following activities have been adapted from a wide and growing library of resources available for free […]
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If you read this activity in January, we strongly recommend that you link it to the RSPB’s wonderful annual Big Garden Birdwatch, but it can be completed any time of year.
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A calligram (or shape poem or picture poem) uses words to create a visual image – a perfect opportunity for children to combine art and literacy, and use their various languages.
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This activity encourages children to focus on one individual minibeast, exploring its biological features, and creating a piece of artwork, working with a variety of media.
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