Literacy and Art for Nature Connection

Key stage 2

Use our beautiful gardens as stimulus for creating literacy and art. Children will be encouraged to use all their senses to immerse themselves in nature to stimulate creativity. The atmosphere will be relaxed to free up children’s creative spirit. All children will make a nature journal to take home or back to school for continued use. Activities designed so they can be developed and built upon back at school.

English Learning Outcomes

• Develop positive attitudes
• listen to and discuss a range of poetry
• read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class
• encapsulating what they want to say, sentence by sentence
• participate in discussions about books building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously

Art Learning Outcomes

• create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
• improve their mastery of art techniques

Activities

A day’s programme can be adapted to suit individual needs and requirements. Normally we fit in four to five activities during your visit.

Sample programme:

Activity 1: Nature Journals – Each child will make their own nature journal for use during their visit and beyond.

Activity 2: Shinrin Yoku (Forest Bathing) – Mindful time to focus the senses on our surroundings. There will also be time to hear nature poetry, surrounded by nature.

Activity 3: Human Camera – Blindfolded sketching activity

Lunch in or near our Education Centre

Activity 4: Drawing on Nature – A chance to use their journals for fun and creative sketching of natural items found in the garden. Using step by step techniques, build up to creating a diagrammatic drawing in a relaxed, low pressure atmosphere.

Activity 5: Literally Poets – create a poem as a group or individually.

If you would prefer a day a more cross-curricular day, please have a look at our other KS2 activities and we can plan your visit accordingly.

Suggested pre-visit activities

• Read some poetry by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris from ‘Lost Words’ or ‘Lost Songs’
• Listen to some ‘Spell Songs’ music - Spell Songs | The Lost Words

Suggested post-visit activities

• Many of the activities from the day are designed to be developed and used again in school.
• Review and revisit ideas in nature journals.
• Lost Words resources - Resources | The Lost Words

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