Date/Time
Date(s) - 31/03/2019
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Location
Flo’s The Place in the Park
Categories
Rediscover the magic in your city! Oxford is full of life, colour, creeping beasts, and enchanting creatures if we only take the time to look for it.
Join us for an exciting workshop-and-walk inspired by The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.
Macfarlane and Morris created this spellbinding collection in response to the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary which introduced new words such as “broadband” and “blog” while words relating to the natural world (acorn,wren, otter, willow, to name a few) were lost.
The dictionary, reflecting the frequency of words in the daily language of children, threw into undeniable relief the idea that children are losing touch with nature. Enter ‘The Lost Words’. This is a magical collection of acrostic poems by Macfarlane, gorgeously illustrated by Morris, which re-conjures these words, brings them back to our hearts and minds, and helps children to discover the natural world around them.
And now we conjure this spirit in our very own Florence Park and Boundary Brook Nature Park! We will be meeting at Flo’s Place in the Park, the new community hub in the heart of the park. After a chat about the kind of creatures, creepy-crawlies, and all manner of living things we might be seeing (and a bit of binocular training!), we will head out in the parks to explore.
Nick Boyd, resident nature-expert, will lead the walk, teaching you how to look and listen and notice the living world around us. We will then return to Flo’s to create our own Lost Words-inspired poetry with the help of poet Phoebe Nicholson. Collage and craft materials will be available to illustrate and decorate your spells!
This is a pilot session for a series of workshop to happen later in the year: stay tuned…
Where: Flo’s – The Place in the Park
When: Sunday 31st March, 9.30am-12.30 noon
Suitable for: ages 7-14.
Booking: £5 per child, tickets available at Eventbrite
Grown-ups welcome to join but not required