Story
Over the past decade common nature words have started to disappear from children's dictionaries. The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris celebrates and preserves these words for children to enjoy and use.
The opening page reads:
"Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children. They disappeared so quietly that at first almost no one noticed - fading away like water on stone. The words were those children used to name the natural world around them: acorn, adder, bluebell, bramble, conker - gone!
Fern, heather, kingfisher, otter, raven, willow, wren ... all of them gone! The words were becoming lost: no longer vivid in children's voices, no longer alive in their stories."
But studies show that children need nature. Early introduction to the natural world is important for healthy development and wellbeing in later life, which is why Norfolk Wildlife Trust is supporting the placement of The Lost Words in primary schools across Norfolk.
Robert Macfarlane, the nature writer and author of The Lost Words, said: "Starlings, skylarks, newts, kingfishers... Everyday nature is falling fast from both our landscapes and our language. This wonderful campaign - inspired by Andrea Tiplady, Henry Layte and Patrick Barkham, and now generously carried forwards by Norfolk Wildlife Trust - seeks to reverse that loss and to re-wild childhoods and re-green classrooms across all the primary schools of Norfolk."
More than 120 have already been supplied with a copy of the text, and now NWT is also using £1,000 from its Children And Nature Fund to help.
But there is still some way to go to make these books accessible for every primary school child in Norfolk.
Your donation can help Norfolk Wildlife Trust to raise the remaining £1000, and reach the final 200 schools who need it. Thank you for your support.
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