Chelsea Physic Garden Education Department
Teachers' Newsletter: Literacy in the Landscape
Written Autumn 1998
[AMicrosoft ® PowerPointpresentation of this subject is available from the Chelsea Physic Garden Website, Teacher Training page]
We all have imaginations. Some seem to be more vivid, inventive and aware than others. External stimuli are obviously important in teaching and nourishing our sense(s) of wonder, amazement and amusement.
Nature seems to be a common interest and denominator for us humans to relax and recover from right angles and greyness. A street tree with jigsaw bark, fluffy seeds and a concrete base; a canal tow path or playing field or a garden (public or private):- these are some of the inspiring environments and oases we may encounter from day to day.
Some of the places we go simply require us to open a book, or relax and let a pen and our imagination go on a journey. If you are in contact with children, you will probably notice that most of them have VERY vivid imaginations and are extremely inventive. Learning the structure (and etiquette) of a language can be quite confusing, but it can also be a lot of fun (the best way). Using nature as a teaching tool is very useful, enjoyable and memorable.
Some of the activities we have used at the ChelseaPhysicGarden which cover the National Curriculum language and literacy attainment targets are outlined below.
Vocabulary
After a walkabout in the garden to collect fallen leaves (an assortment), we return to the classroom and split into groups of about seven in a circle. A leaf is taken from the bag and the first person gives their description: “Pointy”; the next say, “pointy and smells like tea”; “pointy, smells like tea and mouldy browny green”; “pointy, smells like tea, mouldy browny green, feels like rubber”, etc. It may not be as easy for pupil number seven, but they can go first the next time around. This uses more than the visual sense and is fun. Similes and onomatopoeias are inadvertently introduced.
Poetry
Using some of the words conjured up during the previous game, poems can easily be created. If a student thought of ten words for the garden, a leaf, the pond or perhaps their feelings about some aspect of the garden; a poem could be written which included those words.
The vertical poem is an easy way of writing and shows how many destinations can be reached from one starting point. A word is given (if we’d been investigating pond life, it could be ‘pond’) or else each student thinks of their own starting word (you could try ‘onomatopoeia’). The letters of that word are written vertically down the page and provide the first letter of each line, for example:
Tall as you are, my arms don’t reach around your
Rough bark.
Even though you once were small,
Everything changes, slowly.
Writing a haiku is another good way of sticking to some sort of formula. There are different kinds of haiku (a form of Japanese poem, traditionally mentioning a season of the year). The National Literacy Strategy's version has three lines and seventeen syllables in total in the pattern 5,7,5:
Pale gold, hollow stems,
clustered, striving higher up:
forced down by old wind.
Other types of poetry and writing forms can also be good to use (limericks, iambic pentameters etc).
In a group of three or four people, the first person writes a line of a poem, the second writes another, in response to the first; the third person writes a new line (without seeing the previous ones) and the fourth responds to the third. This, and variations upon this can produce quite amazing results.
Names, naming and history
People tend to name things so as to be able to have a common recognisable language about the particular things. In closed societies/communities, the name for one thing - snow, a daisy, a horse, whatever - will probably stay the same, because everybody knows that a door is a door. But another community may call those same things different names. in certain scientific and horticultural communities, the need for a common language is essential. The evolution of plant, animal and fungi names over the last few hundred years has led to a fairly systematic and reliable way of nomenclature. Before the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778) devised the Linnaean system of nomenclature there were more poetic names for members of the natural world. What we might call a Daisy is Bellis perennis to some, as well as: Baby’s pet, Bairnwort, Curl-Doddy, Flower of spring, Miss modesty, Twelve disciples, Billy button, Cat posy or White frills - depending on the part of Britain you were to visit (and who you asked).
Stories
We use a selection of books with students. Some of these are big books about snails, plants and habitats. Some are reference books about the natural world. Some are in the form of CD-ROMs. We often use stories (and puppets) as a way of illustrating nature.
A time where students are free to choose books from the shelves and read alone or together seems to be a very productive and enjoyable exercise.
A few of the story books that we find useful are: ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak; ‘Who Eats What?’ by Patricia Lauber; ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ by Vivian French; ‘Rainforest’ by Helen Cowcher; ‘Molly’s Hair’ by Emma Damon; and ‘Where The Forest Meets The Sea’ by Jeannie Baker.
In addition to reading and being read stories, after a walk in the garden and being introduced to the idea of plant hunters coming across weird and wonderful ‘new’ plants in the wilds of China or Australasia, students can embark on an imaginary voyage of their own: either to recall what they saw, smelt, felt, touched and heard on the walk, or to imagine what it might have been like to set off on a journey around the world to collect specimens and meet the local people in the name of scientific curiosity.