Wednesday 13 February 2019
The States Early Years Team and service partners have been working with the Island's pre-schools and day nurseries to promote communication and language within their settings using a book titled 'The Lost Words' written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris.
A display of the different activities and learning enjoyed by the children will be open to the public at the Guille-Alles Library during half term from Friday 15th February until Friday 22nd February.
'The Lost Words' is a lyrical book of spells, written as acrostic poems which focus on words that have been removed from the Oxford Junior English Dictionary and are disappearing from the English language based on their lack of use nowadays e.g. conker, acorn, bluebell, kingfisher, newt, bramble etc. These words have been replaced with 'new words' such as googling, blogging, twerking etc. McFarlane was one of a number of writers to protest these actions, particularly given the benefits of natural play, connections to nature and the dangers of losing these experiences. Therefore, he turned to his craft of writing and together with Morris produced a stunning book in both scale and content. The book's collection of 'spells', through reading and sharing them, help the words break their way back into everyday usage.
Throughout the past three months, providers have been using different elements of the book to share and excite children in developing their communication and language skills whilst exploring further words, including our own Guernesiais.
Parents/carers and children are invited to attend a 'Word Aware' session on Wednesday 20th February at 10:30am in the Dorey Room, Guille-Alles Library. This is an initiative which aims to help support children's language development by using words in a fun and exciting way and is run in several of the pre-schools across the Island. A short talk will be given by Speech and Language Therapists followed by a group participation activity with parents/carers and their children.
There is also an opportunity for children to add to the displays throughout the week through activities which will be available at the Library.
