A word about language development 

There is a growing body of research that highlights the capacity for natural environments to support complex and diverse use of language. Children use more descriptive language in natural environments and the environment in itself supports children to engage in varied conversation and incidental peer to peer communication.

The following activity provides just one way (and there are many) to use the natural world for language development.

Words from the trees

Touch the bark of one tree.

Look up at the top of that tree.

Look around the base of that tree.

Now – write down 10 (or 3 or 5) words to describe that tree.

Move to a new tree and repeat.

Complete this process with leaves.

All of these words can be used to create a word wall or poem.

Why not try … 

• Tree poems can be placed at the base of each tree to form an outdoor poetry walk
• Play a game of ‘What am I?’ and give three clues to guess exactly which tree you have in mind
• Try this with sticks, stones, bark, small pieces of wood – anything at all.