identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, (KS1 Year 1); recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of way (KS2, Year 4); Pupils might find out about the significance of the work of scientists such as Carl Linnaeus, a pioneer of classification (Ks2, Year 6); increasing their familiarity with…fairy stories, myths and legends, (NC English Years 3 and 4)
Know there are different ways of naming organismsKnow that myths and legends are important ways of thinking about organisms
flow and recycle myths and legends
This is the first in a new sequence of stories, using the wonderful photographs of Andrew Town. Andrew has done more than anyone to observe, record and celebrate the changes on Nowhere Wood over so many years.
All organisms have a scientific name, based on the system developed by Carl Linnaeus. His is a binomial system with two names. One is the unique name of the species and the other is the name of organisms to which it is most closely related.
The scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens. Scientific names are usually printed in italics.
sapiens is the unique name of our species. It means “wise or intelligent”. [It is worth noting that this is what we choose to call ourselves!]
Homo is the name of human-like creatures, which most resemble us. These include Neandertal Man and Devonisian Man. Sadly, perhaps, all other members of this species are now extinct, although each of us has some of their DNA within our bodies.
Local people, throughout history, have used their own names for organisms. We tell the tale of the Dryad saddle fungus, which reminds us that there may be other ways of thinking about the wood.
Woods are self-regulating ecosystems that help to preserve our species. Thinking of this in terms of Dryad nymphs is a good way of visualising the complexities of the wood.
The new stories will begin to explore some of these other ways of thinking about woods, and we are including references to the English and History National Curricula, where appropriate.
