Tag Archives: S1

Great Animoto videos from S1

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Well done to Miss Lafferty’s S1 class who worked so hard on creating their Animoto videos from the book we are reading : Dog Lost.

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All this great work was done in a single period.

Just pop the links into your browser and off you go – be warned some are a little sad … hankies at the ready and turn up the volume!

Kacsper https://animoto.com/play/3gpbp051XTIs2Vk0IwjAEg

Jamal https://animoto.com/play/eMeLNOgXo3QZOUBv8Q0yZQ

Kian https://animoto.com/play/3gbOQUwZs2adAbgaSjCshQ

John https://animoto.com/play/v0lEdb2EnYe4vvXhGg5jJw

George https://animoto.com/play/Xx7G1U0goS5ewlf76Tu1Mg

Liam https://animoto.com/play/C9fQSxMXjqsGCRxJsg1Zxw

Mireia https://animoto.com/play/N3xb5SJPoXsg9LfUo0h97g

Ross https://animoto.com/play/bOt9M7ebIe1ZkZqtyFbjAw

Cracker winners

Well done to all the pupils who put in the extra effort over the Christmas holidays and completed their 2 book cracker.IMG_2137

Here is a selection of the best reasons for reading at Christmas.
Reading at Christmas time is the best because…

“Its cold outside” Ben
“You have lots of time to relax, you can drink hot chocolate and you are still doing your English but not in class.” Erin
“It teaches you to appreciate what you have and be grateful you have a family.” Sara
“You can sit cosy and read whilst watching people silly enough to go outside in a storm, battling with their brolly.” Rachel
“It relaxes you in-between the chaos of family life at Christmas and gives you an excuse to get away from annoying members of your family.” Josh
“When you are cold you can snuggle up in your blankets and just read a book to relax. After that you can go for a wee sleep.” Portia
“I can sit on the sofa or bed in my PJs reading. I can have a cosy night with peppermint hot chocolate in my bed with fluffy slippers.” Emma
“I curl up next to the fireplace and the Christmas tree and read my book.” Sonia
“It is relaxing, fun and an enjoyable thing to do at this special time of year.” Alistair
“You get to cuddle up beside the fire and dig into a good book. You can stay up all night just reading and reading. Once you have read all the books you can go out and get more- they are on sale!” Zaynah
“You can curl up with a good book and hot chocolate, while it’s cold outside and you are all nice and toasty in the house with your head in another world.” Rhianna

“It relaxes you and takes away all the stress of Christmas; waiting for Santa to come.” Evy
“You can add in an extra helping of excitement to the fun of Christmas by reading an enthralling novel.”Zainah

    And the winners

“I am not going to be all cheesy and say the best thing about reading at Christmas is because I sit down and drink hot chocolate while reading.
I like reading books at Christmas because I read before bed and it helps me fall asleep quickly because at Christmas time I can’t get to sleep because I am so excited. P.S I love reading!” Olivia

“You can snuggle up on your bed or your couch in your pyjamas and get cosy whilst reading a good book.” Robbie

“You get to relax and it’s something you can look forward to; reading the next day.” Sophie

My oh my it’s Alex Nye

After 6 years in the making Alex’s new book Dark Matter will be hitting the shelves in a matter(sic) of days and guess which school she has agreed to come and talk to? No really I wish you would tell us because she said she was too busy – oh wait only joking it’s us – Alex will be coming along as part of our Book Week Scotland celebrations.
She has kindly offered to talk to a specially selected group of S1 pupils about her writing and characters and then we have encouraged her* to stay on to partake of a “literary lunch” with library assistants from both St. Ninian’s and Woodfarm High School.

It promises to be a corker of a day and Alex has promised to sign books for pupils – so if you have your own copy bring it along or if you want to buy a copy come and see me by Friday 13th Nov.

Just a heads up – for such a nice soft spoken lady she sure knows how to ramp up the heeby jeebies in her books!!

There’s lots going on this week so if you are not part of this event you are sure to be able to join in another.
The lovely Alex

*lured with cake

Barrington Stoke and S1

Books are books right? They all look the same, feel the same and smell the same? Well, no. If you take the time to open a Barrington Stoke titles you will be aware that you are looking at a book with a difference. The pages are well banana coloured, the chapters short and easily accessible, the font just the bit easier on the eye and the page set up just that bit simpler to follow.

Is this a fluke? Has the world gotten a little bit stranger?
Nope- this is how Barrington Stoke see the world or indeed how they want their readers to see the world.
As a fluent reader from an early age I find it difficult to comprehend just how hard it must be for some pupils with specific reading issues to pick up and read a book.

If words danced in front of your eyes and shapes and order lost their meaning would you keep going? Barrington Stoke books and those like them make reading easier. Please don’t just take my word for it take the words of my S1 class a mix of fluent and not so fluent readers who were up for the challenge of reading some of my over 200 different Barrington Stoke titles.

We started with a very honest lesson about how we saw ourselves as readers and what reading meant to us. Several pupils would not class themselves as readers at all with one or two saying they didn’t read at all. For some reading was a pleasure which they often indulged in after school for others just another bit of classwork.

Our challenge was to read 3 titles over the course of 3 months. So far, after 3 weeks most pupils have read 2 titles. I could not be prouder and neither could they.

I chose one lesson to be reflective- How are they getting on? What do they like and what don’t they like? How do they see themselves now?

Proud to be a reader

Proud to be a reader

Proud to be a reader

proud to be a reader

So scary I had to hide behind my book!

Here are some quotes from my brilliant readers to speak for themselves
Here is what they had to say when I asked them I have ( or have not) enjoyed reading this Barrington Stoke book because:
I just enjoyed it I don’t really know why.

It is very interesting because there are lots of characters in it and a lot of different storyline.

It was really interesting when it came to the Saturday game because I didn’t know what Blake was going to choose. This book made me not want to stop.

It was about football
The font is much easier to read
The books are short and really exciting to read!

It is very interesting and mysterious and at some moments it can be a little bit funny

I have never read a book like this

The pages are different colours and it is easier for me because I have Meares Irlen.
It was really exciting and I wanted to know what happened next.

I have loved this book because it was a horror/sport/romance novel. It covered lots of different types of things which kept me interested.

it is quite upsetting at the fact that Matthew hasn’t got a lot of money and is getting bullied, but I found it interesting when he got the new uniform and the bully ended up being the one who got bullied.

I found the story to be interesting. I wanted to know whether or not he would be able to convince people he was really ill.

I like the story.

It is really exciting and tense. You don’t know if he is going to succeed or not.

These books are better because it’s a better font because my dyslexia I find it harder for me to read fonts
I can not tell you how proud I am of these pupils willing to give this project a go and being able to see the results.
Who knows how far they will go after this?

Giamuncous

If you Google (other search engines are available!) the word Giamuncous the only entries are for St.Ninian’s High school library. And, why might that be I may hear you say? It’s because I made it up. Why would you need to make up a word when there are some prefectly good ones out there – like aardvark or serendipity? Beacuse, dear readers there was no word big enough, brash enough and bold enough to match the amazing, wonder that is the ANNUAL GUAMUNCOUS S1 QUIZ.

if you are currently in S1 get your thinking caps ready for Wednesday the 17th December for that day shall be known as Giamuncous Quiz day.
Where class is pitted against class and teacher agaist teacher to grab the cown of knowledge.
run to the libray and get your questions run back to class and work out the answers ( no Googling its for wimps and will waste your time) run back to the library and repeat a few times more till, exausted with the sweat of knowledge and a heart rate faster than any Mr Fuchs can get you to for the bleep test, you collapse in your classroom to await the e-mail.
Will it say well done or will it say better luck next year.. except this quiz is for S1 only and there is no next year!

As Gore Vidal once said – It is not enough to win, others must fail!

Good luck and enjoy!

Annual S1 Giamuncus quiz

Well done to …
Ms. Batchelor’s S1 class who narrowly pipped Mrs. Robertsons class to become this year’s champions.

They obviously know their Adele’s from their Opacs and their authors from their Avengers.

Thank you so much to all the staff and pupils who took part in this great event.

Which gives me the chance to use the word Giamuncus for no reason!