Simon Puttock is an award winning author who has published many children’s books. His books, including Mrs Fox, Goat Donkey and the Strawberry Sunglasses are firm favourites on The Reading Bus.
Primary 5 at Sunnybank enjoyed a short residency with Simon Puttock during this summer term. The class worked with Simon for four sessions and all wrote their own fantastic stories.
Here, in their own words, is a summary from Primary 5:
Week 1 - We didn’t know what you wanted us to do , but we all soon started to have fun. You started to write our spelling words on the board in a funny collection and “The Three-Word Game” was born. Here are some of our three words: “invisble eating car”, “paper projector holder”, “destruction grill monster”, “diamond powered pistol”.
Week 2 - We talked about the three word game and how to make our words into a story. We discussed the problems some of us had with our stories.
Week 3 - We quickly got down to work and after reading some plans and stories, you gave us advice on how to make our stories better.
Week 4 - Your last week. We read some of our stories and recorded our 3 words for The Reading Bus Radio. You even read us one of your stories - “Miss Fox”.
This is what we thought about our sessions with Simon:
“Your visits helped to boost my confidence and the best part about it was the three letter word game. I felt happy because you showed me how to write exciting, emotional and intersting stories. I learned that stories can be exciting and be fun and not just a chore.”
“I could not have written my story if you had not come. We really liked your lessons. You were fantastic, brave, not shy and funny. Everyone in the classroom laughed and were so amazed at what you have done.”
“Your visits made me boost my confidence so I can write better stories. I also learned that anyone can write a story and it doesn’t take a few hours. Your visit has really made me improve my writing.”
“When you came in I was scared but during the weeks I wasn’t scared. I will try to write a bit more.”
Here are two of the stories from Primary 5
The Bouncing Tiger
Once there was a tiger called Stips who was very kind. She like to play with other tigers. Stigs had black stripes and ginger paws with very long, sharp claws She liked to bounce with her friends on her friend’s tampouline.
One day Strips was on her way home from school when she sawy something in the back garden. Her Mum had bought her a brand new trampouline. She was so happy she gave her Mum a huge hug and a kiss. She went onto her trampoline staright away and was there until bedtime.
The next morning her Mum woke up to a boing, boing noise. She looked out of her window and saw Stips bouncing in the trampoline. Mum went downstairs and told Steps to get ready for school but Stips refused and kept on bouncing because she loved bouncing on her new trampoline.
Stips remembered that her best friend had told her about a competition for the most jumps so Stips decided to enter it. Stips practised and practised her bouncing all day and all night. She didn’t even stop to have her supper.
On the Sunday when the competition was over Stips was the best bouncer and made over a million jumps. She won the biggest trophy and 5 million pounds for her Mum. Mum bought Stips a brand new trampoline that was so big it took up the whole garden.
By Nicole K
Dragon Book Island
Chapter One - Long Ago
Long, long ago in a magic island called Dragon Island, there were dragons of types you could never imagine. There were nature dragons, mystery dragons, seal dragons, tiger dragons, electric and fire dragons. The island was very peaceful until one day the Dragon Slayers came.
The Dragon Slayers slew all the dragons that they could find. A few of the dragons managed to escape and survive including the last mystery dragon, but it was still in the egg and almost buried. The other dragons hid in a buried cave that only dragons could get into. The mystery dragons could only be killed with a special sword made of gold and precious power crystals that were found in dangerous places and deep under the ground.
Chapter Two - Found and Attacked
Almost a centry after the attack by the Dragon Slayers, the mystery dragon egg was found by two dragons. They found the egg while one of them was digging. The dragon hit something hard and white, so the other dragon began to help him dig round the object. When they took it out they realised it was an egg. The egg felt very smooth at first until a small crack began to appear. Then a little head appeared in the crack. It was a little baby dragon.
To be continued
Andres Hernandez
June 30th, 2008
The Causewayend broadcast team present a special show on the Children and Yound People’s Services Awards, featuring:
- interviews with winners and others attending the ceremony
- stories from the session with writer Simon Puttock
- discussion about the upcoming summer holidays
- studio guest Peter from SHMU
- a brilliant dramatisation of the orginal and Doric ‘Crocorattie’
- a fun 3 word game
- interviews with students about the move to Gilcomston school
Causewayend - June 26th:
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June 26th, 2008
On Friday morning the film was almost finished. Migy finished any little things and tidied it up a little. We had a visitor. Jim Scott from Summerhill came to see what we had been up to. The animators showed him how we used the tablets and some of our animations.
David Barry from the reading bus came in to help us make up our own advertising slogans for Three wishes.We recorded them on a merantz. They are going to be on the radio. In the afternoon we got to watch our film for the first time. We had lots of adult visitors. Mr Burr said we could have a red carpet for our Premiere. Everybody enjoyed watching our film, they thought it was absolutely fantastic.We went to say bye to everyone.We got some or all of their autographs.Shona and Lauren went to give Migy a big hug.
June 22nd, 2008
The Broadcatsing team were doing some interviews with Richard.We interviewed Kirsty and we interviewed Migy.The Radio team did inteviews for the radio show.They interviewed Jenny with the Mirantz.The animators animated the characters.Tyler animated the fairy crying and Billy animated Jack with the sauages on his head.The artists glued the background together, they glued on all the animals,trees and bridges etc.
June 22nd, 2008
The Primary 6 broadcasters from Sunnybank Primary school present this fine broadcast, including:
- original advertising slogans
- stories from Sunnybank students
- discussion of favourite films
- interview with reading champion and learning strategist, Duncan MacArthur, from Aberdeen City Council, including a reading of Matilda
- some inspiring book reviews
- 3 word games from a session with Simon Puttock
- Pamella Calder, John Lewis Community liaison co-ordinator, reading from Charlotte’s Web
Sunnybank- June 15th:
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June 15th, 2008
The broadcasters from Cornhill Primary present this entertaining show, including
- jokes and original advertising slogans
- Primary 5 singing a Doric sea shanty
- discussion and reviews about books and their films
- interview with Reading Champion Moira MacKay, and a reading of her favourite Milligan poem
- an extract from David Barry’s book ‘Willie the Actor’
- Mrs Robertson’s class reciting one of Sheena Blackhall’s Doric poems
- interview with Reading Champion Ms Lucas, who also reads from the Eejits
Cornhill - June 12th:
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June 12th, 2008
The Broadcasting team were filming with Richard. Richard is from SHMU.T he artists were split in two groups the Radio group and the rest were still the artists.The Radio group were over at the nursery cooking sausages for sound effects. The Animators were animating the characters for our film.The sound group were making storyboard about nursery rhymes. We are working really hard and our film is really beginning to look fantastic.
June 10th, 2008
Reading Bus broadcasters from Cornhill Primary 7, present a Health special, including:
- an interview with Reading Bus Health Co-ordinator Sheila Lawtie who reads a beautiful poem by someone she helped care for
- slogans from David Barry’s session about advertising
- excellent book and film reviews
- presenter discussion about favourite books and the Reading Bus
- sun safety tips
- an interview with Dr Euan Thompson, a Reading Champion from Abermed. Abermed are one of The Reading Bus sponsors.
And here’s a link to the Cornhill Primary School website mentioned in the broadcast.
Cornhill - June 5th 2008:
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June 5th, 2008
The brooadcasting team were doing a little bit of editing for their film. used movie maker. They are recording story of making Three Wishes. The animation team were animating birds flying. They all created a different bird and one of them even had a nest with eggs cracking. The artists were making story borads. The sound team went down to SHMU to record their music. It was raining and they got wet. The brand new radio team were making intervievs with all of the groups. The radio team are going to make a one hour radio broadcast. It was a very busy day. Migy showed us the start of the film. It looked fantastic.
June 4th, 2008
Room 7 are very Excited!!!!!!!!. Today Migy has arrived at Woodside School. He is going to work with Primary 5 all week. Migy showed us the animatic - it is a storyboard of our film with our voices on it. We are all working in teams this week. The art and design team are working with Kirsty, the artist to design the backgrounds. The sound team are working with Naomi and Grace to create background music. The animator team are working with Migy and we are the broadcasting team. We are filming, recording and writing this on-line diary.
June 2nd, 2008
