Tuesday 25 March 2014

Salford Children's Book Award: Winner of Winners

On Friday 21st March 17 pupils went on a trip to the Lowry Theatre to attend the Salford Children's Book Award: Winner of Winners ceremony. All of the pupils had taken part in either our WOW club or our ROFL club. We wanted to celebrate the dedication and talent these pupils have shown to reading and original writing.

 
The shortlisted books had been chosen over the last 10 years as the winners of the SCBA, this year was the winner of winners!
 
The Shortlist
 
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
Breathe by Cliff McNish
The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng
Magyk by Angie Sage
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis
Escape by Paul Adam
Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
 
Pupils have been reading these during ROFL club on Wednesday evenings and using them as inspiration during WOW club.
 
The ceremony started at 10am with Alan Gibbons as our regular compare. We listened to pupils from various schools who had prepared presentations about each of the nominated books. My personal favourite was the Molly Moon presentation as the pupils spent a great deal of time trying to hypnotise the audience into voting for their book choice. We then spent a further hour listening to the authors answer questions about how they became authors and what inspired their books. Finally, the winner was announced and it was no surprise that Michael Morpurgo picked up the WOW award.
 
 
In accepting his Award he told a story of a conversation with ex-Poet Laureate Ted Hughes who said:
“When you are a prize winner it’s not good for you; when you don’t win you are sad and that’s not good for you. So, should there be prizes?”
Michael Morpurgo decided it was a good thing to have prizes and said he was delighted with his accolade. He told the audience that Salford was a very special to him. He loved the area and had got to know the city well during the staging of War Horse at the Lowry. He also said that he hoped winning book Shadow might also make the transition to the film and stage following the path of War Horse and Private Peaceful.
“Books are the best, but plays and movies shed new light on the writing.”
(Taken from the Michael Morpurgo website.) 
 
After the ceremony came to a close, the pupils were invited downstairs to meet the authors and get their newly purchased books signed. It was wonderful to see so many pupils from various schools feeling excited about meeting their favourite authors. I hope the day has inspired all to continue to read for pleasure and write their own books in the future.

Thank you to all that came, you behaved beautifully and were a credit to the school

Miss Martyniuk & Miss Haydock.





 


Monday 3 February 2014

Wicked Entries

The deadline for the Wicked Young Writers competition is not far away. If you have an entry you would like to send in, please type it up and email it to Miss Haydock on haydocka@walkden.uk.com.

:-)

The Chocolate Factory

Last week in WOW club, we decided to write poems about a chocolate factory.
Here are some of them.

Confectionary

Chocolate
Happiness is chocolate
Orange
Chocolate
Love it
A lot of it
Tasty chocolate
Eat it all!

Chocolate
By Holly Dean

Chocolate is so sweet
Hot Chocolate is the best
On the day, in the heat
Chocolate is smooth
Once it touches your lips
Life will be in fits
A bit of chocolate is not a pest
Lovely as it is
Aswell it is fattening
Time to get to the gym
Everyday is fasting
The day you will to be lost
A day has gone by without any chocolate
You can't take it, its time to have another bite
or you feel hungry
Read the label it may have nuts
You might puff up if not then you're fine.

In my factory
By Luke Anderson

In my factory, there are chocolate treats,
But a secret lies beneath its feet,
Different children from all about,
Many come in, but none come out.
They die in my building, after they have played,
How do you think dark chocolate is made?
Indian, Hispanic, French I don't care, 
All step into my lovely chocolate lair,
Chocolate balls are chocolate toes,
These are the ideas we have chose,
From the girls we make chocolate guts,
From the boys we make chocolate nuts,
And you're all children, lets follow the beats,
I need more ingredients to make my treats,
In my factory, there are chocolate treats,
No secret lies beneath its feet.

The Chocolate Factory

As I step into the factory of sweet,
Sixteen Oompa Loompas we do meet,
They show us the way to the chocolate fountain,
and a pile of gobstoppers made into a mountain.

As we walk through rooms full of strawberry lace,
The Oopma Loompa's pick up the pace,
They want to show us the wonderous delights
that they have been working on for umpteen nights.

I stand in a room with a big, shaking machine,
I wash my hands, making sure they are clean,
I roll up my sleeves and dive right in, 
The swirling vanilla pulls me in.

Splish and splash goes the creamy mixture
Until the choc's in, its not a permanent fixture,
Rows and rows of different flavours,
Each an amazing taste tingling savour.