Accelerated Reader successes

These pupils have achieved their targets for Winter 2010 in Accelerated Reader.
S1
Rebekah Copeland
Danni Cullen
Charlie Lindores
Robyn McCluskey
Tamsin Thorburn
Catherine Roberts
Wendy Roulstone

S2
John Anderson
Stephanie Carrick
Lauren Gerrard
Damian Slocombe
Rachel Murphy
Shannon Brown
Reece Higgins

well done to all of them for their hard work.

Staff Book Group Christmas lunch

Here are the members of the staff book group at their Christmas lunch with their book shaped parcels from Santa.
Happy Holiday Reading!

Readers'C up First Round Winners

The winners of the in class round of the Readers' Cup Quiz are
S2
Halle Fitzsimmons, 2MD
Alexander Nutt, 2SB
Brandon Gasson, 2NP
S1
Danni Cullen, 1MD
Michael Roberts, 1SB
Harry Sloan, 1NP

The highest scorers will go on to represent their clans in the S1 and S2 competitions in March.
Well done to all the high scorers in a very tough quiz.

Calling budding writers

Figment
If you are a budding writer looking for comments, or a keen reader looking for new writing to follow.
"Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you're into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all there. "

Readers'Cup Quiz

The first heats of this years quiz will be held in the Library during english lessons this week and next week.

November Reader of the Month

Well done John - 19 points and 100% correct.

Suitcase Kid trailer

The S1 library club made a short video trailer for The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson.

Reader of the month October

October's Accelerated Reader of the month was Stuart in S1. He had passed the most quizzes.
Well done Stuart!

The Secret Scriptures

The Secret Scriptures by Sebastian Barry was the Staff Book for November. It was very popular with the group who nearly all said they enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.

Interesting ways to teach

Two links but really good sites.
Interesting Ways to use webtools in the classroom
and Tom Barrett's blog with ideas for using Class blogs

For more on class blogs have a look at BoxofTricks.net

Brilliant video!

This is a challenge for Doon Academy!

Library Creative Club

At the Library Club we are having a go at making book trailer videos. At the moment a group are working on a video on The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson.
To find out more about book trailers have a look at Book Trailers for Readers.
Come along and join in the fun.

Yacoubian Building

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany is considered a modern Egyptian classic and has been available in English for many years. As a change of perspective, the staff book group read it in October. Some staff enjoyed it, but most dislike the fractured nature of the separate stories of the different residents. This combined with some of the content meant that it was not a popular choice.
November's book The Secret scriptures by Sebastian Barry may be more popular.

Accelerated Reader Certificates

At a special assembly lots of S2 pupils were given Accelerated Reader certificates.
Featured are Lauren with 2 Classic Reader certificates, Naomi and Rachel with their Star Reader certificates and Reese with the prize for the winner of the Wall of 100% draw. Well done to everyone!

Top 100 tools for learning 2010

Top100 Tools for Learning 2010

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

Interesting that Twitter is top of the list.

How to make descriptive videos

Chance to tell your story

Have a go at the Scottish Book Trust Family Legends competition. Talk to your mum or dad or grandparents, ask them about the time the dog ate your mum's boots or the time your sister got locked in a hotel toilet, and then write it up and send it in.

Good Luck.

Some really useful tools

Best of the EdTech Web 2010 - With Links

View more presentations from Richard Byrne.

I can't wait to try out some of these!

Reading Group Guides

Loads of good ideas and information to help you choose a book for the reading group at
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/content/index.asp

Wasted by Nicola Morgan

check out Nicola Morgan's blog on Wasted, her latest book. Loads of good stuff and competitions.

Book Trailers

Here are the links for ideas for book trailers
Story tubes
Book Video Awards
Kirkus Review Book Video awards

This is the site with all the information about how to make book trailers
Booktrailers for readers

Good Luck!

New Non-Fiction Books 2009/10

The 10 minute brain workout Moore, Gareth
250 innovative ideas
50 people who fouled up football Henderson Michael
50 reasons to buy Fair Trade Litvinoff, Miles ; Madeley, John
Abortion - rights and ethics
Alternacrafts Vitkus, Jessica
The animal rights debate
Bad science Goldacre, Ben
Band of brothers: E Company,506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Ambrose Stephen E.
Barack Obama; the making of a president Allette, Dawne
Basic psychology Gleitman, Henry
Body image and self-esteem
The book of big excuses Turner, Tracey
Britain in 2010
Bullying issues
Cheat! 217
Cheat extra 218
Cheat extra 219
Christmas foods Vaughan, Jenny ;Beauchamp, Penny
Citizenship and participation
Consumer kids: how big businessis grooming our children for profit. Mayo & Nairn
Crime in the UK
Denmark; a kingdom
Drugs in the UK
Earthquakes Graham, Ian
Extreme wheels
Fair Trade; a beginner's guide DeCarlo, Jacqueline
The globalisation issue
Hail! Hail! rock 'n' roll Harris John 1969-
Harry Hill's whopping great joke book. Hill Harry 1964-
Health issues for young people
How to make your own video or short film. Harvey Bob
In search of Australia and the South Pacific
Is the fair? Fair Trade Atkinson, Mary
Leadership and the one minute manager Blanchard Kenneth H. Zigarmi Patricia Zigarmi Drea
A life like mine; how children live across the world UNICEF
Marriage and cohabitation
The men who stare at goats Ronson Jon 1967-
Money and finances
The new Anchor step-by-step encyclopaedia of needlecraft:patchwork, embriodery, quilting,sewing, knitting, crochet,applique
The No-Nonsense guide to Fair Trade Ransom. David
Our human rights
Philip's guide to fossils Potts Joanna
Poland Kadziolka, Jan ;Wojciechowski,Tadeusz
Predicting the effects of climate change Townsend, John
Privacy and surveillance
Racial and ethnic discrimination
Reproductive ethics
Romania
School survival Tym, Katie ; Worms,Penny
Self-harm
Selling sex
Sexual health
Shackleton's way Morrell Margot ;Capparell Stephanie
Shells Saunders Graham D.1944-
The silliest joke book ever
Staying fit
The story of Billy McNeil Mavor, James ; Martin, Michael
The story of Celtic McIvor, James ; Martin, Michael
The story of Liverpool
The story of Manchester United
The story of Rangers Geddes, Jack
The story of the Scotland mnational team
Study for survival and success Meredeen, Sander
Supermodels Gogerly, Liz
A sustainable future Spilsbury, Louise
Tackling child abuse
Teen movie stars Foy, Debbie
Three cups of tea Thomson Sarah L. ;Mortenson Greg ;Relin David Oliver
Waste issues
Xmas games expert 220

What I saw and how I lied by Judy Blundell

Pupil Review by Stephanie Carrick S2

What I Saw And How I Lied by Judy Blundell


What I Saw And How I Lied is a very good book. News of the World claimed "You'll be holding your breath as you turn every page." But I must say that I disagree. This book is quite hard to get into because it has a very slow start. However, nearer the end, it gets much more exiting. It was not my favourite book, but it is one I shall never forget.



This book is about a 16 year old girl called Evie, who lives with her mother, Beverly, her step-father, Joe, and her grandmother, Gladys. It is set in the late 1940's, and Joe has just returned form WWII. He suggest's that the family go on vacation to a little island in florida, called Palm Beach. They leave the very next day, and while there, they meet on of Joe's army friend's, Peter Coleridge. Both Evie and her mum fall in love with Peter, leaving a huge mess. They both have a secret romance with him at the same time. However, whatever happened during battle, has caused Joe and Peter to fall out. Therefore, Joe decides that Evie and Beverly should stay away from Peter. However, they ignore Joe and continue with their romances. Thats when strange thing's begin to happen.



It is not until quite far on in the book that all the secrets begin to come out. This happens after Peter falls overboard while on a fishing trip. A huge hurricane hits, causing the boats engine to stop, then a huge wave knocks poor Peter overboard. Joe and Beverly survive, but when they arrive back at Palm Beach, to find Evie, they discover that people think they murdered Peter. Evie, Beverly and Joe find themselves catapulted into a terrible and messy situation, in which they must stand trial in Palm Beach Court. I am not going to tell you if they are found guilty or innocent. If you really want to know, you can borrow this book from the library.


Over-all, I give this book three and a half stars out of five.

What reading means to S1

New term - New books

We have lots of bright new books for everyone to read this term, incuding the third part of Patrick Ness' amazing series Chaos Walking - Monsters of men.

Competition

Get to your local library befor August 15th and you could win an iPod Touch!
At the library go online to Britannica and enter their quiz!

Boys reading

Two great blogs for boys who are into reading:
GUYS READ
and
BOYS, BLOKES BOOKS & BYTES

Great new reads

I have just finished Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan. It is one of the best books I have read for ages. Its funny,scary, dramatic, exciting and I couldn't work out what was going to happen next. Try it as soon as you can.
Also in my holiday reading bag was Spirit Hunter by Katy Moran - another great read but completely different. This is set in Ancient China and is an adventure with two main characters who are on opposite sides in a time of struggle; a girl who is from the Horse Tribe and a boy who is a Chinese warrior monk.
Killing God by Kevin Brooks is another great read, told by Dawn Bundy who is fifteen and lives with her mum. She is unattractive and doesn't have any friends. Her dad disappeared two years ago and at the start of the book she is going to kill God!

Free eBooks

Ar you a fan of Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore? They have written loads of fun books from Star Bores, to Vernon Bright and the magnetic banana. If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch you can get hold of some of them for free. Go to iTunes and type in Sleepydog, choose a title and download it.
For more info go to Sleepydog.

Summer Reading Challenge

This year for the first time we are going to have a summer reading challenge.
To join in you have to just follow these easy steps:

1. Read a book
2. Post a review in the comments on this blog entry
3. Mention the author and title of the book in the review
   

The prize will be awarded to the most entertaining comment/review.
Tips for winning:

• Make Mrs Bax laugh
• Read your book somewhere exciting
• Make your book sound so interesting that someone else reads it and adds a comment
  

Good Luck

Carnegie Medal winners

The Carnegie Medal winner was announced at 12.30 today. The winner was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Our Shadowing group had made it our No 1. choice, so we picked a winner! Well done to our group. Our CKG Shadowing pages

Harry and Hopper by Freya Blackwood and Margaret Wild won the Kate Greenaway Medal. It was our 3rd choice.

P1 story time

This is the video of Mr Paton's S2 class reading stories from the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist to P1 at Dalmellington Primary School. The primary pupils really enjoyed the story time and voted for "There are cats in this book" as their favourite book.
To get to our Shadowing page go to

Readers' Cup Final

The annual East Ayrshire Readers' Cup Quiz final was held this morning at Auchinleck Academy. Our team of Fraser Buchanan, Mark McLean, Laurne sham and Halle Fitzsimmons had been practicing and reading for weeks and their hard work paid off with our best ever result of joint second place tied with St Joseph's. Auchinleck won again! Doon was leading after the first round but fell away a bit in round 2 only to make up ground in round 4. Congratualtions to the team, supporters and their coach Miss Borthwick.

P1 storytime

This afternoon some of our S2 pupils read contenders for the Kate Greenaway Medal to the P1 class at Dalmellington Primary School. The Primary pupils decided after a vote that they liked There are Cats in this book best. After the stories our pupils gave the visitors juice and biscuits. The winning readers were Rachael, Demi and Robbie. The other readers were Joe, Kyle and Robert.

Copenhagen presentation

Copenhagen trip on Prezi

Use arrow keys to click through this prezi.

New Football books

Loads of new books in stock today. World Cup 2010, Famous Football Stars, The story of Rangers, The story of Celtic, Manchester United, Liverpool. Plus books on Crocodiles, NASCAR racing, manga and comics.

Carnegie Medal Shadowing

This year for the first time, we are sadowing the Carnegie Medal as a class activity with Mrs Dorans' S2 class. They came into the library the day the shortlists came out and personalised our Shadowing Group home page, had a look at the shortlisted titles, found out more about individual titles and told other members about them.
To see our Shadowing site click here.

April book

The book the staff group read in April was The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.
On the whole the group really enjoyed it, but there were a few quibbles about perceived gaps in the plot. We would have liked to know more about the housemaid who was narrating the story. We felt that she actually had a more interesting life than the aristocratic sisters she was serving. We wanted to know more about her later life and her family. However the bits about life below stairs in a grand house were interesting and illuminating.

Bookmark competition

The Doon Academy winner of the National Book Tokens bookmark competition was Siobhan Robinson (S1). Her design of a bookworm and Read 15 minutes a day was felt to be the most encouraging. The runners-up were Fraser Buchanan and Shannon Brown.

In the Dark

For our March book the staff group read In the Dark by Mark Billingham. It's a fast paced detective mystery set amongst the gang culture of London with some surprising twists in the plot. Most of the group really enjoyed the book, especially as the setting was so different from here. It was also complete different from our previous book, Who's that girl?
At the meeting we swopped some of our own books too. One Day by David Nicholls is working its way around the group having been highly recommended. The Harry Hole series of Norwegian crime thrillers by Jo Nesbo is also popular.

S1 Readers' Cup

Raecar, the winners!


Thursday 18th March saw the S1 round of the Readers' Cup competition. Teams from all 4 clans answered questions on Cathy MacPhail,Christmas, Baddies, Families and of course the Lucky dip round. Raecar led from the start and were clear winners. Bradan and Doon fought neck and neck until Doon ended up 2 points ahead in the final round.

The results were First Raecar, then Doon, Braddan and Finlas.

As usual, between round the audience had a chance to test their knowledge and answer some of the questions.

Congratulations and well done to all who took part.

Some of the winning team will go on to represent Doon Academy at the East Ayrshire final in June.




Audience participation!






During the quiz!







Raecar hard at work!

Theresa Breslin

A group of S2 pupils led by Miss Borthwick and Mrs Bax travelled to Kilmarnock Acacemy to hear the famous author Theresa Breslin talk about her work. She told us about using solid objects like shrapnel and gas masks to help with her ideas for stories. She explained about the 3Ps that she uses - People, Place and Plot, which are the ingredients of a good story. Ms Breslin read excerpts from Remembrance Divided City and told the pupils about the background to the stories. To help keep everyone interested there was a raffle with her books as prizes.
At the end she signed pictures of her book covers. Ross Tait asked a question and won a signed poster of Divided City.

Readers' Cup S2

Friday 12th March saw the hotly contested S2 round of the Readers' Cup quiz. The question topics were Keith Gray, Lucky dip, Crime & detectives, Horror and Scottish connections. The quiz was closely contested until the last rounds when leaders started to emerge. The winners were Raecar with a clear lead of 3 points over their next rival Doon. Thanks for S6 pupils for marking the quizzes.

Keith Gray trip

On Tuesday 9th March, Mrs Dorans' S2 class went to Auchinleck Academy to hear the famous author Keith Gray. Keith was very entertaining and told stories about his childhood adventures, travelling with his friend to Keith in Scotland and being a bear in a carnival parade. He also read from some of his books. Everyone enjoyed the event and thought he was great fun.

Cathy MacPhail visits Doon

The famous author Cathy MacPhail visited our library on Monday 8th March and spoke to S1 as well as some visitors from Auchinleck Academy as part of our Spring Read programme. Cathy chatted to pupils for an hour on her books, how she gets her ideas and what makes a good story. She has inspired some of our budding writers to put pen to paper.

Michael Rosen event

Click here to go to the BBC Author Live event and see Michael Rosen talking.

"Although he claims to have become a children's poet by accident he's become a great performer of his own work and is guaranteed to engage and entertain the audience. Michael will be telling stories from his childhood and performing a selection of his poems."

Spring Read Logo Competition

The lucky winner of the Logo Competition was Liam Haining S3. The runners-up were Siobhan Robinson and Nicky Fairbairn, both in S1. Well done to all of them.

February staff book

The Staff Group book for February is Who's that girl? by Alexandra Potter. A rom/com which looks at what might happen if you could turn back time. The perfect antidote to stress!

New books

Lots of new stock coming in soon! vampires, fantasy, long books, short books, something for everyone - hopefully.

Christmas books

Our usual Christmas party produced some interesting and different offerings from Santa.
Melissa Benn - One of us
Barbara Kingsolver - The bean tree
Cecelia Ahearn - A place called here.
Lots of reading time over the Christmas holidays!