Scottish Children’s Book Awards
Younger readers (8-11)
Activities to get your pupils excited about this year’s shortlist
Contents
Who are these resources for?
1
Activities for Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens
2
Activities for Pyrates Boy
3
Activities for Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion
5
Get your school excited about the books
7
Get your school excited about voting
9
Enter our competitions
10
Resources for additional support needs
10
Further tasks
10
Appendix 1 – Comparing and contrasting the books
12
Who are these resources for?
These resources are designed to be of use to any primary teacher looking to assimilate the 8-11
books into the curriculum, and also to create a buzz about the shortlisted titles and SCBA. They
can also be used by local librarians who want to find some fun activity suggestions for the books.
1
Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex
McCall
Create your own monster Eng 2-31a, Lit 2-28a
Chickens are not the first animal you’d associate with world domination. Ask your pupils to
pick a docile animal and try to turn it into a monster. They need to think about the
following:
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The chickens can use their beaks to peck through concrete. What can their animal do?
The chickens can fire lasers from their eyes. What extra powers would they give their
animal?
Which cities does their animal army attack? They could create a map display, giving
information about the cities, including famous buildings which are destroyed by the
animal invaders.
After this, they can write the opening chapter of a novel featuring their monster.
Survive the animal apocalypse Lit 2-03a, MLN 3-13a, Tch 2-12a, Tch 2-14a, HWB 2-21a,
HWB 2-25a
How would your pupils survive the attack and defeat the animals they created in the
activity above? Get them to think about the following:
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Where would they find food?
How would they get the word out about their survival tactics? They could create a radio
broadcast giving others advice and information. Get them to try producing a very basic
version in a foreign language, warning people in other countries about the attack by
giving basic facts. Then, why not ask them to use the audio from their English
broadcast as part of a book trailer (see page 9)?
Ask pupils to construct a shelter from recycled materials.
Ask pupils to find out who should be the sprinters in their group responsible for
distracting the monsters. They can time each other sprinting and have races, then
calculate each other’s speed by measuring the distance and dividing it by the time
taken. After this, they can find out how they can improve their running speed by
adjusting breathing and posture. The video below will be a useful starting point:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Ly_AskujE
If you liked Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens
Check out our list of survival stories: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/booklists/9-books-about-survival-8-11
Pyrates Boy by E.B. Colin
Talk like a pirate/write your own swashbuckling story Lit 2-14a, Eng 2-31a
Ask your pupils to take a look at some phrases in standard English and translate them into
pirate speak using this website: http://bit.ly/PirateSpeak. They can come up with some
pirate phrases, and see if the rest of the group can guess what they mean.
After this, they can write a story or drama script involving pirates under attack from the
British Navy, using their knowledge of pirate lingo to add realism! They should think or find
out about the following things:
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What kind of things would pirates do to defend themselves? What kind of weaponry
would they have on board?
What would the British Navy ship look like? What uniforms would the officers wear?
What would a pirate do to help weaker members of the crew (think of James and how
young and frightened he is)?
What objects would a pirate take cover behind?
How would they prepare to make a quick getaway?
Eat like a pirate HWB 2-29a
Pirates would often rely on sea biscuits when no other food was available. You can find
out how to make sea biscuits here: http://speechsnacks.com/2013/09/celebrateinternational-pirate-day-talk-plank-pirate-game/
3
Pirate maths MNU 2-03a
Ask pupils to make up some pirate themed maths problems for their peers. For instance,
their problems could ask others to divide up treasure, calculate the speed of a ship,
calculate the time it would take to get to a particular destination, and so on.
Write a slave poem Eng 2-31a, Lit 2-14a
Ask pupils to imagine they are slaves on a plantation in the Caribbean, and get them to
write a poem describing their experiences, thoughts and feelings. They should think about
the following things:
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How did they end up becoming a slave?
What were conditions like on board the ships which transported them to the Caribbean?
Where did they end up? They should write some descriptive words to describe the town at
which they disembarked the ship, and some words to describe the plantation.
How did their owners treat them? How did they see them – as a human being with thoughts
and feelings?
Did anything give them hope and strength to carry on through their ordeal?
The following videos will help you find out more about slavery:
Slaves’ experiences of the plantations: http://bit.ly/BBCabolition
How slaves coped: http://bit.ly/CopingWithSlavery
Further
Why not hold a pirate week, where you combine all the above activities? You could ask
pupils to show younger classes how to draw pirates, or read pirate themed stories to them
(see our pirate book lists for younger children below). Invite parents or another class in to
sample your pirate food and read the pupils’ stories and poems. Pupils could design
promotional materials or create a book trailer for Pyrates Boy to show at the event(see the
book trailer section on page 9 for more information).
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If you liked Pyrates Boy...
Why not check out our list of other pirate books?
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/shiver-me-timbers-8-11
If you want to find some pirate stories for pupils to share with young ones or their siblings,
have a look at our pirates list for younger readers:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/avast-10-books-about-pirates-3-7
Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion by
Alexander McCall Smith
Help Teddy survive in the wild Lit 2-14a, Lit 2-28a
Conservationists often need to keep a close eye on animals that have been re-introduced
into the wild, to make sure they are learning the skills they need to survive.
Ask pupils to imagine they are writing a guide for a conservationist, explaining what to look
for when assessing Teddy’s progress. They should think and find out about the following
things:
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What kind of skills will Teddy need to learn in order to hunt?
Which animals will Teddy be hunting?
What other animals will he be competing with for food? How can he deal with this problem?
What potential dangers will he face (from humans and other animals)?
What skills will he need to learn in order to be a father to his own cubs, and to lead his own
pride?
BBC Worldwide’s YouTube channel has lots of useful videos about lions – why not search
the channel and see what you can find? http://bit.ly/YTbbcWorldwide
To hear more about conservation around the world, check out our Authors Live video with
Steve Backshall: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/video/authors-live-steve-backshall
5
Make a world map of predators Tch 2-03a, Tch 2-04a, Lit 2-14a, Lit 2-25a
Ask pupils to find out where different predatory animals live. They can make a custom world map
with locations of predators, including photos, information they have found out, videos, and
interesting links.
It’s easy to make a customised Google map: you need to create a Google account, so you could
set up a class account to ensure privacy. Ask pupils to create a catchy title for your map as a class:
they can try using alliteration or adjectives to make the title memorable.
Find out how to create a Google account here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUnv8JdxF24
And find out how to make custom maps here:
http://www.google.co.uk/earth/outreach/tutorials/custommaps.html
The whole class can collaborate on a Google Map at the same time and each person can save as
they make changes.
Pupils can include the following information:
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Whether the animal is endangered;
What is being done to protect it;
Whether it lives close to humans, and what you can do to keep yourself out of danger;
Why it is important to the local ecosystem.
They can take this further by investigating how you would get to these countries and how long it
would take via different modes of transport.
As a transition project, or as a reciprocal project between classes, each class could make a
different map. One could make a predator map, and one can create a conservation map, i.e., a
map featuring different conservation projects to protect endangered animals around the world.
If you liked Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion...
You might find something else to read in our list of books set in Africa:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/7-books-set-in-africa-8-11
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Get your school excited about the books
There are plenty of ways for your group of pupils to create a buzz about the awards. Here
are a few!
Setting up different types of book groups Lit 2-11a, Lit 2-02a, Lit 2-09a

A parent-child book group: you could ask the pupils to read the shortlisted titles along with
their parents, and then ask pupils and parents to email book reviews to the school. You
could then collate the reviews into a booklet.
 A teacher-pupil book group: have a look at our free Teachers as Readers e-book
(particularly chapter 12) for more info on modelling yourself as a reader:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/CPD/toolkits/teachers-as-readers
 A Transition book group: why not invite some of the P7s from cluster primaries to
come in and discuss the 8-11 titles with secondary pupils? You could get seniors to
introduce the P7 pupils to the secondary library.
Get them talking about the books – part 1 Lit 2-04a, Lit 2-16a
You can use our worksheet as a starting point for comparing and contrasting – see
Appendix 1 on page 11.
Alternatively, you can use the suggestions below:
Ask your pupils to compare the opening pages of each book. You could do this through the
following activities;
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Ask them to mindmap all the questions raised by each opening section;
Ask them to write down all the impressions of character;
Ask them which book they would be most likely to read, and why;
Ask the pupils to compare the openings with the openings of other books they have
read.
7
Get them talking about the books – part 2 Lit 2-02a, Lit 2-09a
The following activity is a good way to get pupils talking about the books. You may want to
enter the SCBA review competition with pupils before doing this activity, as they may have
a stronger idea of what they liked and disliked about each book after reviewing. You’ll find
out more about the competition on the SCBA homepage: http://bit.ly/SCBAhome
 First of all, divide your classroom into 3 ‘stations’, one for each of the 3 books (this
could be as simple as putting up a sign indicating the position of each station);
 Ask pupils to go to the station representing the book they liked best;
 After this, there are different options – you could ask pupils to discuss their reasons
with each other and feed back to the class, or take different pupils from each station
and put them together into debating groups of 3 or 4 to make their case for their
favourite book. You can use our worksheet in Appendix 1 on page 11 to support
pupils with comparing and contrasting the books, and you can modify the table to
include different points of comparison – for instance, character, plot, setting,
beginning and ending, etc.
Create a marketing campaign for each book Eng 2-27a, Exa 2-14a
Rival pupils try to persuade others that their book is the best. Put a ballot box in every
classroom and get pupils (and other teachers) to cast their votes too!
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Ask pupils to write their own blurbs for the books, and get them to present these to
their audience;
Ask pupils to make a book trailer for each book (see the book trailer section on
page 9);
Ask pupils to create a dramatic sketch introducing the books and act it out.
Create posters with taglines Eng 2-27a, Exa 2-02a
Ask your pupils to create posters for the books, thinking about the following:
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Taglines – how much of the plot should be revealed in the tagline? How long should
a tagline be? Have a look at some examples – what do you want to know after
reading them?
Ghosts of the Forest - http://bit.ly/ghostscover
Skulduggery Pleasant - http://bit.ly/skulduggerycover
Out of the Depths - http://bit.ly/outofthedepthscover
George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt: http://bit.ly/georgecover
Draw in potential readers Lit 2-11a
Pupils can choose a section from the book which they feel will draw readers in, make a
copy of the page(s) and display this in the library.
Further ideas
For some more ideas about getting the whole school excited about books, check out our
guide to creating a reading culture in your school, with lots of practical ideas:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/whole-school-reading
Get your school excited about voting
For some great ideas to make the voting process lively and fun for your pupils, take a look
at this blog: http://bit.ly/scbavoting
Celebrating the announcement
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You can find out the results live through SBT’s Twitter feed. Why not set up a school
account for teacher use only, and then display SBT’s Twitter feed live on your whiteboard?
https://twitter.com/scottishbktrust Getting started with Twitter is easy – see this guide:
http://bit.ly/TwitterforBeginners
9
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Every year SBT commissions an artist to design trophies for the awards. Ask your pupils to
design a trophy for the winning author. They may want to think about how the design can
reflect one or more of the main features of the awards: the fact that they are voted for
entirely by children and the fact that schools and libraries all over Scotland take part. They
will also have to think about how to make it clear that the awards celebrate books and
writers.
Enter our competitions
Every year we run two competitions connected to SCBA: a review competition, and a book
trailer competition. You’ll find details on the SCBA homepage at: http://bit.ly/SCBAhome.
How to get started with book trailers
Book trailers are a fantastic way to get pupils engaging with books: they encourage
meaningful use of ICT and challenging pupils’ critical understanding of what they read.
Scottish Book Trust has made a series of videos available which explain how to construct
a book trailer. You’ll also find links to a wealth of further resources on the same page,
including a full unit of work and a link to some example book trailers:
http://bit.ly/booktrailermasterclass
Resources for additional support needs
Teachers and librarians can request accessible copies of the shortlisted titles from CALL
Scotland. Sign up to their newsletter to be informed when these are available:
http://callcentre.education.ed.ac.uk/Home/
Further tasks
Shared reading
Shared reading is a wonderful project which involves older pupils reading to younger ones.
You can set up a project where P7s read to P1s, using the 3 books shortlisted in the 3-7
10
age category (every P1 child in Scotland receives these around November). For more
information, including video case studies and suggested activities, check out this page:
http://bit.ly/Sharedreading
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Appendix 1 – Comparing and contrasting the books
Book
Front cover
Blurb
Opening line
12