Bring back the canteen?

We are writing expositions during writing this term (you may have read Alex's). To strengthen our arguements we are putting in data to support our evidence. Just as well we are doing statistics for Maths then!

One of the possible topics for writing the boys decided on was the bringing back of the canteen. Could you please click on the link below and fill out the quick survey.

Do you want a healthy canteen at GMS

First Crossings

Wow! Did you see "First Crossings" on TV1 last night. 2 Kiwi fellas reinacted the first east-west crossing via the Whitcombe

 Fitzgerald and Biggar were the two fellas.  They were the first Kiwis to walk to the South Pole unaided (Fitzgerald even trekked the last half of the 1200km journey with a torn hamstring) and they also set a new world record for rowing across the Atlantic in 2003.


Click her for the newspaper article for the Wellington Dominion Stuff article
Here's some extra bits from EP1 Episode 1 extras

Syndicate 4 PrEP Currency Competition

Below is the best of the possible PrEP currencies  from Syndicate Four. Can you please vote within your classes and post the scores below. We also need to decide on a name for our currency. if you don't like any of the names of these ones you can add that below as well.

Well done to the artists of these 5 entries. After we have had a tally up I'll change the 'Option' tag to the artists' names.

Option 1 

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

When you want to post. Add your Room number but for the URL put in your class email address but WITHOUT the @, just use a . (dot) eg; room17.greymain.school.nz

R.I.P. Margaret Mahy 21 March 1936 - 23 July 2012

Jack Lasenby pays tribute to Margaret Mahy on TV3

OLYMPICO!

With the Olympics only a few days away (starts on Friday) fellas, we are going to need a dedicated sports channel that will give us all the right sort of coverage...I just may have found it!

Outlook for Someday

I think what with all the great stuff that's happening in the garden and our Te Awa Haurora, we need to seriously enter into this competition. Alex? I think you need to assemble a crew! I have signed us up and I can give you the user name and password so that you go online and read the threads in the forum.

Outlook for Someday Website

PrEP Currency Competition

This week at GMS every student gets the chance to design a bank note and name the currency, for PrEP. In Syndicate 4 we have to design our version of the $10 note. We'll decide on Monday our classroom winners, then decide our supreme winner. The winner gets $10 extra in their pay packet for market day.

Even though I'm not allowed to enter, this is my effort. What do you think?

Biddy of the Buller

Room 8 have just commented (below) and wanted to know why I have called my currency 'Old Biddy'. An old biddy is a slang term for an old lady. However, I need to make it clear, that the old lady in question, IS NOT the lady in the picture above. The old biddy I refer to is Bridget Godwin (right). You may have seen her picture at Shantytown. She was known as 'Biddy of the Buller'.  If you remember, the name of our currency needs to relate to GMS, Greymouth, West Coast. If you want to find out more about her click on the link below.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1g14/1

Once I gather in all our efforts I'll post the ones we like the best and you can vote on them here. Oh, by the way, Barrytown school are joining us this year. I already have their entries.

UPDATE!UPDATE!UPDATE!UPDATE! UPDATE!

Here's Dakaya's cracker of an effort. He's named his 'joules'-which is a link to our science last term where we looked at joules being a measurement of 'work'.Nice one Dakaya. I reckon it's chicken dinner time, surely. What does everyone think?

Dakaya's 10 Joules Note.

GMS Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

Just incase you missed it. Here's the newsletter
GMS newsletter T3Wk1

Term 3 Art. Simple Block

You will hopefully have seen the DP1 artwork I've knocked out. To get there we need to learn a couple of skills and ideas. This first one involves just simply transferring our image onto a cardboard block (We'll extend on this in the next piece of work). Since we have an image on this block we may as well use it like a printmaking block. I've used ink, but you could simply do this with crayon-rubbing as well.

WALT: create a simple single-layered block

Drawn image and print block-with indentations just visible

First we drew a 15 x 15 cm square onto a piece of paper (this is because we got 15 of these out of a sheet of cardboard). Then  we drew over our image with the cardboard underneath so that we could see the indentations on the card. This is almost like a linocut/wood block so thats why we might as well use it to make a print.

Various prints. I had a few goes. 

I didn't go over my image again with pen, but I would recommend it. That's because in the photos you can see that the image isn't very clear in my blue ones towards the end. Going over it again as it would make your image deeper, therefore clearer.

Once the image is ready, we inked up the block and then used a CLEAN, DRY roller to go over the back of it. Sometimes I didn't ink up the image again, as there was enough ink. 

Note the words around the right way now

Print block inked up. Note the indentations

So..? What are you reading?

What are we reading? Is it any good?

Two questions. Easy. 28 posts coming up surely! (As you post, I'll put it into this blog.)

Me? I'm reading 'Tamar', by Mal Peet. Is it any good? Yes, yes it is, thank you for asking!

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal 

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War -- and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever. 

Quinn is reading...

'We Will Not Cease', by Archibald Baxter

We Will Not Cease is the record of New Zealander Archibald Baxter's brutal treatment as a conscientious objector. In 1915, when he was 33, Baxter was arrested, sent to prison, then shipped under guard to Europe, where he was forced to the front line against his will. Punished to the limits of his physical and mental endurance, Baxter was stripped of all dignity, beaten, starved, and left for dead. In a final attempt to discredit him, authorities consigned him to a mental institution, an experience that would haunt him for the rest of his life. This is a true story of extreme bravery and ultimate resolve.


Here's Aidan's graph that shows our current reading habits.