Ice Skating

On Thursday Totara 2 got to go ice skating at the inflatable ice skating rink that came to town. We all had fun but found it really challenging! Unfortunately poor Jessie fell over and fractured not one but TWO of her wrists. We hope you are feeling better soon Jessie!!

Shantytown Visit

This week Totara 2 and 3 went to Shantytown. We studied the law of the Goldrush and what life was like in the 1800's.
We learnt about why settlers came to the West Coast and what the conditions they lived in were like. We also went on the steam train and got robbed at gun point. We had to describe who robbed us to the Police Officer and see if we could find the suspect and get him locked up in jail. Lastly we had a court case where Paris was accused of stealing a pocket watch when she was wiping the tables down in the saloon. Maya was her lawyer and had to convince the judge and the jury that she was innocent. Unfortunately, Jimmy was a far too good prosecutor and the jury found Paris guilty and she was charged with stealing and sent to prison for 6 months! We had a great day!
Check out our slide below to see some of the photos of our awesome day!

Space Reports

We started this term out of this world! We have been looking at Space and the planets in our Solar System. We had a number of activities that we needed to complete which were on the Space Site https://sites.google.com/a/greymain.school.nz/space/?pli=1
One of our tasks was to write a report on a planet in our Solar System. Click on our names to read our reports.

Kindness

Check out this act of Kindness! Paris saw that Royden was writing on his blog and was having trouble reading what he had to write next, so without even thinking she went over and helped him write his report on his blog.  Thank you Paris for always thinking of others and showing kindness. You truly are a great Grey Main role model!

Plotting Coordinates

We have been learning how to plot coordinates. For this activity we had to draw and label our axis and then plot the coordinates to create the picture. Some of us found it hard in the beginning because we forgot that we have to go along the axis first, before we went up or down. Check out some of our blogs for our pwn finished products!

Goodbye Ellie!

Today is a sad day in Totara 2 and 3. Our favourite Teacher Aide Ellie is leaving us. Thank you for all the hard work you have done for us Ellie. We will miss the fun, laughter and hugs you gave us. All the very best for your new venture and don't worry, we will all come and visit. Love you x

Ellie with Summer and Nic and the awesome picture she gave us for our new space.

#WWED

Congratulations Jessie!

Grey Main's Got Talent has been going for the last few weeks and today in assembly the winner was announced. 4 children showcased their exceptional talent! Kyle started off by playing the piano, Alyssa sang Skinny Love, Kyra danced to People Help the People and Jessie sang If I Ain't Got You. The competition was fierce but our very own Jessie took out the title of the Winner of Grey Main's Got Talent 2017. Jessie we are SO proud of you!!

PrEP Blog

PrEP has started at Grey Main School! Follow our PrEP blog to keep up to date on all of our ventures!

PrEP Blog Link

The Maze

Toady the Totara Hub was invited to the High School to participate in a workshop they had set up called 'The Maze'. During our time there we learnt how barcodes work, we got to experiment with coding and playing 3-D games, use motion sensors and we even witnessed a 3-D printer in action! This was a really good opportunity for us to think about the new digital curriculum and what we will be able to do when we head to High School. 

Manners Matter

Manners are one of the most important things we need to have in life. As well as following the Grey Main Way, we need to remember that Manners Matter. This week in Totara 2, we are really focusing on using our manners. It is really important that we use our manners towards all adults in the school as well as each other.

Potato Planting

Spring has sprung! Yesterday afternoon we went out to the garden with Mr B and he showed us how to plant potatoes so the Year 8's can eat them at their Year 8 leavers dinner. We found it really interesting learning about how potatoes go to seed and how the grow off each other. We decided that they might need a helping hand so we sprinkled potato fertiliser on them too (but don't tell Kevin!) We are going to keep an eye on them and our next project is planting corn into pots and letting it grow in the greenhouses until we can plant them in our very own corn patch. 

We have also decided that a part of the garden needs a really good tidy so we are going to do that too! Watch this space!

Maths Week

Last week was Maths Week and at Grey Main we had a number of activities that were organised and run by Miss Power. We really enjoyed completing these activities and in particular the West-a-maths competition that we had on Friday. We were randomly split into teams of 3 or 4 and as teams we had to solve maths problems. In order for us to get to the next questions we had to answer the question correctly or we could pass on the question. Congratulations to the winning team who scored 100 points in under 30 minutes. (100 points means they got all of the questions correct and didn't pass a question)!

Class Ambassadors

Introducing our new class ambassadors... Maya and Mya! 

These two fantastic learners were chosen by Totara 2 to represent our class and Grey Main School. Both Maya and Mya are fantastic learners both in and out of the classroom. They take on responsibilities around the school and are always willing to give people a hand. Mya and Maya take every opportunity that is given to them and they always do it with a smile on their face! Congratulations girls, you truly are great ambassadors for our school!

Matariki

We have been celebrating Matariki in Totara 2. One of the school wide tasks was to choose one of the 9 Matariki stars and create a banner representing that star. We chose Waita as our star. Waita is the star that represents the ocean and all of the food sources that are found in the ocean. We decided to create a fun Nemo theme. Ella led the way and managed this project. Thanks for all your hard work Ella, we couldn't have done it without you! Come into school to see all of the classes banners which are being hung around the school!

Homework Draw Term 2

Congratulations to Holly who won the homework draw and chose to take Yana out for lunch to McDonalds. Holly has worked really hard this term and every time she completed her homework, she got a token to go in the draw. Her hard work has paid off! Thanks for an enjoyable lunch girls!

Indoor Bowls

On Thursday's we are lucky to have Vern Goodall volunteer his time and teach some of the Totara learners how to play indoor bowls. We thought playing bowls would be easy but we have found that it can be quite complicated and it takes a lot of skill to get it right. The bowls are weighted and in order to get it in the right place you need to aim almost in the opposite direction to get it where you want it.

We are hoping to get ready for a competition with some of the other schools around Greymouth. We think it would be a lot of fun!