5/6 Warren
Semester One, 2018
Getting to know you...
It has been a great year thus far.
I have had the pleasure to get to know every student in my class and we have had some great times and laughs! Some students also have very special nicknames that they have picked up along the way.
It is a place where we are PROACTIVE, where we can LAUGH and ENJOY ourselves. It is also a place where we are expected to better ourselves make the right choices for ourselves and our learning.
We have learned to lead, supported others, explored the rainforest, swam and ran together and have work tirelessly on our school projects.
I look forward to what Semester Two brings us!
Dates to Remember
Term 2
End of Semester Assembly - Thursday Week 9
Fair Rewards Day - Friday Week 9
Stage 3 Spelling Bee - Tuesday Week 10
SRC Wacky Wednesday, 3-6 Parent Teacher Interviews - Wednesday Week 10
Jump Rope for Heart, Stage 3 Puberty Day - Thursday Week 10
Last Day Term 2 - Friday Week 10
Term 3
Week 1
July 23 - Staff Development Day
July 26 - Athletics Carnival
Week 2 - Book Fair Week
July 31 - ICAS English
Week 3 - Education Week
August 7 - NAIDOC Day
August 8 - School Disco
August 9 - SRC Pyjama Day
Week 4
August 14 - NRL Clinics Begin, ICAS Mathematics
Further Dates to look for:
-Walkathon
-Gillawarna
-Swim Scheme
Safer Internet Day and the Parramatta Eels
Early in the year, students participated in an Internet Safety Awareness Seminar whereby they talked about the importance of being safe in the cyber universe.
As student use of social media is ever growing - we focused on abiding by the law and waiting till you are the legal age to open an account, having accounts on private and also never sharing important information or locations on the internet - one interesting thing we discovered is that if you were to upload a picture of yourself in school uniform, with your school emblem visible on a public forum, it is possible to back track and find the location of that student and possibly more information.
HOW SCARY!
Later on the Parramatta Eels (Mr Pitts favourite day in Term one) came to talk to use about good sportsmanship and the importance of respect on and off the field.
As always their presentation was informative and also very closely linked to our FAIR rules. Here's hoping that throughout the year we can behave like professional sportsman that abide by the rules and support others.
Stage 3 Leadership Excursion
As an introduction to the leadership expectations of a Stage 3 Student, knowing that they would soon be leaders for Peer Support sessions in Term 2, students had the chance to visit the Wooglemai Outback Activities Camp.
Students discussed qualities of leadership and what they thought made a good leader.
Most importantly, students participated in a variety of activities that required teamwork and communication. Some activities included keeping a soccer ball off the ground and moving constantly for more than a minute, bush walking and building a crate tower which one student had to climb. The highest crate amount was 13 crates!
Fairvale 2018 Swimming Carnival
In February, we held our annual Swimming Carnival.
As always there were rotational activities that included both land and water activities.
Overall, it was a great day with students and teachers enjoying themselves and many achievements were made both personal achievements in some students overcoming their fear of the 'deep end' of the pool or athletic achievements in placing in multiple races!
Congratulations to winning house - Sturt!
Meet Our Families Afternoon
Meet Our Families is a chance for parents to get to know their child's teacher for the year and ask them any questions.
Many turned up to hear about BYOD, ask questions and listen to what was in store and expected of their child.
It was great to meet so many parents that took such a keen interest in the child's learning.
High School Preparations
As always, preparation for High School for our Year 6 students starts early.
Students were given:
-High School Enrolment Interest Forms
- Fairvale Gifted and Talented Applications
It is important to have the 'High School' conversation with your child about where they will be attending and upcoming events.
Many students find they are surprised by the local school that they are to enrol in unless enrolling in a selective school or program. It is important to understand that some schools may not accept an application for many reasons such as location of the school.
Congratulations to those students who have been accepted to a selective high school or program!!
Keep a look out for Fairvale High School or other High School transition programs.
Harmony Day, Sorry Day, Stomp Out the Gap! and Refugee Week
Harmony Day was another great day where we celebrated the individuality of each student and their culture.
It was a day where we recognise the significant impact that every culture has had in creating and modernising the Australian Culture.
Sorry Day and Stomp out the Gap are other important days that we celebrated this term. We recognised the reason for Sorry Day, that we recognise the terrible events of the past and recognise the Stolen Generation. Stomp Out the Gap was a day where we recognised the gap that is evident in Aboriginal Education and how informing us of this Gap and doing everything we can to support the closing of this gap is important to our future!
Refugee Week is another important week that we, at Fairvale recognise, being that so many in our community have a refugee or migrant background. It is important to education students and communities of the problems in our society/world and enlighten them as to how they can help and support people coming to the country or in or communities.
Easter Hat Parade
Our Easter Hat Parade was an excellent way to end Term 1.
It allowed classes to work together to help each other build a hat from scratch and decorate it - displaying what Easter means to them.
The Easter Bunny even made an appearance!!
Cross Country Carnival, 2018
Our Cross Country Carnival is a great day out!
It gives us a chance to get out doors and run. Each age group is instructed to run a certain amount of laps to equivalate to a certain distance.
It was pretty hot this day! So much so, that instead of going midday like we were supposed to, we left first thing in the morning. The rest of the day we got to rest and relax because we were absolutely annihilated from exhaustion.
Congratulations to the winning house - Macquarie!
Kids and Blokes Night, 2018
Kids and Blokes was a night that was open to parents and students from K-2.
It was a great afternoon of parents taking a time out to play games and sports with their kids. With all the daily tasks that are asked of us, its hard to take time out and give time solely to the kids.
The afternoon was a great success!
Look out! There may be an invitation soon for a 3-6 event!
ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day is where we celebrate the lives we have today and the success of our country.
Above all we dedicate our countries success to those who gave their lives for us in World War One.
We remember the soldiers, men, women and children who toiled through hard times, war, loss and fought for our freedom and the joys we have today.
It was a beautiful ceremony, held on a gorgeous autumns day. The sun shone on the wreaths that students had made and the birds sang as we listened in respect to the Last Post.
Peer Support
Peer Support was a chance for Stage 3 students to demonstrate leadership skills and teach their understanding of the FAIR rules.
Students first day back in Term 2 was a training day. In which students learnt about the content that they would be teaching others and also the games which they could play with their groups to encourage participation, fun and teamwork.
Overall the students have done an amazing job this term and have continued to develop quality leadership skills.
Fairvale Buddy Program
This Term 5/6 Warren have worked weekly with K Brennan.
We have made Easter Hats, read books, played games, used laptops and helped students in recognising letters and sounds.
At first, it was absolute chaos. Students were everywhere! But now we have our groove and our buddies have gotten to know us really well. It is a pleasure to work with them!
We will keep working hard and teaching them new things as they work their way closer to Year 1.
ICAS Assessments
ICAS 2018 began early this term.
It is a voluntary paid test which students are assessed against other students in their grade across the country.
The subject areas are:
Digital Technologies, Science, Spelling, Writing, English and Mathematics.
Our school regularly takes part in these tests and it is amazing to see our students results!
Good luck to Christopher and Aidan!
Two students in 5/6W who participated in these tests.
NAPLAN
Ah...NAPLAN… that time of year students fear!
NAPLAN at Fairvale was an online test for Year 5 students this year. It is also how it will probably run for future tests as well.
Students did their best possible.
Our school was even filmed by SBS with some students being interviewed.
We all await your results!
Premier's Reading Challenge, Sporting Challenge and Spelling Bee
Reading
It is imperative that students are reading regularly from varying genres in order to support learning in Literacy.
Student begin to recognise and use new words, assisting in writing and also spelling knowledge.
Sports
This challenge encourages students to participate in regular physical activity.
Students select a certain level of activity if they were able to fulfil the 20 minute per day fitness challenge.
Spelling
Our Spelling Bee is to be held in Week 10, Term 2.
Class finalists to be selected soon...
Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition, 2018
This term it was mandatory that every student in years 3-6 prepared, wrote and presented a speech for the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition.
There were many topics to choose from. With the most popular being 'Dreaming for the Future', 'Australia Day' and 'Racism isn't bullying'.
Each class was to choose two class finalists, who were to then present their speech at the stage finals.
The stage finalists were then taken to Guildford Public School where the local finals were held. Trinity, Joanne, Aydin and Tien presented beautifully at a competition were the standard was high. We left extremely proud of ourselves.
With Joanne a joint Runner Up and Trinity winning the Stage 3 competition. Trinity will now continue onto the regional level.
5/6 Warren's Sustainable Garden
Fairvale has a garden competition this year.
The Fairvale Sprouts are on the look out for a sustainable garden that includes recycled art.
We have two vegetable garden beds and a flower bed, as well as creating Baby Bot - a Baby for Grow Betty and Grow Bot
Chess Club
Chess Club has made a comeback this year!!
We have a lot of students in our class that are participating...their challenge is to beat Miss Wulf - as that hasn't been achieved yet.
You never know...there might be one talented chess player at Fairvale who may be the first.
We may also be participating in a chess competition in Term 3...that will be really exciting!
English
We have worked hard in English this semester.
We have worked at writing persuasively and imaginatively.
We have focused on using vivid language to help improve our use of synonyms and better our descriptions.
We have also worked on quality conversations and the use of peer feedback to help us improve our work.
We have learnt it is important to re read and look for edits as usually our work can be lacking unless we look first.
Mathematics
We have worked really hard in Maths this semester.
Although we may know a lot of skills, we have been focusing on the ability to explain HOW we use those skills and HOW we reach our answers.
Our brains hurt from all the justifying Miss Wulf makes us do.
But we realise this is important because how can we explain it, if we don't really know what we are doing.
We have completed Taking Off With Numeracy (TOWN), Number Talk and Numeracy Ninja lessons. All focus on us explaining our skills or working towards expanding our skills.
Students have also been partaking in mathematical investigations. One such investigation involved using the formula for the volume of a cylinder. We had to find how we could fill a sink hole.
It initiated a heated debate among a small group of students.
Geography
We have learnt about the structure and importance of Rainforests for our environment and the roll they play in our lives - even if we don't realise it!
We even got to go to Bola Creek Rainforest and Garie Beach to see how two very different ecosystems could coexist so close together.
It was also a chance to get real life context to out learning.
Ranger Jamie was great... as usual!!
We got to go bush walking, bug catching, fishing and learnt about the important flora and fauna that live in these environments and how they have changed/adapted over the years.
STEM - The Road to Less Rubbish
This year we have implemented a new unit into our learning that involves STEMpathy.
It is where we use STEM knowledge to help is build a possible solution to a social problem.
Our problem at school....GARBAGE!
First we had to be hooked in... in come the Mystery Boxes! These boxes had random bits of garbage. We talked about how we felt and why we felt this way leading to why is it not ok to drop garbage on the ground?
Then we went to Orphan Creek to see the impact that garbage had on an environment that was impacted by our school and community.
IT WAS GROSS!! There was a toilet in the creek... and a trolley....and a car... like how does that happen!!??
We surveyed what we saw both at the creek and at school to help us with data and research. Because now that we understood and recognised that we had an issue - we began to research for deeper information on how our garbage and actions affect the environment. We then presented out information in an infographic poster.
Our next task was to sharestorm ideas/inventions that we could create that could solve or assist in solving the issue.
5/6 W had great ideas which had to be presented and critiqued by classmates. Groups then had to use their critiques to see if improvements were needed for their product,
We are now up to building our prototypes and making out plans a reality!
Ready for the STEM Showcase in Term 3!
Rocketing Around the School with Mr Pitt
Mr Pitt came to our classroom this Term.
We used this time to show him out STEM creations.
Mr Pitt involved himself in conversations with the students about their critiques and how they were valid, considerable or useless. How could they be used to improve the quality/efficiency of the product?
The students really enjoyed having Mr Pitt in the classroom and discussing their work and ideas.
Fitness
Exercise!
It is imperative that students are regularly exercising to learn habits for a healthy lifestyle and also just to keep fit.
We have participated in swimming carnivals, cross country running, jump rope for heart skipping and regular Friday sport.
Miss Wulf also introduced us to burpees, squats, planks, pushups and more.
It is basically like boot camp when we do sport/fitness with Miss Wulf.
But we are better for it...because each time we can do more and more and last longer before we require a rest period.
Farewells
This year we will be saying many farewells.
Miss Cameron has moved on to another school.
Mr Frank changed jobs.
Mrs Worby got a promotion at another school.
Miss Byrne is leaving us at the end of this term!!
We also have many teachers who will be leaving this year to begin their families.
We wish them all the best and will miss them terribly! They all put such hard work into our school and always have the students best wishes at heart!
Good Luck in the future!!
Looking to the future...
I look forward to all we will experience and achieve next semester as we come ever closer to the end of our time together in room 24.
But Don't Worry...Be Happy!!
Fairvale Public School
Fairvale Public School was established in 1956. The school is one of four public schools serving the inner area of Fairfield City. Our vision is to provide each student with a quality education in a safe and positive environment
Email: fairvale-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: http://www.fairvale-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/
Location: 83-99 Wolseley Street, Fairfield, 2165
Phone: 9724 3470
Twitter: @fairvaleps