Solar Boat Challenge Update
The Grade 5 students continue to prepare for the Solar Boat Challenge. This challenge is not only a boat race, but it incorporates many different scientific and engineering elements including density, volume, buoyancy and drag alongside engineering concepts of design and construction. When designing and building the boats, children are following strict guidelines to adhere to competition rules regarding dimensions and the inclusion of specific elements (e.g. passengers).
In preparation for the big race we require a testing area for the students to trial, alter and improve their boat design and capabilities. If you have an inflatable pool that we could borrow, please speak with any of the Grade 5 teachers, or bring the pool into school.
Once the boats are made and tested at school, the students will need to determine which teams will represent Fairfield PS in the Solar Boat Challenge. To do this, the students will head to Northcote Aquatic Centre on Wednesday 14 September. Excursion details will be available in Compass soon.
Click to find out more information about the Solar Boat Challenge.
~ Grade 5 Team – Aaron, Alison and Nicole
Book Fair Success
Thank you to all the families who supported the book fair, it was a wonderful success. When purchases are made, our school receives 20% back to supplement our literacy programs. We use this funding to purchase books for the library, buy texts for our literacy program, and add to our home reading collections. This saves our school thousands of dollars.
Book Parade and Activity Day: Wednesday 24 August
We are looking forward celebrating our annual Book Character Parade and Literacy Activity Day this coming Wednesday. The book parade will commence at 9am and children may choose to dress up for the parade and/or display their book of choice.
After the parade the children will be placed in mixed grade levels to explore one of the shortlisted books. We’re excited to see the array of costumes and the collaborative work that comes from the literature activities.
Time to Return Overdue Library Books
We are advising all families to check for overdue school library books. At the moment, there are close to 200 books past their due date. This equates to around $2,000 of missing inventory. Overdue books become a problem as it disadvantages children when catalogued books are no longer available.
We request that all overdue library books be returned to the library as soon as possible. Next week, we will send home individual notes for any outstanding items requesting that they either be returned or replaced.