Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Lindfield Vol 22 Issue 8

Principal’s Message

By Mrs Kath Boyd

“Australia is so diverse and provides such a multicultural society that it’s part of the unique qualities about Australia. Those who have come from near and far call Australia their home and it’s our social acceptance and harmony that make Australia a better place.” (www.aussiechildcarenetwork) Here at Reddam ELS Lindfield we are fortunate to have families and staff representing over 25 nationalities! Numerous languages including Tagalog, Spanish, Italian, French, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Farsi & English are spoken by our teachers in our multicultural classrooms. We strive to embrace diversity and incorporate ideas, beliefs and people from other cultural backgrounds. Our weekly menu is intentionally multicultural, it is emailed to all families each Monday and displayed on the glass panels next to the Kitchen door.

Next Monday (21st March) we will be celebrating Harmony Day in honour of Australia’s cultural diversity.

This is a day of cultural respect for all, and the theme of Harmony Day this year is ‘everyone belongs’. By participating in Harmony Day activities, the children will continue to learn and understand how all Australians equally belong to this nation and enrich it. Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Day. Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

All the children are invited to join their teachers and wear something orange on Monday to show their support for cultural diversity and an inclusive Australia.

Each day, the teaching teams and I strive to celebrate inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for all Australians, from the traditional owners of the land to those who have come from many countries around the world. Some examples are as follows: Belonging Wall: “Thank you to all the families who have provided us with a Family Photo. From next week, our ‘Belonging Wall’ heart will be displayed. Perhaps you would like to walk in front of it with your child/ren and look for your photo? As the heart continues to grow, so will our Community’s Sense of Belonging.” (Luan - S4 Teacher & Current Enrolment Officer) Acknowledgement to Country: "I just wanted to share this beautiful moment with you both. Gracie and I were playing ‘School’ yesterday. Usually Gracie wants me to be the teacher and then she drops off her teddies, but yesterday she decided she wanted to be the teacher. After I dropped off my teddies she started circle time with them. I absolutely loved that the first thing she did was the Acknowledgement of Country. It just warmed my heart that it was the logical first step to start the day. What beautiful lessons you are teaching our little ones about being respectful and appreciating those that were on the land before us.” (Stage 3 Reddam Parent) Pictured above: Laura & Charlotte S. (4R) loving life!

Principal’s Message Continued...

By Mrs Kath Boyd

Celebration of Cultures (Projects): “Cultural celebrations foster respect and open-mindedness for other cultures, unites and educates us. The very nature of building cultural competency requires a deep understanding of our own identity, examining personal biases, prejudice and privilege (www.education.nsw.gov.au). At Reddam ELS Lindfield, we pride ourselves on educating and nurturing cultural competence in children by celebrating the broad variety of cultures at our school, including and respecting the First Nations Peoples. These form foundations in our projects and provocations and are ongoing learning experiences in our daily lives. This term, Stage 4R has been exploring a classroom member’s culture by a weekly travel to each destination. Through this, children build on their self-esteem and connect with their own self-identities as they share aspects of their culture. According to Biddle & Priest (2019) education is acknowledged as a significant determinant of health and wellbeing for children.” (Veronika - 4R Core Teacher) Multicultural Literature: “Multicultural literature is a beautiful way to broaden the children’s understanding of the world in which they live, and introduce them to the concept of diversity. As EYLF Outcome 2.2.2. states, when children explore new cultures and traditions, they are given the opportunity to develop new understandings and respect. Reading multicultural stories to children in an early learning setting, is even more important to establish an appreciation for each other’s cultures at an early age and celebrate each other’s differences. Multicultural literature can also create a community within the classroom as the children learn that not only are their differences accepted, they are embraced by their peers and often create strong friendships.” (Lauren - 4E Core Teacher) Indigenous Perspectives: “Engaging in and embedding Indigenous Perspectives within our classroom and our school community is just one of the ways to embrace diversity and demonstrate harmony within our community. By providing meaningful experiences that allow children to learn about our First Nation’s culture, children are able to remove bias and embrace one of the oldest and richest cultures in the world. Through the children’s learning journey, they are able to gain a wider sense of community, celebrate differences and recognise the importance of Indigenous culture. Within the Stage 3R classroom we have Indigenous symbols that the children created, using them to reference the different areas around the room such as our meeting place, water trolley and resting place.” (Grace - 3R Core Teacher) Drama & Inclusiveness + Harmony Day Drama Activities: “In drama classes, our children are given the opportunity to explore different stories and characters without bias. Our children feel a sense of belonging as they engage in different activities and use their creative brains alongside their peers. This Harmony Day we will be exploring the concept of ‘everyone belongs’ by compiling the foundations of drama that we have been learning over the last few weeks. The children will be challenged to create their own characters and perform in front of their peers. Everyone will bring their own experiences, interests, cultures and quirks to the characters that they create and I’m excited to see it!” (Xanthe - 2E Educator & Drama Teacher) Wishing you all a restful weekend.

Picture below: Miss Rebecca (4R) introducing Korean Traditional Hanbok

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Stage 1R

By Heather Gaskell

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” (Leonardo Da Vinci) This week we started our focus on the 5 Senses, with hearing being our first sense to explore. And why not start with the loudest one - as that sometimes is the most fun! Yes, our little ones have enjoyed being able to make lots of noise this week. We started with all the noisiest musical instruments out for a super jam session. The children became very creative in exploring the instruments and finding a new way to use them. During the week, the children had the opportunity to explore a portable guitar. They were shown how to strum the guitar and enjoyed listening to the various sounds each string made. Then they were given time to freely explore the guitar on their own and see just what sounds they could produce. This experimenting with the portable guitar helped to promote their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. Also, it involves their sensory abilities during the experience from sight to touch to hearing, such a vast range of the senses in use for this fabulous experience.

We even had a set of walkie talkies for the children to enjoy. They weren't quite sure of their function at first and kept turning them around in their hands trying to work it out. But once we started singing to them with the walkie talkies and making noises in them, they soon became very interested in what was happening. They enjoyed pressing the button on one unit so that the other unit made static noises.

To continue to promote their sense of hearing, we provided the children with a sensory tray to experiment with. There were very quiet pom poms which did not make a noise, and then there were silver jingle bells which of course made a lovely sound. The children were able to manipulate these items in the tray with scoops and tongs to see what happens when they are scoped and dropped back into the tray. They showed wonder at the tongs and made many attempts at using them in the process of moving the items around.

Next week we continue with Senses and look at the sense of sight.

Heather, Doris and Resie

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Stage 1R: I Hear with My Ears

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Stage 1R: Investigating Portable Guitar and Rubber Bands Art Experience

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Stage 1E

By Charity Acera "Alone we can do little; together we can do so much." (Helen Keller)

Helen Keller truly knew what it was like to work together in a team. She championed over her disability and accomplished so many things, but she could not have done it alone without the help of her many teachers and family. As powerful as the meaning of the quote mentioned above, research shows that young children flourish when the adults caring for them work well together. When children see positive communication between their parents and teachers, they begin to learn it is important to build healthy relationships.

Home is the primary environment in which your child's potential and personality will take shape. It's important to make sure that you create a positive, open atmosphere that will not only support what goes on in the classroom but will also instil the desire to learn. It is through your love and encouragement that your kids will become motivated — first to please you, and then to please themselves. This leads to self-confidence, curiosity, the enjoyment of mastering new tasks, and other healthy attitudes, all of which contribute to successful learning.

We are very lucky that we have built such a positive collaboration with our 1E families. The past week we have mentioned the supportive and respectful partnerships we have established in our 1E community, significantly making favourable impacts amongst the children as they see the friendly interactions with their parents and educators building trust and confidence in return. Strengthening these relationships, we focused on connecting home learning experiences to school learning programs as we discuss, share and experience The Things We Love to Do at Home.

The children had a terrific week in our interactive learning environment. We prepared our welcoming spaces reflecting our daily life and based on their interests and needs. In our sensory washing experience, our children explored and investigated the sponges, bowls, towels and bibs in the laundry detergent. They squeezed the sponges and engaged in pretend play bathing the babies, which developed their creativity and imagination. They also engaged in a mini excursion to the school’s laundry room to have a little background on how these amazing machines work. Followed by a fun messy activity of baking/cooking which definitely challenged our little learner’s fine motor and dramatic play and instructions skills.

During our art experiences, our children were encouraged to make use of common household items that we use for dishwashing and bathing to create an abstract process art great for sensory learning and fine motor enhancement.

Here we guided them to create their artwork, as well as learn colours green, yellow, blue and brown for more cognitive and vocabulary skills development.

Learning these interesting things about our 1E friends, sharing and practising it with their peers and teachers in school creates a sense of inclusion and community. The experience of sharing and connecting home practices to our daily routines in school boosts self-confidence, promotes a strong sense of belonging and strengthens connectedness to the world around them. Being reinforced and modelled by their teachers, the avid learners become eager participants of their home and school learning. Thank you dear families for your continuing support in your child’s learning and development!

Expanding their knowledge on the world around them, next week will be all about My Community, focusing on Local Community Gardens, Pet Shops and Post Offices.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead!

Charity, May, Fatima and Resie

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Stage 1E: The Things We Love to Do at Home

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Stage 1E: Dishwashing Sponge Artwork

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Stage 2R

By Sara Haddadi

“The sense of smell is the hair-trigger of memory.” (Mary Stewart) This week 2R discovered their Sense of Smell. 2R absolutely delighted in exploring their world through their senses so far. They were offered a range of learning experiences to help them explore their sense of smell. Turmeric and cinnamon scented playdough involved children stimulating their senses and building cognitive skills. Furthermore, our herbal tea party assisted children emotionally and socially as they explored different roles and practised social skills. Coconut milk water beads sensory experiences encouraged and supported various types of development in all areas including language development, cognitive growth, fine motor skills, social interaction and peer engagement. 2R also enjoyed shredded coconut sensory trays which provided them with the opportunity to explore and learn through hands-on tactile play that engaged their senses.

Our purple slime with its magnificent bubble-gum smell and coffee beans sensory trays created many sensations for each child, assisting olfactory and visual sensation and development. This type of play also encourages a child’s independence and helps children focus. The children navigated their own play through their five senses. Art of the week involved 2R using tea bags to paint. They took a few moments to smell the different flavours of tea bags. They then dipped them into the water and started swishing and dragging their tea bags across the page and creating art.

The teachers have been offering 2R play-based and open-ended learning experiences which has affected children in so many effective ways including their developing self-esteem as they are the ones who make choices and create their own play. A child’s self-esteem develops in response to the experiences they have and the feedback they receive from significant adults around them.

The notion of self-esteem as the foundation for emotional health is supported by work of several theorists. For example, Erikson (1963) maintains it is essential that children be given “the right messages” at each stage of development in order to develop a sense of trust in the world, a feeling of control over actions and decisions, a sense of responsibility and a feeling of competence.

At Reddam, the teachers empower the children everyday as we know they behave according to the way they see themselves. Their beliefs about whether they can or cannot do things will influence how they approach new challenges they face every day. When children hear positive statements, they develop positive, healthy attitudes and beliefs about themselves and develop self -esteem. It is critical we as adults ensure that they receive the right messages so they will believe in themselves and will be prepared to persevere and therefore accomplish goals.

Happy weekend everyone!

Sara, Vivian, Lizzie, Indi and Sabrina

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Stage 2R: Exploring the Sense of Smell

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Stage 2R: Spices, Herbs and Tea Party

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Stage 2E

By Mia Doan

“When children are able to touch their learning, experience it in real life, their understanding seems to emerge like snap peas peeking out of the fresh dirt. Their green tips poking above the nourished and moist earth.

Nurtured with care and attention, they stretch and reach for fresh air and sun. In time, leaves unfold, fruit appears, and the peas know.” (Kelly Feille) Senses help children to make meaning of the world around them. Our senses can operate independently, however, they collaborate closely to enable the mind to better understand its surroundings. The focus of this week, Our Senses - Sight, Touch and Hearing offered children great opportunities to explore their senses in a fun and observational way, and to enhance their language skills in describing textures of each object.

One of our favourite books of the week was Secret Seahorse by Stella Blackstone & Clare Beaton. This book attracted our children’s attention as the seahorse was playing hide and seek with us. This interactive story promotes children’s positional language (prepositions) as we needed to identify the place where the seahorse was hiding in relation to other things underwater. 2E children also adored Look What I’ve Found by Nick Sharrat.

The children discovered lots of hidden treasures behind the flaps of the books like crabs, sandcastles and shells.

“I go to the beach, too!” said Hamish, as we started reading. Our curious 2E students loved looking at the pictures and recalling their own experiences at the beach. As we discovered what was hiding in the rock pool, Joshua excitedly said, “It’s a crab!” “It’s orange and red.” contributed Aiden W. We love to link our books with what we do in summer here in Australia. Many of our friends shared that they also have been to the beach! We had a turn at feeling some shells, one smooth, one rough, and one spiky. We used our sense of touch to discover how each shell felt.

At the provocation table, 2E children were invited to a variety of small world ocean play. The differences we had noticed was that one felt squishy when we touched it, one felt sandy and another one felt mouldable. The different textures of the ocean sensory play created a talking point in which we explored the sense of touch and talked about all the wonderful describing words how the jelly, play-dough, foamy cream, goop, sandy water felt in our hands. Significantly, squeezing, pinching, rolling, pressing and pulling movements also strengthen 2E children’s hand muscles and develop fine motor skills.

Another day, 2E children were invited to explore the Icy Dinosaur Eggs. The children were excited to look at the eggs then pick them up with their hands. Jasper said "A dinosaur in the egg". Aiden commented: "It's so cold".

Then our little friends alternatively rescued these dinosaurs using a small hammer to break the ice, adding salt or dropping warm salt water into the icy egg so that the ice melted faster. To spark the children's sense of hearing, we invited them to play with the plastic eggs filled with various things such as rice, corn kernels, lentils, coffee beans, pebbles, seashells. The children were eager to shake and hear these eggs’ sounds. They were very curious to open these eggs and see what was inside.

At the art table, the children were engaged in a process of art in which they chose between two types of paint textures: puffy and sandy paints. Experimenting with different textures of paint enhances children’s sensory perception even though they hesitate to touch them. While applying the paints on paper, they can hear tinkle and jingle bell sound attached to the brush and feel that sandy paint was heavier and puffy paint was lighter.

Have a wonderful weekend, Mia, Xanthe and Tracey

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Stage 2E: Listen with your Eyes, Listen with your Ears

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Stage 2E: Puffy and Sandy Art Experience

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Stage 3R

By Grace Nolan

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” (Albert Einstein) Through nature, children are able to explore their natural curiosities as they play with dirt, observe changes in plants, develop a sense of appreciation for minibeasts, flora and fauna. This week we continued with our inquiry about our natural world.

The children were invited to a vegetable collecting sensory tray with taste-safe ‘dirt’. The dirt was made of corn starch, cocoa powder and water. The children picked carrots and radishes from the dirt using bamboo tongs to strengthen their fine motor skills. Tarik and Sebastian both smelt the vegetables as they picked them, noting “it smells like chocolate!”

As a literacy activity, the children were offered black beans with scattered contrasting-coloured wooden letters. 3R as a class has shown a strong interest in pouring and transferring dry materials- this life skill benefits children’s fine motor ability to pour liquids in the future with precision and confidence. Other literacy experiences invited children to write letters in a sand tray with letters printed on large leaves.

The children were also offered minibeast life cycle tiles to inspect and explore. The minibeast tiles contain real insects set in resin. The children could investigate the life cycle of a butterfly or the workings of a bee with a magnifying glass. The children were also invited to a garden-inspired, leafy sensory tray which included a variety of plants, stones and bug figures. This sensory tray acted as a small world activity for the children to engage with dramatically. The children crept the bugs up the leaves to nibble on the flowers!

In our Morning Meeting we looked at the planted sprouts from last week. The children were asked to try and find the differences, with one sprouting some green stalks, one with some greenery and the other had none. The difference between them was how much water was in the jar! It was a great visual for the children to see the outcome of overwatering, with friends relating all the rain we’ve had and to our plants around the school.

In a nature walk, the children explored the Reddam gardens to collect foliage to press. Bryan and Lindsay pointed out many flowers and leaves to press. Myra and Ellie picked the flowers very delicately and Edmund enjoyed looking at some foliage other 3R friends had pressed already.

As a STEM experiment, the children played with alkaline and acids in purple cabbage water. The children used lemons, vinegar, baking powder and laundry powder to change the colour of the water into vibrant pinks, reds and green/ blues. Afterward, the children watched a short educational video that explained the benefits of the different alkaline and acidic soils as some flowers and plants thrive in one or the other.

Another group also used the Reddam gardens to source materials to make a ‘bug hotel’, picking up leaves, sticks and bark. Afterwards, the children made a bug hotel for all the insects looking for shelter from the rain! Through this experience the children categorised and chose materials for the bugs to hide in and demonstrated empathy and appreciation for the natural world. Another experience offered during the week saw children planting their seed bombs that they made the previous week. The children donned on gardening gloves, filled up their watering can and grabbed a shovel to dig a hole. The children then placed their seed bomb in the hole, covered it up and watered the ground.

The children enjoyed seeing the wiggly worms in the dirt and describing the texture of the soil they saw. We look forward to seeing our native flowers popping up in the garden!

Next week we look at the different facets of our community.

Grace, Carina, Shandie, Chloe, Margaret, Indi and Intisar

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Stage 3R: Sensory and Manipulative Experiences

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Stage 3R: Interacting with Nature

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Stage 3E

By Georgia Galvin

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” (Ryunosuke Saturo) Children are world explorers. Each day, as they navigate and explore the world around them, they learn about life and their place in the world. When we invite children to investigate their world, we empower them with the tools to become active citizens in their worlds. This week, the Stage 3E children have continued to explore the natural world by focusing on The Ocean. We also chose to focus heavily on the pollution of the ocean. Through a variety of books, discussions, experiments and sensory experiences, the children’s understanding of what pollution is, and how it impacts the ocean and sea-life was developed.

Our sensory tables were extremely popular this week, with the children utilising their senses and dramatic play skills to engage with sensory, small-world experiences. Our ocean-themed small-worlds were filled with a variety of sea animals, including whales, sharks, fish, turtles, dolphins, starfish and seahorses, as well as lovely blue water! The children’s understanding of underwater life was heightened through these experiences. As well as this, the children enjoyed dramatic play, where they took on the role of sea creatures as they explored. Dramatic play is an excellent tool to use to encourage children to take on the perspectives of others.

Scientific experiments are a fabulous way to invite children to learn about the natural world and they also have significant benefits for children’s cognitive skills. In order to encourage the children to learn about oil spills in the ocean, we completed a fun and simple science experiment involving cooking oil and water.

Firstly, the children were invited to share what they believed would happen if we ‘spilled’ oil into water. We then took turns to drop oil into a large bottle of water using a pipette. After we all had a go, we observed what happened to the oil. The children were amazed to see that the oil remained on top of the water. We then discussed what might happen if a big ship spilled oil into the ocean. The children discussed that the animals who live on top of the water would be covered in oil!

Creative and artistic experiences encourage children to learn about the world around them through imagination and creativity. This week, the children were invited to paint ocean-bubbles! Using blue, green and white paint, the children firstly painted an ocean background using photographs to inspire them. Once the paint was dried, the children used bubble-wrap as their painting tool to create the effect of bubbles in the ocean. By including a variety of tools when engaging in creative play, a child can begin to realise that objects can be used for many different purposes.

This week, we also said a very sad “good-bye” to Miss Deb, who will be returning to her home in Ireland.

Throughout the week, the children shared with Deb how much they will miss having her as their teacher and gave her a big “thank you” for everything she has done for the class. We will miss you, Deb! Next week, we will continue our exploration of the natural world by taking a trip to Africa. The children have shown a tremendous interest in animals throughout the term and we would love to foster their interest by focusing on Africa - home of some of 3E’s favourite animals!

Have a great weekend!

Georgia, Nat, Connie, Kai and Intisar

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Stage 3E: Pollution in the Ocean

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Stage 3E: Sensory Experiences

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Stage 4R

By Veronika Roth

“Only those who wander find new paths.” (Norwegian Proverb) What a lucky class we are, being able to take part in such an adventurous journey of visiting a country each week and through this we are learning a little bit more about each other as we explore the cultural backgrounds of the classroom.

On our way to Norway this week, our learning provocations focused on the cold climate of the country. This was provoked at the tables in a variety of sensory trays, such as making fake snow with cornflour and water, dusting soft snowflakes on large pine trees and excavating polar bears and moose from icebergs.

Norway’s colourful houses inspired our weekly art. We looked at photos of Bryggen, a historic harbour district in Bergen, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It is the old wharf of Bergen with both cultural and historical significance. The unique colours of the houses provided better visibility in cold, foggy weather, and the colour red represented wealth and success. The art process of collaging materials with the use of glue invited the children to create their own versions of Bryggen as they applied proportions and spatial awareness on paper.

A taste of Norway was a big hit amongst all the children in the experience of making Norwegian Lefse, a traditional potato based flatbread. The process involved children mashing the cooked potatoes, then mixing it with the other ingredients including flour. Another favourite of the week was the Norwegian ladder golf game. The objective of the game is for players to toss the bolas or balls attached by a string, at a ladder.

It is so lovely to be part of the 4R children’s learning and blossoming of cultural competency as they are learning about awareness, respect and understanding of the diversity around them.

Cultural competence is respecting multiple ways of knowing, seeing and living, celebrating the benefits of diversity and having an ability to understand and honour differences. Cultural competence builds on the abilities that individual children bring with them and provides support where it’s needed to enable all children to achieve their learning potential.

Next week, we are on our journey to South Korea!

Veronika, Rebecca, Rowel and Monica

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Stage 4R: Sensory and Physical Experiences

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Stage 4R: Bryggen Collage and Making Norwegian Lefse

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Stage 4E

By Lauren Hall

“Look after the land and the land will look after you. Destroy the land and it will destroy you.”

(Aboriginal Proverb) This week our class reflected on our provocation, recalling the Aboriginal symbols, our indigenous cultures, Dreamtime stories, and the beautiful artworks they created last week. To continue our provocation, we explored Australia’s native flora and fauna that are not found anywhere else in the world. We looked at photos of native flowers including bottlebrush, wattle, waratah flowers and banksias, which inspired the children’s artwork this week. To acknowledge 'Clean Up Australia Day' which occurred on the 6th March, we read a story called Dear Earth by Isobel Otter. We had a rich conversation about the importance of protecting our native flora and fauna to ensure that it continues to thrive. The children then shared how they wanted to help protect our planet; by recycling and disposing rubbish thoughtfully, using public transport more regularly and being more sustainable.

During our morning sessions, the children engaged with experiences which incorporated Australian environments including, the Great Barrier Reef and the Australian Outback. The children enjoyed using their sense of touch whilst role-playing with the sea animals, and scooping the red sand around the snakes and lizards. To extend on the children’s interest in animals, we learnt about Australia’s deadliest and most dangerous creatures. The great white shark, bull shark, blue-ringed octopus, box jellyfish, stone fish and saltwater crocodiles inhabit our waters, while the funnel web and red-back spiders lurk in our gardens and bushlands. However, we weren’t surprised to learn that Australia has many venomous snakes including the taipan, death adder, the red-bellied black snake, and eastern and western brown snakes. Crikey!

The children were also curious about the quokka so we learnt more about this adorable creature after reading, Quiet a Clever Quokka by Merv Lamington. Based on a true story, this book reminded us that we should never feed human food to our native animals as it can make them sick. We also learnt that quokkas can go without food and water for many days as they have fat stored in their tails. They are classed as marsupials because they have a pouch for their young just like a kangaroo, and many tourists visit Rottnest Island in Western Australia because they want to take selfies with the smiling quokkas too. We then learnt about The Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland and how the cassowary bird plays an important part in replenishing it. Every time the birds eat, digest and dispose of the seeds on the forest floor, new plants grow, making the Daintree the largest rainforest in Australia and spanning 1,200 square kilometres.

One of the children’s favourite stories was the Aussie classic, Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan. The story took place on the banks of a billabong, where a very clever dingo caught a wombat and decided to make, "Wombat Stew, Wombat Stew! Gooey, brewy, yummy, chewy, Wombat Stew! The children retold the story in our dramatic play area, which was set up with natural bush materials, a cooking pot, a campfire, and pictures from the book so the children could follow the recipe. The children took turns to place each ingredient into the cooking pot including mud, flies, feathers, gum nuts and insects. Delicious!

Thank you for another rich week of learning together!

Lauren, Priya, Doris and Kai

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Stage 4E: Exploring Australian Animals

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Stage 4E: Art and Dramatic Play

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Mandarin

By Chloe Lin

We began our Mandarin class by greeting everyone with our Hello, Ni Hao song. We sang a few of our favourite songs to get our voices and bodies warm: Elephant, Elephant, Two Tigers, and Tai Chi Melon.

In Stage 2 this week we began by using our favourite finger puppets to greet each other. We named each animal as I handed them out. The children are doing so well at recalling popular greetings in Mandarin.

Stage 2 and 3 played a memory game using some of our favourite magnetic animals. The children were each given a turn to stick an animal on the magnetic board and name the animal in Mandarin.

I challenged them to close their eyes as I removed one animal from the board. The children had to guess which animal was missing! Stage 4 had a look at some healthy fruits and vegetables in another version of the same game.

In Stage 4, I introduced the children to a new game. I showed the children a drum, and asked them to make certain actions when they heard some rhythms. When the drum beat once: the children touched their eyes, when the drum beat twice: the children touched their ears etc. The children learnt new Chinese vocabulary and grammar to expand their sentences.

Next, the children were encouraged to learn the colours in Mandarin by using colour cards. I invited the children one by one to match the colour card to one of my small animals and fruits. This activity promoted the children’s understanding of matching as they endeavoured to learn the difference between “the same” and “different”.

Everyone was rewarded with a sticker as always for excellent listening and participation!

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Drama

By Xanthe Wills

This week in drama we started our new theme Bears, Bears, Bears! We explored the theme of bears using the well known story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Welcome Stage 1 to specialist drama! In Stage 1, we are working on getting the children comfortable with new and interesting objects and concepts, and building confidence. This week, the children became trains, planes, and fast cars while sitting on the parachute. We named the colours and then sang I Can Sing A Rainbow together. The children had a visit from Lory the Lorikeet. They listened to the bird’s song and gave him cuddles and kisses.

At the beginning of drama today, Stage 2, 3, and 4 were told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. After the story, the children were encouraged to mime some of the key parts. I gave the children different movements to work on while walking through the woods like skipping, high knees, tippy-toes and walking backwards. Once we arrived at the bears house, we made a circle around the mat and used our arms to make the roof of the house. We looked through the windows and could see three of everything. I asked the children to show me three fingers, working on their finemotor skills. We knocked on the door and asked “Is anybody home?” And listened for a response.

Once inside the bear’s house, we could smell porridge. We used our noses to lead us into the kitchen.

The children showed me a big bowl of porridge, a medium one, and a small one using their bodies.

The children showed me with their faces that the big one was too salty and the medium one was too sweet. Stage 4 used memory recollection from the story to tell me which porridge was salty or sweet.

We gobbled up the small one and then moved to the lounge room.

In the lounge room, we saw a big chair, a medium chair, and a small chair. We showed the difference in sizes with our bodies. When we sat on the small chair… it broke! I encouraged Stage 3 and 4 to give me ideas on how we could fix the chair. Angelina in Stage 4 was confident she could fix it, and Ryan thought that screws and a screwdriver might work. After attempting to fix the chair (but failing) we decided to go upstairs for a nap.

The stairs were very creaky, so we made onomatopoeic sounds while we walked. In the bedroom, we used our problem solving skills to deduce that the small one would be the best. Stage 2 fell asleep and I became the bear coming home from my walk. I chased the kids out of my house! Stage 3 and 4 broke off into two groups. One group played Goldilocks asleep in the bed, and the other group played the bears. The bears, coming home from their walk, found their porridge ruined, their chair broken, and someone asleep in the little bear’s bed! Group 1 were encouraged to stay VERY still while the bears were walking through their house. The bears then chased Goldi from their house! We then swapped groups, so everyone had a chance at being both characters.

We finished our lesson in Stage 4 by answering some questions about the story. Stage 2 was treated to a visit from our friend Lory the Lorikeet.

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Happy Birthday!

A very happy birthday to our children who are celebrating their special day this week. We wish you all the best!

15/03 - Marcus (4R)

16/03 - Vivienne (3R)

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