Principal’s Message
By Mrs Kath Boyd
“True change requires a focus on creating school culture that supports academic, social, emotional and character development of children.” (Maurice Elias) Earlier this week, Miss Veronika (4R Core Teacher) shared a delightful anecdote about one of our 4R children: “It is always wonderful to observe the gentle and respectful way Giselle communicates with her peers. Just the other day, she kindly assisted her friend in need to look for a hat. I heard her saying - "Well, I can help you with that. You see, my hat is in my bag in my locker. Maybe yours is in your bag? Let's look here." Phrases such as “Please use gentle hands.”, “That was so kind of you to share.”, “What beautiful manners you have!” and “Thank you for waiting your turn.” are said by our teachers to the children multiple times every day. When it comes to children, we acknowledge that socialemotional skill development is a valuable part of their learning and development. When we focus on the social and emotional aspect of working together on an academic experience (such as science, mathematics & literacy), Reddam teachers create a balanced experience that helps children in all aspects of development. These skills are the non-cognitive competences that people need when communicating and interacting with one another, and are used when children: • Greet and farewell each other • Learn to work together in pairs and groups • Solve problems and think creatively • Learn to collaborate on a specific task • Develop resilience • Motivate themselves • Learn patience, self-control, and listening skills • Learn to resolve conflict • Show respect – to others, themselves and the environment Social-emotional skills help children lead harmonious lives, and are important when it comes to learning and achievement. They interact with cognitive skills like literacy and numeracy, to enable success in education, employment and life generally. Studies have proven that they also positively impact their work prospects and life experiences down the track. Pictured above: 4E children Benjamin, Alfie, Jasper, Joshua, Ryan L., Ryan S. & Mason sporting their designer glasses inspired by Dame Edna (Australian Icon).
Principal’s Message Continued...
By Mrs Kath Boyd
“Achievement is driven by intellectual ability as well as by the self-regulation, positive attitudes, motivation and conscientiousness that are required to complete educational milestones” (Laurien Beane). Our teachers recognise the value of both social-emotional and cognitive skills, and as part of the Early Learning Framework, they help children develop the social, emotional and academic skills that will set them up for life. We focus on ‘whole-of-child development’ and provide the children with chances to create, collaborate, self-regulate and problem-solve every day. At Reddam ELS Lindfield, children develop these essential skills by: • Communicating with their peers and teachers • Forming and maintaining friendships • Following routines that require listening and patience • Playing games that involve self-control and teamwork • Learning about emotions, e.g. with books, puppets, drawings and role-play • Doing creative activities, e.g. art, craft and imaginary play • Collaborating on specific projects, e.g. growing seeds or constructing a block city • Practising how to take turns, share, negotiate and resolve disagreements • Respecting our classroom and outdoor environments • Having acceptable table manners at meal times • Demonstrating self-pride and self-help skills such as dressing themselves Of course, parents, friends and family members also play a key role in teaching children these skills, and can consolidate their child's social-emotional learning by: • Modelling positive behaviour and self-control • Talking about a broad range of feelings, not just 'happy' and 'sad' • Teaching their child how to be resilient • Encouraging them to build relationships, e.g. supporting their early friendships and encouraging them to greet/farewell people they meet • Modelling self-help skills and encouraging their child to ‘try’ Stay warm and dry over this Autumn weather.
Pictured below: Great mates - Mr. Luan & Alexander (4R).
2
Stage 1R
By Heather Gaskell
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” (Charles Dickens) This week our delightful little ones have immersed themselves into the world of Touch, the third of our senses we have been studying. We have explored the surfaces of the room and its contents to decide which are warm, cool, hard, soft, squishy or bouncy. We started the week off with Harmony Day and as part of the celebration we read a book called One World. This is a beautiful story which introduces the children to the concept of tolerance and highlights that differences should be celebrated in this world of ours. Being an individual is what makes us all beautiful.
Our artwork for the week was a frozen sensory delight, we froze food colouring into colourful ice block stars. The children were able to touch the frozen ice blocks and wonder at the coolness of them. Then we encouraged them to paint on the paper and they produced amazing masterpieces. Another art experience the children were invited to participate in for the week was to an outdoor art activity. One of the trees in our yard was wrapped in brown paper and the children were provided with water colour paints so that they could create their own tree and/or nature on the paper. This activity supported the children to learn different colours and different ways to express themselves. This week's science experiment, Doris invited the children to make oobleck, which is a non-Newtonian fluid that can change freely between liquid and solid. The children helped to mix the ingredients together and when finished they had the opportunity to experiment with the fascinating mixture. It was amazing to see how it was a solid when grabbed and then became liquid and flowed out of their hands. Next week we are going to explore the sense of Smell. Heather, Doris and Resie
3
Stage 1R: Exploring Our Sense of Touch
4
Stage 1R: Icy Stars Painting
5
Stage 1E
By Charity Acera
“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.” (Henry Ford) This week’s focus is a continuation of highlighting the importance of community helpers and studying their roles in society. In the context of emergency situations, it is crucial to prepare children to recognise and trust community helpers who are trained to serve and protect - like doctors, nurses, firefighters, builders, transporters and the posties. Therefore, this week in Stage 1E we celebrated these people who live and work around us and ensure that the community stays healthy, safe and happy. The children in 1E were able to experience and explore the amazing lives of these modern heroes through dramatic play, sensory learning, creative expressions through fire marbling artwork and storytelling. Stage 1E had an interesting week becoming doctors and as well as giving high appreciation to the hard work and noble service they do for us all. They were welcomed with varying medicalrelated tool kits for them to extend their dramatic and imaginative play in solitude and in groups. Such as delight to witness the developing friendships and as well as self-confidence during their early learning. During this play, the Educators were very intentional in naming the tools on display and discussing important details in the life of a doctor. Significantly, this activity improved the children's vocabulary and self-esteem. A small world construction display set-up was also enjoyed by our children. They were invited to dress up as a builder using a hard hat and hi-vis vest. We got to develop our cognitive learning whilst identifying the names of our construction trucks on display as well. Sharing the play space and playing alongside one another was also observed from our young learner. Our creative experience engaged the children in the process of using shaving foam cream marbling with fire colours in representation of our Firefighter Community. Each child was guided to smell the foam, identify the mixture of colours and at the same time enjoy the squishy texture of the foam whilst creating a wonderful fiery marble art after pressing their papers on top of the mixture. We also had a wonderful time learning about Mr. Postman and his life work. We played a Post Office bingo game with the children and they were clever enough to sort and match the items with one another, developing their visual discrimination skills. Wishing you all a great weekend! Charity, Fatima and May
6
Stage 1E: Mini-Community Helpers
7
Stage 1E: Fire Marbling Art
8
Stage 2R
By Sara Haddadi "Taste is nothing but a delicate good sense." (Joseph Chenier)
Lately, we have been exploring ourselves through our provocation ‘I Belong’. This week, 2R started exploring their sense of taste. Expecting children to be able to taste and try new foods with the open-mindedness of an adult without proper training is like going sky-diving with no instructions. Our aim is to help the children learn to find exploring new flavours a fun and exciting experience, even if they end up not liking the food. 2R were offered a range of tasting dishes covering the four main tastes and were encouraged to discover healthy eating habits by making home-made healthy cakes and trying different kinds of fruit smoothies. As early childhood is a period of rapid development, food preferences are formed and can lay the foundations for a healthy life. To encourage children the opportunity to explore through many senses, teachers created lemonade and orange sensory trays which offered olfactory, tactile, gustatory, and visual sensory feedback. Children touched, squeezed and smelt the lemon and orange slices. They could discover textures with the feel of the outside of the lemon contrasting with the inside, the seeds, the water, the ice, and the added kitchen and fine motor tools. The bright colour of the lemons and oranges against the water really popped too and 2R found this experience visually appealing. Inspired by this, children were invited to use lemons to paint and create unique patterns. This process-art allowed them to express themselves and use their imagination to create beauty through artwork. To encourage healthy eating habits, we looked deeply at the intricate details of fruits by exploring dissecting trays. We discussed with children that there is life in each tiny seed and if these seeds are planted, they will grow and eventually produce fruit. This experience also helped our young learners continue to develop their fine motor control while using the dissecting instruments. Following along with the theme of healthy eating was a forest sensory tray. The children enjoyed feeding the animals and engaged in dramatic play which helped develop their language and social skills. The mixture of the grains and the vegetables allowed the children to explore foods they eat and create a sense of curiosity around those types of food. Harmony Day was also celebrated in 2R. Our aim is to recognise and articulate differences between people, explore cultural stereotypes and reinforce inclusion, respect and care towards others regardless of differences. Fortunately we live the ideals of Harmony Day every day in our school. The teachers give so much of themselves to create exceptional programs for children to encourage diversity and inclusiveness. 2R’s teachers have witnessed children showing kindness to each other in many ways. They just require our guidance, support and encouragement to begin to understand and discriminate between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Providing specific feedback by teachers has assisted the children in this process and feeling loveable, safe and good inside are what provided the courage to children to reflect and to be curious about showing respect towards others. I hope your weekend will be very much enjoyable. Sara, Vivian, Lizzie, Indi and Shandie
9
Stage 2R: Exploring Healthy Eating Habits
10
Stage 2R: Creative and Cooking Experiences
11
Stage 2E
By Mia Doan
“Emotional Intelligence begins to develop in the earliest years. All the small exchanges children have with their parents, teachers and with each other carry emotional messages.” (Daniel Goleman) According to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, there are eight to ten separated intelligences that are directly related to and embedded in early childhood education, guidance and personal development. Two of these significant intelligences are interpersonal intelligence (the ability to perceive and interpret others’ feelings) and intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to understand one self's feelings and handle those). These two intelligences are often called by a term Emotional Intelligence. Interpreting our and other’s feelings and how to cope with positive and negative feelings is a long-life learning process. With a strong sense of belonging, children openly express their feelings and ideas in their interactions with others. We went through a rollercoaster of emotions this week from sharing our fear and learning what it means to be brave to experience pleasant surprises and learn about what makes you kind. Trace Moroney’s popular series, When I’m feeling . . . continues to attract the children’s interests and foster their understanding of feelings visually and verbally. Space captures children's imagination and curiosity with its rockets, moon landings, astronauts and different planets and stars. 2E honoured the bravery of astronauts through the story Rockets, Planets and Outer Space by Helen Martin, Judith Simpson & Cheryl Orsini. We discussed brave astronauts who set their foot on the Moon or brave men and women who work in emergency services, help other people and put themselves in danger. We explored dark galaxies through a sensory experience which included dyed dark blue salt, strainers as flying saucers, astronaut figures, and bouncing balls as planets. Our little astronauts loved scooping and transferring the salt using tea strainers. Also, they tested gravity by dropping the balls and observed how bouncy the balls were. Kindness is contagious and has the ability to change the world. We read a beautiful book titled Kindness Makes Us Strong by Helen Beer. The visual images and simply written story helped our friends to recognise that kind acts happen every day. When we share toys, take turns, use nice words, and comfort others, we are being kind. We read the characters' emotions to help us learn how to be kind. We also discussed some simple situations such as taking care of plants, helping animals, being careful around little insects, and being gentle with resources. We also invited the children to create their very own Spray Painting Graffiti artwork. We set up the easel outdoors and hung the canvas papers then the children were engaged to hold the bottles upright and spray paint from a little bit of a distance. This unique painting method created the most amazing brightly coloured rain effect! Our 2E artists loved the freedom to express themselves - no goal - no instructions other than paint and have fun! Have a peaceful weekend, Mia, Tracey, Xanthe and Jaycel
12
Stage 2E: We Are Brave
13
Stage 2E: How Are You Feeling Today?
14
Stage 3R
By Grace Nolan “Community connections give children a sense of belonging and help them develop social and other skills.” (Raising Children, 2020)
This week we celebrated Harmony Day by asking the children to wear orange as well as focussing on community and multiculturalism. To support these concepts we provided a range of experiences both openended and implicit learning groups to support the children’s understanding. One learning group made sweet potato biscuits as an orange theme experience that encouraged the children to work collaboratively. Cooking encourages children to use their senses through touch, smell and taste as well as using their fingers to train fine motor skills as they roll out the mixture and purposefully place sultanas on top. For our sensory experiences, the Educators and children made orange and yellow slime! The children were enamoured by the slime, revisiting it frequently throughout the day. Other days included orange rice with various scoops and spoons to measure and transfer the rice from one container to another demonstrating their hand eye-coordination and fine motor skills as they do so. This experience works on children’s transporting schema “Children enjoy repeatedly moving resources…from one place to another.” (LTL, 2020) On our long table we had a letter-match game using wooden letters and the children's name cards. Next to that we had our much loved sensory minibeast small world trays, with added lavender and rosemary sprigs to add smell and greenery into the space. Lastly we included wooden blocks with ABAB and ABBA patterns on top with counters. The children were challenged to finish the pattern, engaging in mathematical concepts as they did so. Afterwards, we saw the children using the counters for other things like sorting by shape and colour! Through the use of dramatic play, children are able to explore new, different and familiar perspectives and roles. As we are continuing exploring and learning about our community and community helpers, this week the children were invited to make a campfire by collecting sticks and bark to make a pile. The children then acted out roasting marshmallows, and with educators’ guidance, the play led on to fire safety and firefighters. The children used pretend hoses to put the fire out, learning what number to call and getting on the fire engine to help put out the ‘fires’. Another dramatic play episode led by an Educator saw the children use their imaginations and create from recycled boxes a castle, a shop, a new home with a kitchen, garage. The children commented - “We are construction workers!” Tarik and Edmund said proudly. The enthusiasm and teamwork demonstrated that children are able to connect and contribute to their world and have a strong sense of wellbeing. The children were able to create a multi-storey castle together as well as a corner shop with a range of products. Including numeracy in small groups allows the children to work together and engage in co-construction of learning and knowledge. This was seen as the children use one-to-one correspondence counting with firefighting themed images which they then had to place a counter on the corresponding cardinal number. The children helped each other counting and finding the number, demonstrating collaboration in mathematical concepts. Next week we look to our Older Generation and how we can learn and support our elders. Grace, Carina, Margaret, Shandie, Chloe and Intisar
15
Stage 3R: Numeracy Experiences and Harmony Day Slime
16
Stage 3R: Creative and Cooking Experiences
17
Stage 3E
By Georgia Galvin “The only people I envy are those who have not been to Africa for they have so much to look forward to.” (Richard Mullin)
In the Stage 3E classroom, we strive to include all children’s voices and choices within our educational program. Therefore, this week we explored the land of the children’s favourite animals - Africa. Through a variety of sensory, creative, literacy, STEM and dramatic experiences; the children were invited to extend upon their understanding of the natural world and of Africa. This term, we have looked closely at the natural world due to the children’s interests and in order to respect the children’s individual roles as global citizens, increasing their sense of being in our classroom and communities. Throughout our Morning Meetings each day, the children were invited to locate Africa using our Globe and World Map. As we revisited this activity, the children’s familiarity of Africa’s locations, as well as Australia’s location heavily increased. The children also became interested in locating different countries on our globe which are important to them, such as China, India, North America and Indonesia. This demonstrated the children’s sense of being as they linked their identity and home culture to their learning at school. As usual, our sensory trays remained one of the children’s favourite experiences in our classroom. This week, our sensory trays focused on small-worlds. In order to invite the children to revisit our African small-worlds and also keep them interesting, we focused each small-world on a certain type of animal, for example The Big Five, insects and reptiles. Each day, we moved onto a different animal type. 3E have shown a strong interest in dramatic play, which is a major reason why we strive to encourage as much imagination and creativity as possible! The children enjoyed taking on the roles of different animals as they engaged with our smallworlds. The children engaged in a range of creative experiences this week, which were all linked to Africa. In order to foster the developing relationships in our class, the children were invited to complete a group art project where they were able to create the African Savannah using a range of natural (which we collected from our beautiful garden) and man-made materials. Group projects are an excellent way to encourage children to learn about turn-taking, different perspectives, and can also work on their communication skills. As well as this, the children were invited to complete an individual artwork of a lion’s face. Throughout the week, the children added more and more to their lion’s face. Firstly, we used tissue-paper to represent the lion’s mane. Once this was dried, we added eyes and whiskers using string. We finished off the lion’s face by drawing on its mouth. Next week, we will be focusing on and revisiting the topic of Australia. By learning about the country we live in, we work on increasing the children’s sense of belonging within the classroom. We are looking forward to learning about Australian states/territories, Australian weather and landscapes and of course Australian native animals. Have a great weekend! Nat, Connie, Kai, Intisar and Georgia
18
Stage 3E: Exploring Africa
19
Stage 3E: Creative Experience
20
Stage 4R
By Veronika Roth
“From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.” (Napoleon Bonaparte) One of the world’s first civilisations, the Egyptian civilisation captivated our learning this week and challenged the educators to narrow down the learning focus as there is so much to learn about this fascinating world and its beauty. We have begun our learning for the week by focusing on Egypt's most famous man-made landmarks: The Great Pyramids of Giza. Listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, these majestic buildings were built over 2500 years ago, and this made us wonder … How were the Egyptians able to build without technology and transport such large pieces of stone blocks to build the desired pyramids as tombs for their pharaohs? The natural landmark of the River Nile offered the Egyptians a desirable area for living. Hannah said, “The animals can drink water” and Charlotte S. added, “People can fish from the river.” We’ve also learnt that people used the river for transportation purposes. This explains why the river meant everything for the Ancient Egyptians. The children engaged in creating the scene of Ancient Egypt including the River Nile as we imagined a world long, long ago. The artwork this week represented this learning and invited the children to create an artistic image of the pyramids. They traced various sized triangles and collaged them with recycled cardboard pieces to represent the pyramids, used sand at the hot desert floor and painted the blue sky as a backdrop. The Ancient Egyptian writing system called hieroglyphs used a symbols system mainly to write inscriptions on temples, tombs and religious documents. The script was used and understood by very few people. Hieroglyphs were written from right to left but could also be written from left to right or top to bottom. We have also shifted our learning focus to camels, an indigenous animal to Egypt. Camels have existed in Egypt for a very long time and in modern Egypt, camels are a dependable source for transport in the hot desert. The two types of camels are the one-hump camel (Dromedary) and two-hump camels (Bactrian). The hump on the camel's back is an important feature as it stores fat and allows the animal to survive without food and water for a long period of time. Next week, we will be learning about Colombia and its unique animals. Veronika, Rebecca and Rowel
21
Stage 4R: Travelling to Egyptian Pyramids
22
Stage 4R: Creative Experiences
23
Stage 4E
By Lauren Hall
“Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness.” (Ola Joseph) This week our provocation focused on Australia's Multiculturalism. We celebrated Harmony Day on Monday 21st March and learnt that many immigrants from various countries make Australia one of the most culturally diverse countries. Our stories of the week included Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. This book was a celebration of diversity, culture, traditions, and also the love that brings us together. Our next story was I’m Australian Too, also by Mem Fox. This beautiful picture book explained how our lives are enriched by the vibrant, cultural diversity that immigrants bring to our communities. We learnt that many immigrants came on very long journeys, either by boat or plane, fled their war-torn countries and sought a better life in Australia. Without immigration, we wouldn’t have such a diverse range of foods and restaurants, a skilled workforce, and an increase in economic growth. "What journeys we have travelled, from countries near and far! Together now, we live in peace, beneath the Southern Star." (M. Fox) As an extension on the children’s interest in Australia’s landmarks last week, our class explored different buildings and structures around the world. Using our world map, we located Big Ben in London, England, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. We then looked at the colours of St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. We came across a building in Greece called the Parthenon, a very old and crumbling structure that was built thousands of years ago in Athens. The children were captivated by a castle called Neuschwanstein in Germany, and we learnt that the Statue of Liberty is in New York City. Lastly, we looked at The Great Wall of China which can be seen from space, and the pyramids in Egypt. At our drawing tables, the children enjoyed illustrating their favourite world landmarks and discussing which ones were the tallest and oldest of all. During our morning sessions, the children explored various sensory environments from around the world. Our sand trays with cacti, sand, lizards and snakes, represented the Mojave Desert in Mexico. Blue and green play dough was moulded into our planet Earth, with stones and plants to stick into it, leading to a discussion about the ratio of land to water. Our water trays featured the crystal blue water of Santorini in Greece where people floated in boats, and the children role-played with pandas in a bamboo forest from China. Our dramatic play area was transformed into an Asian-inspired restaurant, complete with sushi, stir fry, dumplings and yum cha. The children assumed the roles of chefs and customers, challenging each other to use the chopsticks to manipulate the food. Our collaborative artwork invited the children to trace around their hands, paint and decorate them with a design of their choice and create a world map for them to be displayed on. The artwork represented how many different cultures we have in our classroom and how each one of us is unique. Our song of the week was called 'I Still Call Australia Home' by Peter Allen. After analysing the lyrics of the song, the children enjoyed singing along and making up some actions as they demonstrated their angelic choir voices. Thank you for our trip around the world! Lauren, Priya, Rebecca, Tas and Doris
24
Stage 4E: Around The World We Go!
25
Stage 4E: Celbrating Our Diversity
26
Playball
By Coach Lauren Guttman
Welcome back to Playball! We started our lesson today with the Forwards/Backwards game. When I blew my whistle once the children walked forwards and when I blew my whistle twice, we walked backwards. I continued to go faster and faster and faster until we were all just dancing up and down. This caused lots of giggles! What a great way to begin. Guess what I brought to Playball today? A T-ball T and T-ball bats! Yay, a T-Ball day! I set out 4 bases (mats) in a diamond shape on the court. We all had the opportunity to run to 1 st base, 2nd base, 3rd base and then home base, making sure we touched each base with our foot. We had a go at a mini game of T-ball. We all had a turn to place a ball on the T-ball T, grip the tball bat correctly, determine the distance between ourselves and the T-ball T, put our bat on our shoulder, swing the bat and hit the ball off the T. We dropped our bat and ran from base to base while the other team were the fielders and did their best to get the T-ball “batters” out. Each team wore different coloured bibs and we felt like such cool sports. To finish our T-ball practice, I placed mats in a row across the court and the children tried to step from one mat to the next. Next, we practised our rolling skills, always remembering to use our feet as the starting point. I positioned the children in two lines. The children stood opposite their Playball partner with their legs apart and one child tried to roll the ball through their friend’s legs. The partner tried to stop the ball from going through their legs using “cage hands” (two hands joined together and spread open so as to minimise entry through our legs). To conclude our lesson today, we all ran around the court and I tried to catch the children by rolling a ball at their feet. Thanks friends for another fun-filled, busy lesson. You’re the best.
27
Mandarin
By Chloe Lin
This week in Mandarin our focus was on colours. After singing Hello, Ni Hao to welcome all of our friends, we reinforced our knowledge of body parts and numbers by singing our favourite songs: Two Tigers, Elephant, Elephant, Where’s Your Trunk? and Tai Chi Melon. The children across all stages are doing very well at singing along with me and imitating my dance moves. Stage 2 giggled as we sang our hello song like a motorbike and an aeroplane. After warming up our voices, the children were engaged in a fun, competitive activity with a focus on colours. I showed the children a range of colour cards and asked them to repeat the names in Mandarin after me. I asked the children, “What is this colour?” and encouraged them to respond in Mandarin. Then, I explained the rules of the game. I placed all of the colours on the mat and gave 2 children a fly swat each. I prompted in Mandarin, “Where is ____” and the children had to quickly swat the correct colour. Who was going to be the fastest? The children built their comprehension skills in a fun and supportive way. Next, I showed the children 8 surprise eggs and invited each child to select and then open an egg. The children used their fine motor skills to open the egg and they found lots of mini surprise objects inside! I encouraged everyone to repeat the names of each object in Mandarin. This activity helped the children to extend their Chinese vocabulary by learning words like bus, soccer ball, polar bear, burger, peach, and motorbike. Stage 2 revisited the Mummy Finger song with their favourite finger puppets. The children repeated the words for mum, dad, brother, sister, and baby. They then took turns to greet my puppet with some common Chinese greetings that we have been practising over the last few weeks. Well done everyone for an excellent lesson - the children were rewarded with stickers!
29
Happy Birthday! A very happy birthday to our children who are celebrating their special day this week. We wish you all the best!
28/03 - Amelia (3R)
28/03 - Benjamin (4E)
02/04 - Isabelle (1R) 32