REDDAM ELS LINDFIELD
concerts and graduation for each class have been listed below. A few parents have been asking about our Christmas closure which has also been added to the end of the principal’s message.
The children have been developing their pre math skills with pattern making being a strong focus in stages 3 and 4 over the past few weeks. With loose parts and round wooden boards as their base, the children have completed a wonderful array of mosaics with the emergence of patterns coming to the forefront. This type of play focuses not only the pre maths skills but also on the concepts of negotiating and teamwork as groups of children share the resources and discuss “what comes next? Button, pebble, shell, button… the pebble comes next” which encompasses emerging skills of seriation (for example; biggest to smallest) and serial order (for example; following a pattern).
“Mathematicians say that math is the study of patterns. It is the structure in numbers and the patterns and structures in geometry. The foundations for remembering the counting sequence and comprehending numerical operations are supported by patterning. Therefore, children will be better able to foresee the future and draw logical conclusions if they know patterns and relationships. It serves as a crucial foundation for later mathematical reasoning and thought.” Awesome Preschool.com (2022)
During our day at Reddam, the children follow patterns in our routines and curriculum such as the times of the day i.e arriving at school, morning tea, experiences, group times, lunch, rest, afternoon tea, outdoor experiences, and departing school for home. Even having lunch children choose a plate, a fork, a spoon, and their drink bottle. This patterning assists with their 1 to1 correspondence which in turn increases their ability to count using a corresponding object to a number. In math, patterns are repeating or growing sequences of objects, shapes, or numbers governed by a rule. Hence, this rule tells us which objects belong to the pattern and which do not. We can relate a pattern to any type of event or object in the world and mathematics. Identifying the rule of a pattern brings predictability and allows us to make generalizations. They can be found in many forms; visual, auditory, movement, and temporal. Awesome preschool.com (2022)
The educators here at Reddam are amazed at the wonderful patterns that are being produced by the children. Stage 3 children have come a long way in such a short time by becoming precise with their placement of the resources when using pattern board and also using their skills of classification when packing the materials away back into their bowls.
NEWSLETTER 18th November 2022
Reminders
Graduation and Christmas Concert
These dates have now been confirmed with all classrooms so please lock into your diaries. All family members are welcome to attend.
Tuesday 6 th December 2022 9:30am 4E
Wednesday 7 th December 2022 3pm 3E
Thursday 8 th December 2022 9:30am 4R
Tuesday 13 th December 2022 3pm 2E
Tuesday 13 th December 2022 3pm 1R
Wednesday 14 th December 2022 3pm 1E
Thursday 15 th December 2022 3pm 2R
Friday 16 th December 2022 3pm 3R
2023 Enrolments
Enrolments for 2023 are now being finalised. Please contact Chenise if you have any questions or queries
2022/2023 Closure
The school’s last day for 2022 will ne Friday 23rd December. We will be commencing for 2023 on Monday 9th of January.
Looking forward to chatting with you soon.
Christine Irwin Principal
Continued...
Principal’s Message
2
By Heather Gaskall
This week we are continuing our look into ‘The Wide World of Animals’ with a focus on fairies and mythical creatures. The children have been just loving exploring the various groups of animals we have already focused on and are excited every morning to see what is set up on the sensory table. We started our week off with a step into the realm of fairies, fairies are magical mischievous creatures who usually have a human like appearance but are a very small version. Miss Doris did a beautiful sensory experience with the children, she created a fairy soup. This was a potion of mixed flowers from our very own garden beds which the children often help tend to. She then invited the children to use a variety of scoops to transfer the potion from the large container to smaller jars. This experience is great for turn taking, eye hand coordination, and fine motor skills.
The next creature on our investigations was the Unicorn, these are very popular mythical creatures who even have their own day for celebration, April 9th. The sensory tray for this day involved the children using their imaginations to explore a unicorn small world play. They engaged with miniature trees, unicorn figurines, purple magic sand, and natural materials to create their own imaginary unicorn world. Additionally later in the day, the children were able to experiment with unicorn snot slime. This is a lovely sparkly and glittery explosion of slime. The children spent time squishing and stretching the slime, mixing green, red, and blue to make rainbows.
Of course, you cannot say you have experienced the full experience until the dress ups come out. And just how much do our little ones enjoy dressing up? Everyone couldn’t wait for their turn to try on a tutu or fairy wings and wave the magical wands about. It does not matter whether you are a boy or a girl there is so much fun in putting on a dress up.
All this was followed by continuing with Mermaids and Dragons. The children made play dough mermaid tails and decorated them with sequins which represented the scales on the mermaid's tail. They explored a dragon lair complete with volcanos and a dragon's nest containing eggs. What a super imaginative experience for all.
Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend Heather, Doris, Jenny, Jaycel and Yali
Stage 1R
3
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” (Mohandas Gandhi)
4 Stage 1R:
5 Stage 1R:
By Charity Acera
“Please don’t rush me to write. I will, soon enough but right now, there are so many more important things that my hands have to do.” (Anonymous)
There is no rush for little hands to write. There are many more important things for them to explore using the small group muscles of their hands. Little hands need time to build and strengthen all those muscles. And little minds need time to figure out how all those muscles work. Supporting this crucial development involving their dexterity, this week was filled with activities that promoted and challenged our young learners’ fine motor abilities.
Lacing/Threading sensory play and peeling off tape were amongst the great challenges for our little hands. Grasping the wooden items with holes strengthens the children's hands for pencil grip when they are ready to write. Also, this allowed them to practice their impulse control as they steady the rolls to keep the ball on top of each roll. Holding one's hand steady is a great way to build muscles and arm strength.
Extending on this, another confidence skill we practiced with the children was helping and encouraging them to put on their socks. This is a great confidence booster once the children master this task. It was a fun time watching the children try to get their socks on and then the pleasure as they succeeded. The scribble table was still employed today as we continue to build on the children's eye hand coordination and wrist manipulation skills crucial for their pre writing abilities.
Next week will be all about the second part of , which requires whole body movement and which involves the large muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing and walking, running and jumping, and sitting upright at the table.
Wishing everyone a great weekend! Charity, May, Mary, Rowel, Resie and Yash
Stage 1E
6
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8 Stage 1E:
Stage 2R
By Sara Haddadi
It has been a great five weeks of encouraging 2R to develop an understanding that every culture has its own traditions, beliefs, and values and helping them treat each other with respect and dignity from an early age. This week, we travelled to England.
Throughout the week, the children were offered a variety of learning experiences to learn more about English culture and its interesting facts and beliefs. We realised that the London Zoo was the first zoo in the world. The London Eye is the world's giant Ferris wheel. London's famous red buses weren't always red, which we thought was funny; surprisingly, London is a forest.
Our England Rice Sensory Trays filled with colours related to the union jack flag were great for colour recognition and sorting! Moreover, the children were encouraged to create an English Rose Garden using red roses and magic sand.
Afternoon tea, the quintessential of English customs, is, perhaps surprisingly, a relatively new tradition. A selection of small sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, cakes, and pastries make up traditional English afternoon tea. 2R was encouraged to create playdough cupcakes and had the freedom to explore the imaginary world. By engaging with this experience, the children developed spatial awareness (experimenting with shape and space), eye and hand coordination, fine motor skills, creative thinking, concentration, and oral language skills.
Inspired by the English afternoon tea tradition, 2R enjoyed another cooking experience as we made British Scones with a little jam; we thought they tasted the best in the world! We also baked banana cupcakes and practised our following directions and maths skills. We all gathered as a team to celebrate the week as we enjoyed our afternoon tea.
Children naturally compare themselves to other children and make observations about those differences. On the other hand, it's up to us as adults to demonstrate acceptance of cultural diversity for children and to frame it as a strength. By promoting tolerance for cultural diversity, we assisted 2R in strengthening their sense of self, discovering their cultural roots, developing an appreciation for cultures other than their own, learning to respect differences, and recognising the characteristics all people have in common.
“Children are our most valuable resource.” (Herbert Hoover)
10 Stage 2R:
11 Stage 2R:
By Mia Doan
“If the children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings and grow.” (Alfie Kohn)
This week’s focus was ‘When I’m feeling Blue’. We had a chance to see Blue Monster this week and learnt more about what sadness feel like. The important thing about feelings, especially negative ones, is to teach children to recognise them, guide them the words on how to express them, and how to express them in healthy ways. Sharing worries and sad stories with a friend/ teacher/family member can help us cope with negative feelings.
This week’s activities were filled up with blue colours. 2E friends explored the magnetic concept through a simple fishing activity. This game is a great way to strengthen hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. The children patiently balanced the rod and aimed to catch their favourite marine animals. Another day, the fizzy wavy ocean offered a nice fizzy sound that triggered all of the senses when our children dropped blue vinegar into baking soda. They also adored the 'bubble' reaction and cannot take their eyes off. Excitingly, 2E children marvelled as they splashed and dived various ocean animals through the water filled with waterbeads. The animals with open mouths could gulp up the waterbeads and some of our children watched as they emptied the animals mouths and tipped the water from one animal to the next.
We enjoyed reading a special book titled Hope by Sebastien Pelon & Corrine Averiss. This is a story about a boy and his dog. They do everything together, until the day the dog gets sick and must spend the night at the vet hospital. The boy is of course very sad that night alone in his room, sitting in the darkness. His dad enters with a flashlight, and explains hope is like a light: "Hope is keeping a little light on, however dark things seem." After his father leaves, the boy keeps the flashlight on, and then notices the moonlight and the twinkling stars outside. There are also street lights in the illustrations and lit up windows. The child then drifts off to sleep, hoping hoping will make everything all right. When do 2E children feel sad?
Alyssa: "When my mummy and daddy are away"
Lucas W: "When I see a big snake"
Jasper: "When I see a little snake"
Noah: "When Mello is sick"
At the art table, we got inspired from Van Gogh's art, Starry Night. Starry Night is one of the most recognized pieces of art in the world. Our friends were offered different shades of blue, yellow and white to paint their artwork by using sponge.
Have a fantastic weekend,
Stage 2E
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14 Stage 2E:
By Grace Nolan
Dear families, what an exciting week its been in 3R! We extended on the groups evolving interest around animals. You may have noticed some changes in the room as we adapted some spaces to allow the children to further explore their growing curiosity around dinosaurs into fossils.
This meant that oobleck and slime were added as well as a few of the class favourites including drawing, loose parts play, letter tracing and matching upper and lower case letters. One group worked with shaving cream, oobleck and paint brushes. The children took turns trying to brush and clean small dinosaurs from the shaving cream or oobleck as if discovering the dinosaur fossils hidden underneath.
The children were invited to practise their stapling skills and fine motor as they created a Dinosaur using heads, bodies, legs and tails to mix and match. Another small group saw children going on a number hunt, where they were given number cards for each friend to find and match numbers around their walk. Each time the children found their number they received a sticker on their cards!
In our morning meeting we discussed “What are palaeontologists looking for?” Some responses included:
“Clues!” Sebastien “Bones” Angus “Fossils” Luka “Dig them up” Tarik
“Then they put them back together!” Harry As a follow on question we asked How do dinosaurs become a fossil? “Slip in some mud” Michael “They fall in the water” Angus “A lot of fossils will never be seen again” Edmund “They fall in the water and then they can not be seen” Jayden
Utilising small groupings has allowed us to uncover so many branching interests in regard to this weeks focus, we are very exited to continue exploring and extending where the children show curiosity around dinosaurs, bones, asteroids and animal anatomy.
Have a wonderful weekend! 3R Team
Stage 3R
15
“I believe implicitly that every young child in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs” (Peter Benchley)
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By Laura Ashcroft
During Week 5, the children were introduced to literacy through art, where they were able to explore famous artists including Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. The children seemed to enjoy listening to different factual information about both artists, where they could draw their own conclusions from, share their ideas, and listen to each other's viewpoints.
They were invited into various creative experiences where they could replicate their own version of a “Starry Night” by using pencils and crayons, as well as revisit Van Gogh’s installation exhibition in Melbourne online. This allowed the children to gain insight into the different colours, shapes and sizes the artist used throughout many of his artworks, as the imagery bounced around on the walls on the video.
The children enjoyed engaging with free painting where they could mix different colours together, and experiment with the pleasure of smudging colours together onto paper. This allowed the children to engage with self expression and be as creative as possible for their own purposes and interests. As a challenge, the children were invited to explore one of Pablo Picasso’s abstract artworks where they had to find the teacups hidden in his artwork. Some of the children were able to see them very closely! This allowed the children to also work together, and then draw their own versions of different teacups. Well done!
Warm regards, Laura, Natalie, Kai and Margaret
Stage 3E
18
“The world of reality has its limits, the world of imagination is boundless” (Jean Jacques Rousseau)
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20 Stage 3E:
This week we explored ‘Signs and Symbols’. We read 'The Lost Thing' by Shaun Tan and identified lots of signs and symbols in the illustrations. We saw signs that meant, 'Stop', 'Do not touch', 'Turn right' and more. We also read 'Beep, Beep, Let's Go' by Eleanor Taylor and saw lots of different signs in the city. We discussed traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and how signs tell people what to do and where to go.
This week we also explored Aboriginal symbols. We looked at some Aboriginal symbols and learnt their meanings. Then we read three books by Ros Moriarty, 'Summer Rain', 'Splosh for the Billabong' and 'What's that There?'. In these books we saw a variety of symbols such as kangaroo tracks, waterholes, brolga tracks, rocks and billabongs. We discussed how symbols are common in Aboriginal art and are used to write down stories because Aboriginal people do not have a written language.
Our exploration this week also led us to think about maps. We read ‘What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. We looked at the map the bad guys use to navigate their way around the farm and discussed that by looking at maps we can tell where things are and how to get places. We also read 'Maps and Mapping' by Deborah Chancellor which is an informative book that taught us how maps are created, why maps are useful and what types of maps there are. We looked at a variety of maps in the book and noticed that maps are full of symbols. We used the key to work out what each symbol represented.
The drawing table was set up with maps of the zoo, a museum and treasure maps as provocation for their drawings. We looked at these maps and noticed that they were full of symbols. We brainstormed what each symbol on the map could mean, and then the children created their own maps.
At our sensory table, the children created Aboriginal symbols out of playdough, drew symbols in the sand trays and looked at different road, safety and construction symbols. We practiced our numeracy skills by identifying how much money each coin represented and then sorting these coins by their value. At the literacy table the children have been practicing their writing by looking at weather symbols and describing them as 'sunny', 'rainy', 'partly cloudy' etc.
In block corner, the children have been provided with a variety of signs to use in their building. Today the children were busy placing signs around their roads and train tracks and directing traffic accordingly.
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“What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posed by nature” (Shakuntala Devi)
Stage 4R By Hazel Whybrow
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This week, 4E focused on the black Colour Monster who represents fear. When we feel scared and frightened, our heart beats faster, we might sweat or have a tummy ache. We might have a phobia that we need to work through and perhaps it will take us a few attempts before we feel more confident about trying something new. Everyone is scared of something and that’s okay. We can always rely on our parents, teachers and friends to talk through our fears and feel safe again. Our story of the week was called When I'm Feeling Scared by Trace Moroney. We read how Bunny was scared of the dark, creepy, crawly spiders, and of bullies in the schoolyard. Thankfully, we have a bully free zone at Reddam and they are not welcome here. We discussed how spiders are usually more afraid of us because we are much bigger, and that the dark can play tricks on us at night.
During our morning session, the children explored the various learning stations around our classroom. At our manipulation table, the children engaged with a dark forest sensory tray that featured Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf to role play with. Our next tray had black sand, stones, scoops and sieves to correspond with our black Colour Monster's scared feelings. Our purple playdough also featured black bats, rats, and spiders to incorporate into the children's creations. In our small world area, the children roleplayed with some forest animals including a moose, bears, ducks, eagle, spiders, and fish. There was also a secret wooden door the children seemed very interested in and they used the natural wooden items to create various habitats for the animals. The children enjoyed the sunny weather and time in the sandpit. There was a lot of interest in baking with the kitchen utensils from our sandpit box, where the children filled up the muffin tins with sand, and poured and scooped the ingredients as if they were following a recipe. We also filled our storage box up with water and the children have learnt that to be sustainable, they need to use the water wisely. Once that water is gone, it's gone. The children took their shoes and socks off and enjoyed burying their legs and feet in the damp sand, while others filled up pans of water to soak their feet in and cool down.
Our fairy tale of the week is Little Red Riding Hood. We already encountered the Big Bad Wolf in The Three Little Pigs fairy tale, and now he was back! We followed Little Red Riding Hood along the forest path to Granny's house. Along the way, the Wolf stopped her and asked her where she was going. When Little Red Riding Hood arrived, she noticed Granny was not herself and before she knew it, she was also inside Wolf's belly. Luckily, a woodcutter came past, shook Wolf upside down, and both of them fell out. Our class then reflected on the story and how it had a villain the wolf and a hero our voices so the audience can hear us and facing the audience when we say our lines
Thank you for a lovely week in our classroom! Next week we will focus on the green Colour Monster who feels calm and relaxed, and read
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“The beautiful thing about fear is that when you run to it, it runs away.” (Robin Sharma)
Stage 4E By Lauren Hall
Stage 4E: 25
Stage 4E: 26
Playball
Hi everyone!
By Coach Lauren
We started our lesson today with the “forwards/backwards” game. When Lauren blows her whistle once, we walk forwards; when Lauren blows her whistle twice, we walk backwards, but.....Lauren went faster and faster and faster until we were all just dancing up and down. We were laughing and laughing! Guess what Lauren brought to Playball today......yes, a T ball T and T ball bats. Yay, a T Ball day!!!
Lauren set out 4 bases (mats) in a diamond shape on the court. We all had the opportunity to run to 1st base; 2nd base, 3rd base and then HOME BASE, making sure we touched each base with our foot. We actually had a mini game of T ball. We all had a turn to place a ball on the T ball T, grip the t ball bat correctly (Lauren taught us how), 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, swinging from one shoulder to another. We drop our bat and run from base to base while the other team are the fielders and do their best to get the T ball “batters” out.
Each team wore different coloured bibs and we felt like such cool sports. We even got into a “team huddle” and decided on a name for our team. You should hear some of our crazy names : The Watermelons, The Crazy Kangaroos, The Super Duper Heroes and the list goes on...... We practiced our rolling skills always remembering to use our feet as the starting point. Lauren positioned us in partners and we stood opposite our Playball partner with our legs apart and played such a fun game where we had to try and roll the ball through our friend’s legs while our partner tried to stop the ball from going through using “cage hands” (two hands joined together and spread open so as to minimise entry through our legs). Lauren placed mats in a row across the court and we had the opportunity to step on the mats, always remembering to stretch from one mat to the next, in order to reach the other side. We watched our fellow Playball friends and cheered them on! We all ran around the court and Lauren tried to catch us by rolling a ball at our feet. We know that we don’t get cross or upset if Lauren catches us
Another fun
You’re the best.
Lauren ☺
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By Chloe Lin
Dear families,
As the weather gets warmer, we can enjoy in the warm sunshine every day. As the seasons change, we can also taste different delicacies, and this week we have a conversation about food.
This week's theme is “What Do You Like To Eat?（Nǐ xǐhuān chī shénme? 你喜歡吃什麼？), “ I like to eat …(Wǒ xǐhuān chī我喜歡吃)” Through the simple song melody and echo game, let the children become familiar with Chinese sentence patterns. At the same time, we also learn new vocabularies such as water, bubble milk tea, orange juice, hamburger, pizza, salad, dumplings, pasta, etc.
Through repeated practice, children can easily learn foreign languages or speak their own mother tongue more confidently, which will increase children's chances of self confidence in the classroom. At the end of the class, we used the bell game to give children the opportunity to hug their favourite friends and teachers and say I love you. Every Mandarin class draw a joyful ending with laughter.
See you next week!
Chloe
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Mandarin
