Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter - St Leonards - Issue 22 Vol 3 by Reddam House Sydney

11th February 2022

Principal’s Message

By Mrs Simone Cooke

Dear Families, Each week the teachers share with you the ‘Provocations’ that they are exploring in their classrooms. Many of our new families may wonder exactly what this means. In essence a provocation is exactly what the name suggests, it is a purposeful prompt that inspires inquiry, investigation and curiosity. It is a term that originates from the Reggio Emilia approach which underpins our programme here at Reddam. A provocation is designed to provoke and invite interest, creativity and discussion. It encourages children to think critically, respond creatively and expand learning, interests and skill development. Provocations are designed to be open ended and allow for children to be active participants in their learning, they enable children to have some control over the direction of what they learn about and therefore encourages them to be more engaged. Rather than merely offering children a range of toys to play with each day, the teacher thoughtfully and creatively sets up intentional learning prompts and experiences based upon an area of interest. These may be based on broad questions posed by the children, such as What is a celebration? What lives in the Ocean? or What is the solar system? Provocations are very diverse and reflect the age and interests of the class. It can range from exploring photography, to studying the solar system or investigating dinosaurs. Because young children are concrete learners a provocation always contains a ‘hands on’ approach. Each of the projects of enquiry and discovery that the Teachers have designed have been carefully planned and are based on observations they have made of your children, so that they are relevant to their specific needs and interests, making it a highly individualised programme. The Reggio approach makes good use of the physical environment, which acts as a “third teacher,’ allowing space and time for discovery. and providing ample opportunities for children to express themselves. Whilst provocations 1

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Principal’s Message Continued... are based on children’s interests, our Teachers employ intentional teaching strategies to extend upon these in order to create new and deeper understandings and challenge the children to consider how we can investigate further. This provides a wonderful balance between child led and teacher led learning. Here at Reddam we are strong believers in collaboration. Provocations provide us withwonderful opportunities to have our children work together on projects, which encouragesthem to explore, observe, hypothesize, question and discuss. We want our children to be able to “think outside the square‟ and recognise that there are lots of questions to ask, but no one single answer. We aim to develop in each child processing skills that empowers them to make choices, decode problems and unlock talents that allows them to reach their full potential as a learner. This Term the children are exploring the following wide range of exciting Provocations, which are child-centered and reflect our children’s current interests and ideas. These encourage our children to experiment and draw their own conclusions through active participation.

25th Oc

Stage 4R - Family Connections Stage 4E - What is Weather? Stage 4D - I am ME! Stage 3/4 - Understanding Clouds. Stage 3R - I Can. Stage 3E - Aboriginal Culture Stage 2R - Discovering the Alphabet Stage 1E - Under the Sea Stage 1R - Nursery Rhymes “Observe and listen to children because when they ask “Why?” they are not simply asking for an answer from you. They are requesting the courage to find a collection of possible answers” - Loris Malaguzzi ( Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach)

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Principal’s Message

25th Oc

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Stage 4R

Ms Lauren Doughton

Forever Connected As we move into our second week of the school term for 2022 we have looked at how relationships within our lives are important and how it impacts us as a human. Our main ones being families and friends both in which we see here at Reddam each and everyday. According to the Early Years learning Framework it states that “children are much more likely to reach their full potential in life when their family and education and care service work together”. These benefits are evident when families and educators exchange information regularly and collaborate on consistent approaches to daily routines, child development and learning. Experiences of relationships and participation in communities contribute to children’s belonging, being and becoming. From the time a child is born they will experience living and learning with others in a range of communities. These might include families, local communities or early childhood settings. Having a positive sense of identity and experiencing respectful, responsive relationships strengthens children’s interest and skills in being and becoming active contributors to their world. As children move into early childhood settings they broaden their experiences as participants in different relationships and communities. With this all in mind we have provided the children this week with activities and experiences that help them form new friendships, maintain their current ones, talk about their families and much more. We had some big discussions this week on how we connected to our family? And what does family mean to you? Some of the responses were;

Family means we can eat dumplings together- Felix R Family means we can go to restaurants- Kai I am connected to my family because we love each other- Mavis I am connected to my family by kissing them and hugging them- Georgia I am connected to my family by loving them- Rafael Family means play time- Ruaan

Family mean family means “I love you” Zemirah Family means girls nights- Savannah After having our discussions with the children they were able to draw a picture of who is in their family and paint it using acrylic paints. We also had a bead making table for the children to make bracelets either for themselves or for someone special. Next week we will be exploring the children's creative side and participating in art, music and so much more.

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Stage 4R

Ms Lauren Doughton

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Stage 4R: Family Connections

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Stage 4R: Friendship Bracelet Creations

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Stage 4E

By Ms Sarah Ross

Rain and the water cycle This week the Stage Four children explored how rain is created and discovered the water cycle. We had many in-depth discussions this week about what happens to water as it repeatedly goes on its journey through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Many of the children expressed their interest the precipitation stage of the cycle leading to questions such as; ‘What is hail and sleet? And what do they look like?’ This led to some research where as a class we looked online at some images of hail stones and sleet and what the sky looks like during a hail storm. At the end of the week the children reflected on what they had learnt and shared some of their knowledge about the water cycle; “It goes around and around again” – Flynn “The water goes to the sun” – Ria “After the water goes up it turns into clouds” – Augusten “Rain comes down from the clouds” – Thomas “Precipitation is when the rain drops get heavier and fall down” – Azure “The ice can come down with the water” – Aiden “The water goes up to the sky” - Charlotte

Rainy day art After our in-depth discussions about the water cycle Stage Four were invited to create their very own representation of a rainy day. First, we discussed what rain looks like when it is falling from the sky and reaches ground. Many of the children identified that rain drops look like straight lines as they fall and then turn into puddles once reaching the ground. The children were then supplied with oil pastels that they used to draw rain drops and puddles. Next, the children used water colours to fill in the sky and create dark clouds. Stage Four demonstrated confidence in their abilities throughout and were very proud of the end results.

Rain drop counting In numeracy this week the children have been practicing reading numerals from 1-20 during group lessons and play. This practice supported Stage Four when introduced to our rain drop counting activity. Stage Four were provided with clouds with numbers on them. They were then asked to read the numerals and then calculate how many rain drops they would need to place underneath each cloud. The children then used shiny blue gems to count out the amount needed to place underneath the cloud. From this experience the Stage Four children learnt about the concept of one to one correspondence which is the ability to recognise that a number represents a quantity. As Stage Four engaged in the lesson, they were able to visually see the differences in amounts and relate them to each number up to 20. The children loved this activity and all expressed that they look forward to similar numeracy experiences in the future. 8

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Stage 4E

By Ms Sarah Ross

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Stage 4E: Rainy Day Art

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Stage 4E: Rain Drop Counting

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Stage 4D

By Ms Emily Chacon

I am CONNECTED “Children’s identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills and relationships change during childhood. They are shaped by many different events and circumstances. Becoming reflects this process of rapid and significant change that occurs in the early years as young children learn and grow. It emphasises learning to participate fully and actively in society.” - The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Our goal as teachers, is to ensure that all children feel safe, secure and supported in their school environment, as well as gaining a sense of belonging. This week we explored all areas of our lives that make us feel confident and allow us to gain that feeling of being loved. Throughout the week the children engaged in various group discussions and activities that reflected on each part of their communities they belong to, family, friends, school and cocurricular activities. During our class sessions we talked about what makes us connected and how it makes us feel. We created a mind-map of the children’s voices: Clementine – “helping other people makes me happy” Emily – “being with my friends makes me feel loved” Jayden – “being nice to my friends makes me feel connected” Louise – “playing with my sister makes me happy” Kingsley – “playing with the teachers makes me happy” Radha – “play with my mum and dad makes me feel happy” On our big table we lay down a piece of butcher’s paper and across the week the children used coloured crayons as well as paint to create a class collage. It was wonderful to see the children working together and creating as a group. Once finished we waited for it to dry and then cut it into interlocking puzzle pieces, to represent our class belonging together. On our other table, the children were encouraged to create a bracelet for either themselves or a friend. Friendships benefit children by creating a sense of belonging and security to their school environment, it also reduces stress and anxiety. Child psychologists find early childhood friendships contribute to children’s quality of life and ability to adjust to changes within their environments. Friendships also help children develop important life skills like getting along with other people and sorting out conflicts and problems.

For art the children were asked what family means to them, it was lovely to hear many different definitions. Emma – “Family means I am loved” Alison – “family means we live together” Patrick – “Family means we are kind” Chloe – “Family means we are different” Deyanna – “Family means lots of love” Yvette – “Family means we spend time together” Underneath their description the children then drew their family with black markers and coloured them with paint. Every child had a different outlook on their home life and loved talking about their family members.

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Stage 4D

By Ms Emily Chacon

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Stage 4D: Letters & Drawing Collage

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Stage 4D: Friendship Bracelets

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Stage 3/4

By Ms Riina Andrew

Understanding Clouds This week, we enjoyed a Power point presentation of Clouds. The presentation allowed us to explore the different types of clouds in the sky and what these clouds mean. We focused on the four most observed clouds: •

Cirrus - the highest form of clouds that look like wispy paintbrush strokes and are made up of ice crystals. These clouds are normally white and predict pleasant weather.

•

Cumulus – are storm clouds and are enormous. The rain from these clouds is sudden and dramatic. They also produce snow, hailstones and cause thunder and lightning.

•

Stratus – these are the most common types of clouds, they lay low and act as a block to the sun. They can be white through to dark grey and often mean it is going to rain!

•

Nimbus – clouds which can join other types of clouds and usually bring rain and snow.

We then decided to try to make our own clouds using shaving foam and blue dye. Each child was given a tray of white fluffy clouds (shaving foam) and was allowed the opportunity to add blue dye to make the sky. Then using their hands, the children mixed the shaving foam to create their very own cloud. “It feels super sticky” exclaimed Tianze. “It feels cold” said Ashton. “I like it” expressed Matthias. To finish the activity, we placed a At the playdough table, we used blue dough to mould our own rain drops to make a storm scene. We used cotton balls to represent the clouds and small blue gems to represent hail. Using our hands to manipulate the dough, the children created their own 3D masterpiece and shared their creation with their peers. Our final activity this week was when we enjoyed the children’s news presentations. The class have been very excited to share their special items from home. Mark presented a storybook about a dog called ‘Marshall’, Sarah shared her ‘sea shell’, Ashton showed us an ‘aeroplane’ and an ‘apple’, Lucas presented a photo of himself tending to his ‘lemon’ tree and also bought in a ‘lemon’ from that tree! We also enjoyed Cyon and his magic ‘clock’, Megan shared her ‘mermaid’, Lucien’s photo of his brother ‘Lachlan’ and Leo Z presented a puzzle piece of a ‘lion’. Thank you for all the wonderful news presentations. I cannot wait to see what items ¾ will share next week!

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Stage 3/4

By Ms Riina Andrew

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Stage 3/4: Cloud Sensory Exploration

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Stage 3/4: Creating Rain Drops & Storm Scenes

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Stage 3E

By Ms Bianca Lazar

I Can “Today you are you, That is truer than true. There is no one alive that is YOUER than YOU!” - Dr. Seuss I Can write! This week’s focus has been about preparing children to begin to write their names. Each day we have predominantly been focusing on letter recognition and the beginning sound of our name. Children have displayed great enthusiasm and excitement within this topic and are very eager to create their names using the materials and resources set up on the learning tables. “I start with letter S!” – Sofia. M “M for Morgan! M for mummy!” – Morgan “J for James!” – James “A for me” – Aneilia “O for Oliver!” – Oliver In addition, we have implemented phonemic awareness into our preschool program throughout our morning transitions each day. The alphabet flash cards are utilised to assist children to correlate an individual sound with its corresponding letter or letter group. The more they can hear, identify, and manipulate sounds, the more effortlessly it will be for them to begin to decode new words when they are ready to read. I Can sign in This week we introduced our new ‘sign in’ area to the children. Every child was asked to first find their name and try to copy their name to sign themselves in. All children carefully attempted to identify their name in our sign in folder. Many children then independently traced their name on the dotted lines, before requesting the support of their teacher to complete the task. We hope to continue to implement our new sign in experience every morning as we practise and master name writing.

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Stage 3E

By Ms Bianca Lazar

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Stage 3E: I Can Sign In & Write

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Stage 3E: Sand Writing

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Stage 2/3 & 3R

By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes

Aboriginal Culture Culture is central to a child’s individuality, identity and sense of belonging and success in lifelong learning. To support the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and to enhance the knowledge of non-Indigenous children, Reddam pays attention to the cultural identity of the Aboriginal community in which we are situated. The Early Years Learning Framework asks teachers to build upon children’s understandings of diversity. Stage 3 has been Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture, this allows our children to develop respect for diversity and understanding of cultural difference. This week we started by exploring the different kind of shelters in which aboriginal people lived. We started the experience by looking at some photos of the different shelter options then the children were invited to create their own. We offered rocks, sticks, leaves and other natural resources. Emmett decided he wanted to make a house for the wombat to live in while Matilda asked her teachers if her sister could live inside her house. It was great to observe the different creations and also listen to the children’s conversations while they were at work. There is so much about Australia that we can explore, however, the children have been interested in the beautiful art of our indigenous Australians. With this in mind we set up a provocation for the children to make their own version of the traditional musical instruments called clapping sticks. We decorated some thick Popsicle sticks to make our clapping sticks. The choices of colours that we used were a intentional decision; brown (representing Australian soil), red (representing Australian desert sand) and white (representing clouds), which are colours commonly used in Aboriginal art.

Soon enough the sticks were dry and ready to be used as wonderful clapping sticks. The sound of the wooden pieces hitting together made the most terrific sound and perfect for keeping a musical beat. During group time the children took my lead and clapped their sticks together in such a way that I described. Fast, slow, quiet, loud were great words that I chose to help build their understanding of language and connecting those words to a movement. In another learning station we set up an invitation for the children to create their own aboriginal flags. Using loose materials the children closely examined the colours and we talked about the importance of the aboriginal people within our community. The flag represents cultural resilience, affirmation and identity. The Aboriginal flag is divided horizontally into equal halves of black (top) and red (bottom), with a yellow circle in the centre. The black symbolizes the Aboriginal people and the yellow symbolizes the sun, the constant giver of life. We finished off this week by creating a beautiful piece of aboriginal art work. Aboriginal art is one of the oldest art forms and consists primarily of symbols. These symbols were used as a means of communication of their life, their rituals, and their customs. A lot of the Aboriginal Art we saw were hand patterns and this is what we concentrated on this week. The Aboriginal people would mix crushed ochre, water and animal fat to make these hand patterns. Sometimes they used brushes they made from human hair, reeds or feathers, other times they would put this mixture into their mouths and blew across their hand, which was resting on a rock surface. The children were invited to create their own hand patterns but on a piece of paper instead of rocks like the aboriginal people used to do. We placed some watercolour liquid paints in spray bottles, added a small amount of water, placed the lid on tight and shake to mix. We role modelled how we should place our hands onto the paper and using the other hand spray the paint over our hands. It was a lot of muscles being used in this experience and a great hand eye coordination activity.

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Stage 2/3 & 3R

By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes

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Stage 2/3: Creating Indigenous Clapping Sticks

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Stage 2/3: Creating Aboriginal Flag

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Stage 2R

By Ms Madeleine Grant

Discovering the Alphabet This week we explored the letters D, E and F through activities based on the interests of the class. We looked at dinosaurs, emergency services, and flowers, and the overarching theme of the week was encouraging the children to extend their social skills by interacting with each other as they played. We talked about sharing the resources and giving everyone a fair turn, and using our kind words and gentle hands when dealing with others.

D is for Dinosaurs During free play times the children have shown great interest in playing with our dinosaur toys, so it was an easy choice to make our D activity a prehistoric small world set up. We created two dinosaur habitats; grassy fields with wooden blocks and miniature trees, and aquatic trays with shredded blue paper and smooth pebbles. The children sat in small groups and explored the set up together, interacting with each other through the roles of their dinosaurs and moving the pieces to construct an ideal environment for their toys. As they played we encouraged them to use their words, either by attempting to pronounce the dinosaurs names, or searching their vocabularies to describe them with words like ‘spiky’, ‘long or ‘scary’!

E is for Emergency The children loved dressing up in our emergency services dramatic play area! Here they found firefighters jackets, doctors kits and police helmets, as well as police cars, fire engines and ambulances, and telephones for calling triple zero. They were so excited to dress up and play together, and showed great social awareness as they negotiated who got to use which props and when to swap resources so that everyone got a turn.

F is for Flowers We bought some freshly cut purple chrysanthemums to use in place of paintbrushes for our art project. The flowers were dipped in a range of floral-coloured paints, and the children stamped imprints of the petals across the page. Through this exercise they were encouraged to think about the way they were using the flowers, as the delicate petals were prone to falling away if pressed too hard. We asked them to show us their ‘gentle hands’ and be careful as they painted so as not to hurt the precious flowers. The end result was an explosion of bright colours and intricate petal shapes! Next week the flower theme will continue onto the letter G as we head outside for Gardening. We will also tie in with Valentine’s Day by exploring H is for Heart and talking about all the things we love, and whipping up a fun sensory experience as we do I is for Ice Cream!

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Stage 2R

By Ms Madeleine Grant

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Stage 2R: D is for Dinosaurs

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Stage 2R: F is for flowers

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Stage 1E

By Ms Justine Heydra & Alessia Angilletta

Under the Sea "Curiosity is the very basis of education." - Arnold Edinborough This week in Stage 1E we continued our “Under the Sea” provocation. The children are all loving our classroom fish and many of them go to say “Hello Fish” upon arrival in class. This week we had so many sensory activities for the children to participate in and enjoy. Our first sensory activity was table trays filled with vibrant blue coloured sand. We added sea shells and different sea animals for the children to explore and play with. They all adored this activity and were mesmorised with the blue sand. Some of the children used the larger shells to scoop the blue sand up with. This sensory activity encouraged fine-motor development , expansion of their vocabulary and coordination. The second sensory activity was Jumbo-Waterbeads. This sensory activity was definitely a class favourite. At the end of last week, the children were introduced to the waterbeads and saw the process of placing them into water. On Monday the waterbeads had grown to approximately a toddler’s hand size and the children had the opportunity to play and explore with our waterbeads. They all loved the feel of the waterbeads. As the children tried to pick them up , they would slip out of their hands and we referred to them as slippery fish. Our group sensory activity this week was a bright and colourful ocean themed tuff tray. Our tray focused on blue rice representing the ocean , green pasta that was the seaweed and natural woods to represent the land. We had various animals both on land and in the water for the children to explore with. The children worked on their vocabulary by repeating the names of the animals they chose to play with. This sensory filled activity was thoroughly enjoyed by the children and the level of curiosity and concentration on their faces is absolutely priceless. Lastly our art this week was a great painting activity that involved painting with ice blocks shaped as both fish and starfish. The children each had the opportunity to create their own art piece by playing and exploring with their fish and starfish on their paper. They loved the ice blocks and all commented on how cold the ice was. Ice painting is a great sensory activity as it strengthens fine-motor skills and is great for exploring texture. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

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Stage 1E

By Ms Justine Heydra & Alessia Angilletta

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Stage 1E: Under The Sea Sensory Play

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Stage 1E: Ocean Habitat Exploration

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Stage 1R

By Ms Amanda Felton

Nursery Rhymes "Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck....ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!" It was all aboard the fire engine as our Provocation this week was driven by the rhyme "Hurry, hurry drive the fire truck" as our little ones absolutely love this song, which is full of action and movement. Each of the children enjoyed this as it created so much excitement.The children hurried around the 1R room with their fire trucks as they enjoyed the spontaneous experience where each child was invited to choose what they would like to do. The trucks were very popular and the children were very drawn to the ladders and alarms on the truck. Another favourite was the fire truck puzzle. It is lovely to see our children so engaged and stimulated by these new experiences and taking in everything and exploring with all their senses. Painting the fire truck was fun too! Getting messy was all part of the enjoyment of course. Whilst it is a little hard at this age as the concept of paper and paint don't really go together....they love the opportunity to pick up a paintbrush and see the effects of their actions . Squishing paint through hands, manipulating the brushes and dipping the paint into the containers are all new experiences for many of the children and it was wonderful to see how many new aspiring artists we have in our midst! Painting with young children not only assists their creative and fine motor development but also stimulates the brain by encouraging free expression. The children are beautifully settled in Stage 1E and are enjoying exploring their room and finding new things to play with. It is a delight to see them starting to interact and be aware of each other and their curiosity of exploring one another. The sensory box and musical instruments are of course very popular, as is of course our new kitchen..where the children delight in serving us lots of pretend food which we of course devour. It is always a privilege to build connections with our new children and to see the beautiful friendships with each other emerging.