25th March 2022
Principal’s Message
By Mrs Simone Cooke
“Their lives may be different from yours, and their words may be different from yours. But inside, their hearts are just like yours.” Whoever you are by Mem Fox Dear Parents,
This week our children celebrated Harmony Week at Reddam St Leonards. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore with the children the idea of diversity, differences and belonging to a multicultural society. We are very fortunate to live in Australia which is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and be proud of the diverse cultural backgrounds which form the rich fabric of our school community here at Reddam. The focus of Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural differences. The colour orange is used as a symbol of Harmony week as orange traditionally signifies ‘social communication and meaningful conversations”. It also represents freedom of ideas and mutual respect for others. This week the children embraced everything “orange” and joined in conversations on how we can respect both ourselves and others and live in harmony with others. The children enjoyed a wide range of celebrations from face painting, enjoying a cultural music festival of diverse cultural songs and dances, to making orange handprints, multicultural paper chain dolls and playing a range of games from all over the world. Of course, the orange balloons that we gave to one another was a big hit with everyone! Our older preschool children discussed ways that people can be different from each other but discussed all the things that make us the same. They talked about family diversity and shared all the wonderful celebrations, lifestyles and traditions that they celebrate at home and discussed how at school we are also one big extended family. Offering our children an inclusive environment is intrinsic to everything we do. Our teachers are very mindful of always embedding multicultural resources into the chil1
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Principal’s Message Continued... dren’s learning on a daily basis as by including these in their play experiences our children are able to develop their understanding and acceptance of different cultures in a meaningful and authentic way. We are so fortunate at Reddam to have teachers and children from over 35 different countries around the world and together we are all very proud to belong to such a wonderful community. Thank you for all the contributions you as parents make to ensure that our children are being raised as tolerant, inclusive and caring individuals so we can all live together in a world that values harmony and compassion for others.
Embedding multicultural resources into classroom learning spaces is something I do all year round, as I’m sure many other educators do as well. Using and highlighting multicultural resources is another idea of how to celebrate diversity in the classroom during Har25th Oc mony Day. I love using multicultural resources in my early years classroom as it fosters the concept of ‘Everyone Belongs’ and means that everybody feels represented. By naturally incorporating multicultural resources into play, children are able to develop their understanding and acceptance of different cultures in a natural and authentic way.
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Principal’s Message Continued...
25th Oc
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Stage 4R
Ms Lauren Doughton
“Eat well and keep moving” Healthy eating is essential for your child's good health, growth and development. Healthy eating in early childhood means they will have less chance of developing chronic diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and some cancers. It will also mean they feel better, look healthier and enjoy life more.To stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight, children need to be physically active and eat the right amount of nutrients to balance the energy they use. This week we have continued on with our “I am healthy” unit. This unit has brought us great joy when teaching the children about different aspects of being healthy. We have watched the children grow as individuals as they have participated in the activities that we have provided. The activities that we have participated in this week are: Planting Tomatoes: The children were provided with a cup, potting mix, tomato seeds and a watering can. Step by step we guided the children in the process of planting the seeds. This activity allows children to have a sense of ownership of their own health. They are able to physically see what they are growing. Sports week: Each day we have incorporated some sport lessons into our program. The children were able to do a range of different sports that helped them to develop their hand eye coordination, gross motor skills and leadership skills. The children learn to be confident within themselves and have a sense of pride over their bodies. Veggie painting: As part of our visual arts lesson the children were guided through a lesson of creating their own veggie patch using crayons and watercolours. Each child was able to pick different vegetables that they wanted in their garden and they were encouraged to draw and paint it. Fairy bread making and writing: This week's literacy and numeracy activity was guiding the children through writing and discussing how to make fairy bread. We discussed the steps in order to achieve the outcome. The children were then assisted by myself to write the method out. We then made the fairy bread with the children. They were very excited to make it and eat what they made. The skill of following instructions is a skill that children should start developing from a young age. In terms of following a method and understanding what comes first, second and so one are basic mathematical concepts that children can process from this age. The more cooking you can do with your child the better as you are increasing their mathematical vocabulary and their skills in a fun and enjoyable way. Cooking with Chef Caleb: We were fortunate to have Chef Caleb come and work with our class and do a food preparation lesson with the children. He showed the children how to cut up fruit in a safe and healthy manner. Once he had cut all the different fruits up we gave each child some fruit and a skewer and they had to put their fruit onto the skewer. Some children made patterns with the fruit and others just wanted some fruit on their skewer. It has been a busy week in Stage 4 and both Emily and I are so happy with how the children are travelling. They are all sponges and are soaking up all the information that we are provid-
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Stage 4R
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Ms Lauren Doughton
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Stage 4R: Making fairy bread & art
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Stage 4R: I am healthy — physical education
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Stage 4E
By Ms Sarah Ross
Wind and Cyclones This week Stage Four discovered where wind comes from and what cyclones are! To begin our learning journey we discussed that wind is air that moves across the Earth’s surface and is caused by changes in temperatures of the land, water, and air. Afterwards, the children viewed some pictures of cyclones and discovered that these storms are powerful systems of rotating winds. Cyclone collages Stage Four used a combination of natural items, paints, and glue to create a cyclone. Collage making is a great way for young children to develop their creativity and experiment with different resources. As children create they socialise with others and practice sharing tools and materials. We are so proud of the Stage Four children for continuing to work on their concentration and creative skills in class! Blown Away! To explore the concept of wind further Stage Four engaged in a literacy group where we read a story called ‘Blown Away’. The story followed a penguin and its friends as they get blown away to tropical island while flying a kite. At the end Stage Four shared where they would like to go if they got blown away! The children then took these ideas and wrote them down in their new writing books. Please check your tapestry accounts to see your child’s beautiful attempts at writing. Some of the children’s responses included; “I would like to go to Easter” – Flynn “I would like to visit my family, Miss Sarah and Miss Nat” – Yuno “I would go to the park” – Helena “I would like to go to Mummy” – Ethan D “I would like to go to the park” – Dylan “I would like to go to America” – Henry “I would go to space” – Zavier “I would go to Easter” – Thomas “I would go to Africa” – Augusten “I would go to my Mum’s house” – Amelia “I would like to go to the beach” – Kai “I would like to go to Mumma” – Mihira “I would like to go to the beach” – Ria “I would go to California” – Ethan A Let’s go fly a kite! At the end of the week Stage Four created their own kites using paper plates and streamers. All of Stage Four had a wonderful time outdoors exploring wind with their kits and some beautiful silk cloths. Kite flying is a great way for children to visualise and see the effects of wind on the world around us and many of the children were delighted to see the wind move the streamers in different directions.
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Stage 4E
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By Ms Sarah Ross
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Stage 4E: Painting Cyclones
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Stage 4E: Creating kites & testing wind direction
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Stage 4D
By Ms Emily Chacon
I am HEALTHY This week has been a very busy one for Stage 4! To continue our journey through healthy eating, Chef Caleb came to the classroom to show the children how he prepares their afternoon tea. The children all washed their hands and excitedly sat down at the tables. Firstly he went through the importance of kitchen safety, which the children were eager to be involved in as they reflected on their safety unit. Next Caleb engaged the children in a class discussion on healthy eating and the importance of a balanced diet. The children continued watching as Caleb cut up all their fruits and placed them onto a skewer. Once everything was ready, bowls with every fruit were passed around with a skewer, and the children were guided to carefully begin placing their fruits on. Then it was time to EAT THEM! Following our healthy eating we researched how vegetables grow, some on bushes and others in the ground. The children then engaged in an art project, where they had to draw an image of vegetables that grow underground. Mastering skills, completing art projects and learning to express themselves in new ways helps children gain confidence and perseverance. Art also enhances children's hand eye coordination and building levels of manual dexterity. Working with materials teaches them about colours, shapes and textures, how things work and how they fit together. Art projects encourage children to play and experiment in a fun and relaxed environment. We also decided to plant our very tomato trees! The children were very excited for this experience. Everyone gathered around the table as Miss Emily and Miss Lauren handed out soil for the children to scoop into their cups. Once everyone was ready each child was given 2-3 tomato seeds to press down into their soil. The final step was to give their little seeds a big drink of water. We are very excited to see our little veggies grow. Watch this space!
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Stage 4D
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By Ms Emily Chacon
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Stage 4D: Creating veggie patch
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Stage 4D: Preparing healthy foods
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Stage 3/4
By Ms Riina Andrew
Around the world - Hawaii This second week of learning about Hawaii, we listened to some more Hawaiian music that was played on an ukulele. The children were all interested in how such a small instrument could sound like a guitar. To extend this interest, we dressed up as Hawaiian people and pretended to be at a Luau, all the while taking turns of playing music from our own ukulele. We also tried our hand at making our own lei’s from colourful cardboard. Each child had the opportunity to choose the colours that they would like to use in their creation. The teachers encouraged the children to make a pattern with their colours and repeat this pattern throughout their threading experience. Our art and craft experience this week had as creating our own Hawaiian scene. We first looked at some pictures of the islands that make up Hawaii before making our own Hawaiian beach art. We added sand, sea and the sun to create a masterpiece. Some of us drew people, some drew ocean creatures and some drew ourselves! As last week’s activities of coconut bowling and digging for shells were such popular experiences, we decided to revisit these items again this week, but with a difference! We coconut bowled in teams this time to see how many pins we could knock over and created a tally of this. We then discussed which team bowled the most pins over. This fun way of simple mathematics, exposed the children to the concept of addition and subtraction in a group experience. To continue with simple mathematical equations, we also revisited addition and subtraction through digging for shells, again with a difference. This time the shells were in water. There were five different shell shapes in the trays. We first searched for shells and then lined up the shells that we found. Together we grouped the shells by shape and then counted the number of shells in each group. The next step was to decide which shell shape was in the minority and which was the majority. Following on, we added shell groups together and removed some as well, practising our addition and subtraction skills further.
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Stage 3/4
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By Ms Riina Andrew
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Stage 3/4: Celebrating Harmony Day
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Stage 3/4: Searching for shells
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Stage 3E
By Ms Bianca Lazar
I can be kind On Monday this week, we celebrated Harmony Day. In celebration of this significant day, we created a Kindness Rainbow! The concept behind our Kindness Rainbow is simple, but the practical approach will resonate more. As each child got their hand painted, I asked them what kindness means to them. Once they answered, they imprinted their handprint to our rainbow. Having this as a visual aid has assisted children consider kinder approaches towards their peers and educators and has sparked wonderful ongoing discussions about being kind. What does kindness mean to you? Lia: “Sharing is caring” Henry: “You help somebody when crying” Caelie: “Be nice to your friends” George: “Kindness means friends” Risa: “Cuddle” Leo: “You help people” MyLan: “Happy and smile and friends. We play with them” Friendships last a lifetime This week’s provocation: ‘I can be kind’, promotes the importance of being kind and caring to our friends around us. Throughout the week educators began the week with reading storybooks about kindness and discussing with the children how we can be kind to one another and how we treat our friends. Educating young children to be a good friend will help them make lasting friendships throughout their lives. Life skills like these are important to learn at an early age as it will become more natural for them. Stage 3 children decided to create a bracelet for their friends alongside their fellow peers. Together they used their fine-motor and hand-eye coordination to carefully thread the bead onto the string. It was lovely to hear the beautiful conversation take place! On the playdough table this week children applied their imagination skills to create their very own friendship masterpiece. Children followed a ‘friendship recipe’ displaying different shapes symbolising a friendship trait. As the children added different loose part materials to their creation, we discussed what each shape represents and listed ways that we can portray each of the different friendship qualities in our everyday life.
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Stage 3E
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By Ms Bianca Lazar
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Stage 3E: Friendship bracelets & recipes
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Stage 3E: Friendship rainbow
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Stage 2/3 & 3R
By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes
Emotional Intelligence For children, understanding their own and other people’s emotions can be a difficult and confusing thing. Emotional intelligence is a vital skill in a child’s development. Understanding feelings and motivators are an integral part of daily life and a more highly tuned emotional intelligence promotes empathy, social skills, self-awareness and emotional accountability. Like all areas of development we need to teach our little ones about emotions and how to respond to them as well, so they can develop healthy relationships with others, as they grow older. This is where the Feeling Family Balloon Sacks come in. The concept behind these filled balloon stress balls is that although they are a family, they are all different. Different feelings and characteristics are associated with each one and were helpful for explaining emotions visually as well as being a conversation starter about feelings. We also went fishing this week, using hand made fishing rods the children were encourage to fish emotions. During our group times we read a range of books about feelings and emotions. Our favourite books were “In my heart” and “Brave as can be” both by Jo Witek. In My Heart explored emotions: happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, and shyness. The book explained what an emotion feels like, physically, inside. Brave as can be explained that life can be full of frightening things: the dark, the neighbour’s dog, and thunderstorms, just to name a few. This playful portrait of fear and bravery empowered our children to confront once-scary situations. This week the children have also being invited to make their self-portraits out of loose materials. A Self-portrait is an intimate, bold declaration of identity. During the activity the teachers gave the children a little bit of guidance and we introduced a new vocabulary of emotions such as happy, sad and angry. It was beautiful to see the children observing themselves using the mirrors and then creating their self- portraits. Through the process they could explore their facial expressions and talk about their emotions. “ I paint self portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best” Frida Khalo
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Stage 2/3 & 3R
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By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes
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Stage 2/3: Can you fish for emotions & how do you feel today
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Stage 2/3: Emotion sensory play
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Stage 2R
By Ms Madeleine Grant
Umbrellas, Volcanoes and Worms This week we continued our STEM theme with activities that challenged the children’s critical thinking, problem solving, and reflection skills. The early years are a time where children start to wonder about the world around them, and introducing the basics of science, technology, engineering and maths at an early age gives children practical, hands-on experiences and give them a strong foundation to prepare their minds for the years ahead. U is for Umbrella
The rain mostly held off another week, so we changed our umbrella activity to an art project! We aimed to create a painting that incorporated the use of mini drink umbrellas, however finding an activity that worked proved a lot harder than expected! The umbrellas fell apart when we tried to paint with them, and using spray bottles of paint was too difficult for their little hands. Miss Sara worked with the children to trial different techniques, and set up the painting station with the umbrellas to see how the children would approach the task on their own. In the end they ended up creating fun abstract paintings with wedge shaped stamps where they placed the umbrellas and a drizzle of paint splattered of the top for the rain. The nature of working out the project with the children showed them the process of trial and error, and got them involved in shaping the direction of the learning experience. V is for Volcano We discussed natural phenomena and created chemical reactions as we explored volcanoes! We covered jars with clay so they resembled mountains, and put bicarb soda and food dye inside. The children used droppers to add vinegar, and the reaction of the two chemicals created a bubbling, fizzy explosion that erupted out the top! As they experimented, we explained the natural process behind volcanoes, showed them pictures of eruptions in action. They were fascinated by the bright red lava in the images, and loved recreating the scenes with their mini mountains, repeating it again and again until the substances neutralised. W is for Worms We read SuperWorm by Julia Donaldson to introduce our last topic for the week – wriggly worms! The children found a garden inspired sensory station with tubs of pebbles and seeds, with some colourful ‘worms’ made of rolled up rice paper. They used magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the creatures, and used their gentle hands to move them through the mixture. We talked with them about how important worms were in the garden, and how it is their job to mix up the earth and provide nutrients that help our gardens grow! Next week will see us come to the end of the alphabet, as we move on to X is for X-Ray, make textured monochrome art for Y is for Yellow, and return to the much loved topic of animals with Z is for Zoo.
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Stage 2R
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By Ms Madeleine Grant
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Stage 2R: V is for volcano
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Stage 2R: W is for worm
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Stage 1E
By Ms Justine Heydra & Alessia Angilletta
Animal Habitats - On the Farm “Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” Fred Rogers This week in Stage 1E we enjoyed our last week on the farm, and what an exciting week it has been. The children thoroughly enjoyed their sensory activities and all the great songs we sang during our provocation group time. During our provocation group times we also enjoyed our variety of farm puppets and all the sounds they make on the farm. During our literacy group time we focused on a wonderful book “I wonder why- Farm Animals” written by Karen Wallace and Nicki Palin. The book included farm animals such as Sheep, Pigs, Goats, Chickens and many more. This book encouraged the children to discover and learn about some of their favourite farm animals, how they live and are looked after on a farm. The children enjoyed a group sensory tray this week as we used a tuff tray to set up a mini farm for them. In addition to creating so much fun this sensory activity encouraged the children to explore and investigate and play alongside their friends. As part of a group sensory activity the children were encouraged to share the different animals and they had to also wait for their turn if they wanted to play with a specific part of the farm and another friend was already playing in that area. The children really enjoyed this group activity and it was very interesting and exciting to watch the interaction between all the children as they explored the mini farm. The children also explored individual mini-farms. They enjoyed the texture of the red rice and the hay (weetbix) This sensory activity was great for promoting different textures and for fine-motor skill development. Our outdoor sensory tables with coloured water and various farm animals were also a class favourite. The children loved splashing with the water and had a great time with one another. This group focused sensory activity promoted language development and helped the children navigate their sharing skills. Lastly the children enjoyed shearing their sheep, we used shaving foam on a laminated sheep and asked the children to shave their sheep's wool off. This activity promoted hand-eye coordination and concentration. Wishing you all a great weekend with your little ones.
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Stage 1E
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By Ms Justine Heydra & Alessia Angilletta
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Stage 1E: Colours and farm sensory play
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Stage 1E: Farm rice & shearing our sheep
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Stage 1R
By Ms Amanda Felton
Music time was a real hit as each of the children really enjoyed listening to their favourite tunes. The children absolutely love it when our piano teacher Mr Alan arrives for their music classes. It is really great to see the children so involved and learning so much and we haven’t completed Term One yet. The children are also loving their My Gym classes and are learning not just how to engage in many different movement tasks but also are learning how to follow instructions and directions. For the children it is a great way to build confidence and trust as this helps them to develop and explore the world with ease and learn new skills along the way.
Our Nursery Rhyme focus this week was “One, two, three, four, five. Once I caught a fish alive!” It was a very colourful and engaging experience the children enjoyed this week as they had soooo much fun pretending to catch a fish as they listened to their teachers…sing in an off key note! Everyone was willing to have a go at painting. It was a little challenging, as we used straws which we used as painting tools. The children demonstrated such enthusiasm and confidence during this experience and they are loving all their diverse learning experiences.
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Stage 1R: Once I caught a fish alive
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Piano
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By Mr Alan Tang
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Piano
By Mr Alan Tang
We had another great week of piano's lessons at Reddam ELS. Advanced students in stage 4 looked at "Old Mcdonald" and "Happy Birthday". Other stage 4 started learning "Brother John" with the exception of a few students who requested to revisit "The potato song". Stage 3/4 and 3 were taught the beginning part of "Brother John". They also learnt to find the key "D for doggy" and "C for Cat in the hat". The students also exercised their fingers on the keys with the Australian Music Examination Board recommended technique skills exercise. Stage 2 and under were introduced to other new songs and with a number of proactive students who could verbally voiced out the colours of the keys and the pattern of the keys. They were also entertained with the key pattern songs to help recognise the black keys. Looking forward to next week already.
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My Gym
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My Gym
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Drama
By Laura Hudson
This week in drama we continued our travels using our time machine. We used our bodies in different ways to create the machine and pushed the buttons to teleport us to a different time and place. We looked out the window and saw sand. Ruan in Stage 4 thought we were at the beach. I explained it was very hot like a desert. Felix and Wesley saw the pyramids and knew we were in Egypt. We put our sunscreen on and opened the time machine door to begin our adventure. In Stage 3 I told the children I had forgot what the pyramids looked like and asked them to show me using their bodies. Lucinda showed me a standing pyramid and Mavis and Clementine created a pyramid together. In 3/4 and Stage 4 we spoke about a drama technique called mine. We zipped our mouths shut and used our bodies. I asked the children to find some heavy bricks and bring them back and make our own pyramids Sammy showed us how heavy the bricks were by showing us a heavy funny face. Xavier also told us that we would walk differently if the bricks were heavy. After fixing the broken pyramid, we noticed that one of the other pyramids was open! We decided to go inside. We walked very slowly and quietly as we didn't know what would be inside the pyramids. We then then came across a whole series of booby-traps. We had to jump over the lava, get ourselves out of the mud and ninja our way through the big trap by diving, rolling, kicking and crawling. Damien rolled so fast away from all the traps. When we got to the main part of the pyramid, we sat down and had a look at some hieroglyphs.
Stage 3 and 4 sang the alphabet song with me, and then we noticed that the Egyptians used pictures instead of letters for their alphabet! In Stage 3 I tried to sing the alphabet saying the names of the pictures instead of the letters. This didn’t work so well and made a lot of children laugh! Then, in Stage 4, we had to decipher a message. I asked the children to find certain pictures on the hieroglyph chart, I went around the circle with 2-3 at a time and everyone had a turn cracking the code. We saw that the secret message said, “Look Out!” We were so scared by the message that we ran out of the pyramid! Once we were out safely, I told the children about the mummies that may have been in the pyramid.
I asked the children in Stage 3 and 4 to line up along the wall and show me a mummy pose. I explained that this wasn’t like Mummies at home, instead they are scary, bandaged zombies! We then played a stop/start game, played in the same way as red-light green light. I told the children that they had to mime, and I encouraged light feet and no running. I told them when I am facing you have to be a still mummie. Then when I turn away you can move. If they didn’t make any noise, I wouldn’t turn around and they could “get me”. The children did very well at sneaking up on me. When they tipped me, I chased them back to the starting line. Winnie and Elizabeth in Stage 3/4 and had their very first drama lesson with Miss Kat. They joined in beautifully. What a fun action-packed morning. I wonder where our time machine will take us next week.
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Drama
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By Laura Hudson
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Drama
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By Laura Hudson
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Mandarin
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