Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter - St Leonards Vol 22 Issue 13 by Reddam House Sydney

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Principal’s Message

13th May 2022

By Mrs Simone Cooke

Dear Parents, How wonderful it is to walk around the school and see the children so engaged in their learning. As I was watching our little ones so eagerly participating in their piano keyboarding lesson this week I was reminded of the research from USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute which revealed the immense benefit to children of exposure to musical experiences in early childhood, with their studies discovering that music offered at a young age can actually accelerate brain development in young children. Musical activities such as singing, playing an instrument or even listening to music stimulates the brain and leads to improved brain structure with the formation of new neural connections, no wonder we have so many clever children at Reddam! Not only does music in the early years improve brain development but language development as well. Learning music helps to develop the left side of the brain, which controls language and reasoning and helps children with sound recognition, which is why you will hear our teachers introducing the children to their initial sounds through rhymes and songs as it greatly assists children in learning and recalling new information. Number skills also benefit as listening to musical beats helps children to learn pattern recognition, basic fractions and problem solving. Learning music also requires a high degree of concentration and helps children to focus their attention for sustained periods of time which has many benefits for accessing new information. Engaging in music involves all of the senses and helps the mind and body to work build co-ordination skills. Engaging with others in musical experiences is also very important. As they get older and perhaps join a band or choir they learn to work together as a team and research shows that even at a young age when children sing or play music together, whether it be their daily songs or practicing together for their end of year concerts it assists our children to work with others and develops greater empathy for other people’s emotion.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Principal’s Message Continued… But perhaps the most important element of music is the joy that it brings to our young children. You only have to stand and watch our little babies swaying their hips and clapping their hands in time to the music to see the absolute joy and happiness that music offers to children. As well as being uplifting and a lot of fun music also relaxes children and encourages them to express themselves. Each day we play soft music to put our babies to help them sleep and this music provides them with much comfort and has a very soothing effect which calms them and allows them to have a restful sleep. Music is integral to our daily routines here at Reddam, whether it be specialist Music classes, piano classes, singing together, using untuned percussion instruments, making our own instruments, dancing, learning new rhymes or preparing for concerts. In the words of Plato “ Music gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything”. 1st April 2022

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4R

By Ms Lauren Doughton

Welcome back for Term 2 Firstly we would like to start off by saying we hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day last Sunday, the children were all very excited to give you their lovely gifts that they made. We hope you loved them. As you are all aware we have started our STEM Unit also known as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in education is a way of thinking about how educators at all levels should be helping children integrate knowledge across disciplines, encouraging them to think in a more connected and holistic way. Our knowledge of how people learn has grown substantially over the last few decades. We now understand that success in learning requires the learner to be at the centre of the experience, making connections across disciplines and also across contextual settings. Children need to be presented opportunities to learn the same material in different settings and through different lenses. STEM allows educators to give children chances to investigate an idea in a variety of settings, for what educators call cross - contextual learning. The children’s learning is strengthened when they learn the same skills, ideas, and concepts in different contexts. We can also incorporate math and science to make learning interdisciplinary using a STEM approach. The learning becomes more relevant when students go outside to explore nature. By asking the right questions, we can help stimulate investigations where students are identifying objects, making comparisons, making predictions, testing ideas and sharing discoveries, all while observing their natural environment. As we have moved onto our second week of our STEM unit we have started with the most important thing when it comes to this unit and this being; Hypothesising and How do we ask a question to a response. This allowed the children to all come up with a question that they would like research about the world. We discussed with the children the key terms of HOW, WHAT, WHERE and WHY and howdy these terms play a big part when asking a question. The children’s questions were; Abigail: How do you make muscles?

Ruaan: Where does plastic come from?

Betty: How do buildings stick together to stay tall?

Damian: Do all cats have tails?

Zemirah: What is my pink teddy fluff made off?

Savannah: How are princesses dresses made?

Kai: Why are stars so bright?

Felix R: What lizards live in Africa?

Ruaan: Where does plastic come from?

Liam: How’s paper made?

Luna: How do kites fly in the sky?

Ava R: How do kangaroos jump?

Xavier: How are stars in the night sky and not the day?

Georgia: Why do we eat with a fork and spoon?

Moving on, the children participated in a range of different activities that allowed them to hypothesise and make judgement on what they thought would happen. I ran a class group activity on apple oxidation. In this activity the children were able to explore food science by engaging in a visual experiment. Before we started the experiment we asked the children their hypothesis on what ingredient was going to keep the apple from going brown? Their choices were; bicarb, water, lemon juice and vinegar. The children then watched while I put each ingredient on a different slice of apple. After a while we looked at the apples to see if our judgements were correct. We found that lemon juice didn’t make our apple slices go brown.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4R

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4R

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4E

By Ms Sarah Ross

“In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf…” Welcome to Term 2! Stage Four’s exciting interest and inquiry into living things recently has inspired our new provocation of Life Cycles. This provocation aims to inspire the children as they continue to build upon their literacy and numeracy skills and skills essential to school readiness. During this provocation we will focus on using a holistic learning approach that aims to support children to collaboratively consolidate concepts, apply their understandings to real world contexts and create imaginative worlds that foster creativity and greater understanding of the world around us. What is a life cycle? To begin our investigation as a class we asked the question ‘what is a life cycle?’. The word cycle made many of the children think of bicycles and we discussion how a wheel on a bicycle is a bit like a life cycle as it goes round and round and repeats moving in a circular pattern. This discussion led us to read an informative text called ‘All About the Human Life Cycle’. The text explored the stages of growth we go through as humans for example; baby, toddler, teenager, adult and old age. As we read the text the children acted out scenarios where they cared for babies, toddled like a toddler and discussed things that they would like to do as adults and hobbies they might enjoy in their old age. To extend upon this lesson the children were invited to practice their drawing and handwriting skills as they created their very own human life cycle. The children spent time sequencing cards representing the stages of growth and identified features they needed to include in their drawings to represent the humans. Afterwards the children labelled their drawings to demonstrate which growth stage they had drawn. Silk Worms To support our learning topic further we have invited a special new addition to our class…Silkworms! Our silkworms began as eggs last week and on Monday evening they started hatching. The classroom has been buzzing with excitement over our new arrivals and the children have started thinking about what to name our new pets. Throughout the term the children will spend time observing, caring for the worms, and learning all about the important role silkworms have in creating beautiful silk. Having silkworms as our class pets for the term is a great way for the children to observe a full life cycle in such a short time of roughly eight weeks. Our worms currently have some food prepared for them called silkworm chow however, they ideally love mulberry leaves. If you happen to have access to a mulberry tree we would love to have some fresh leaves to feed the worms as this is more nutritious for our growing worms. Later in the term our worms will make cocoons and emerge as silk moths!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4E: Silk Worm Investigation

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4E: Human Life Cycles

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4D

By Ms Emily Chacon

How Does It Work? To start of our wonderful learning journey the children engaged in group discussions on asking questions. The children have been introduced to key words that make a question. On Monday the children were broken down into study groups to research further on identifying each word and how to ask questions correctly. Following on from this, each day the children were asked to as a question beginning with a specific key word; Tuesday - HOW Wednesday - WHY Thursday - WHAT Friday - WHERE Questions are often used to stimulate the recall of prior knowledge, promote comprehension, and build critical-thinking skills. Questioning techniques is important because it can stimulate learning, develop the potential of students to think, drive to clear ideas, stir the imagination, and incentive to act. It is also one of the ways teachers help students develop their knowledge more effectively. We are excited to dive further into our S.T.E.M topic as this will engage the children in asking many questions, create hypothesis and engross themselves into the world of wonder. We began by exploring food science and engaging in various experiments. We explored different areas of apples, the skin, seeds and shapes. The children were asked a series of questions and for their predictions; - What shape do you think is inside an apple? Many of then drew a circle. - How many seeds do you think are in the apple? Many children guessed 3-4 seeds I then cut into the apple and opened it up for them to see. The children were amazed to learn that the shape inside was a star! Next we counted all the seeds and the children drew them onto their page. Moving on to the fun part, the children were asked their hypothesis on what ingredient was going to keep the apple from going brown. Their choices were: - nothing - bi carb soda - milk - vinegar - lemon juice - water The children then watched as I put each ingredient on different slices of apple, we then watched and waited. After some time we took down our observations, colouring in the apple slices in correspondence to each ingredient. This experiment is great for using text evidence and existing science to support predictions and make conclusions about the results. When children participate in science activities, it nurtures their curiosity and introducing children to science at a young age assists in their brain development. Doing science projects helps develop a child's resourcefulness, particularly their skills at goal-setting, planning, and problem-solving. It also nurtures intellectual curiosity, helping children acquire new ways of asking questions and understanding the world.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4D

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 4D

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3/4

By Ms Riina Andrews

Coding This week we are continued with our new provocation of Coding. The children have all been very excited to see the displays around the classroom of the robots and Bee-Bots and have been full of questions regarding how we make these items move. I have started to teach coding using positional language through stories, games and songs and will move into greater depth of coding over the next few weeks. Below I have answered some simple questions that you may having regarding this topic. What is coding? Coding is telling a computer (or website or app) what you want it to do. What are the benefits of learning to code? - Coding helps teach problem-solving skills - Coding helps children develop new ways of thinking by breaking up big problems into smaller steps - Coding helps take the fear out of making mistakes and teaches persistence in finding a way to solve problems What does coding look like for preschool children? At the preschool level, I am laying a foundation for children to think like a computer programmer, without the need of a computer or technology. As young children learn best through play, coding should be hands-on and fun. By making it a game or incorporating different hands-on toys can engage young children in learning the steps to thinking like a programmer. Teaching children how to code has numerous benefits and advantages that go well beyond programming a computer. Coding teaches skills such as learning to problem solve efficiently and helping to develop persistence, resilience and determination which are all highly sought-after skills in the workforce and in life in general. Positional words that we are learning include: - above

- beside

- in

- on

- before

- between

- inside

- outside

- behind

- by

- near

- over

- below

- down

- next to

- through

- beneath

- far (from)

- off

- under

How do You Teach Positional Language? Children learn with their bodies and are hands on. Because of this, games and songs are the most meaningful for teaching children vocabulary of any kind. Children need to experience placing something on a chair, drawing something on a chair, or sitting on the chair, themselves. This way of learning was the inspiration for our first activity of sitting the teddy bear in different positions using a chair as a prop. It was a great start to Term 2 and the children really enjoy this new provocation.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3/4: Coding

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3/4: Coding

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3E

By Ms Bianca Lazar

Australia As the current COVID-19 pandemic has hindered our travelling for holidays, the next best thing is to bring other countries to our Stage 3 room! Throughout the term, children will be exploring places far and wide, hoping that we may get to visit these places in the future! Our new provocation will take children on a journey around the world. Each country has something different to share, whether it be dancing, art and crafts, culinary experiences, and music too! Children will be learning new cultures, as well as sharing customs and traditions they have in their own homes. Culture is central to a child’s individuality, identity, and sense of belonging and success in lifelong learning. What better way to start our trip around the world than travel around Australia! Throughout the week Stage 3 children were introduced to several classic Australian songs such as Highway Number 1 and Home Among the Gum Trees, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander melodies such as Inanay,Capuana and Taba Naba. In addition to our provocation this week about Australia, children have been exploring Australian animals through observational drawings, sensory tubs, and dramatic play experiences. In addition, children have been learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture. This allows our children to develop respect for diversity and understanding of cultural differences. During the week, we have created our very own Acknowledgement of Country song that is embedded into our educational program and morning routine. Our next destination… SPAIN!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3E: Around the World

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 3E: Australia

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2/3 & 3R

By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes

My Community and Me Welcome to term two! Term two will allow us to continue our love for learning, developing and understanding. Our provocation this term is “My community and me” and by now you should have received our motivational letter and mind map of possibilities. Please feel free to add any ideas you might have that can enrich the children’s learning. On the first two weeks of our provocation we explored things that go up in the sky. The children were so excited about all the airplanes, helicopters, jet planes and hot air balloons activities. Our first activity was an airplane sensory bin. A Combination of blue rice (sky), cotton balls (clouds) and a few airplanes made the perfect scenario for the children to use their imagination and fly to the most unexpected places. I loved listening to their sounds of delight and imagination! The airport dramatic play was another favourite. We started the day by taking a poll to see how many children had flown on an airplane. All hands up. We talked about what we would need to pack to go on a trip and where we would like to go. The airport table was very busy and there was a lot of people coming and going. We set-up an invitation for the children to create their own hot air balloons. In this openended activity, the children could use a variety of loose parts. It was a fun collage craft that was all about the process, and it was so much fun. Come and check our art gallery and see where your child decided to go on their balloons. We also read the book “Little Cloud” by Eric Carle. This simple picture book supported our learning about clouds. We talked about three different types of clouds and went outside on the playground to see what we could find. Inside the room we played with cotton balls and painted our own shaped clouds. What a busy start of the term it has been. Next week we will be moving to things that move in the land. Please let me know if you have any resources you would like to share with us.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2/3 & 3R: Airplane Sensory

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2/3 & 3R: Airplane Sensory

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2R

By Ms Madeleine Grant

Under the Sea This week we began our Term 2 provocation Planet Earth, which will see us exploring the natural world and the many different environments and landscapes that make up our beautiful planet. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring sandy deserts, deep jungles, dark forests, rocky mountains and icy snowfields. Through these provocations we aim to give the children a unique range of sensory and educational experiences that will encourage their ongoing physical, emotional and cognitive development. This week we have been exploring the world under the sea. This is an area that the children are already familiar with, and is already part of our daily group times through books such as The Rainbow Fish or Commotion in the Ocean, as well as songs like ‘Slippery Fish’ and ‘Baby Shark’. Our table and group time activities aimed to take this preexisting knowledge of ocean life and apply it to new settings. We made sensory sea life experiences by using blue gelatine to make an ocean for our sea creature toys. The children were fascinated by the strange, slippery texture of the gelatine, and experimented with it by scooping it up and watching it wobble and slide around in their hands. As they played we asked them if they could identify the animals, encouraging them to utilise their language skills and show they knew animals like sharks, dolphins or octopus, as well as learn new one such as whale shark, manta ray, and angel fish. Another activity was the sea shell investigation, where the children found a range of beautiful and intricate sea shells and star fish. They were given magnifying glasses to allow them a closer look, and were invited to pick up and touch the resources however they saw fit, and we asked them to think about what they were seeing, feeling and hearing. They held the conches to their ears to hear the ‘ocean’, carefully ran their fingers over the ridges of the scallops, felt the cool, smooth surface of the cowries against their skin, and shook handfuls of small flat shells to hear the soft sound they made. We aided their language acquisition by offering them words to describe what they were experiencing, such as smooth, rough, heavy, hard, or spiky. It was wonderful to see them so eager to dive into a new provocation! Next week we will leave the oceans and be heading to the sandy deserts, for more fun and exciting experiences and exploration!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2R: Under the Sea

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 2R: Under the Sea

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 1E

By Ms Justine Heydra

Igniting Curiosity Though S.T.E.M. “Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.” Wassily Kandinsky. We would like to welcome you to term two of 2022. In stage 1E this term we will be exploring a great provocation. Children at this age learn best through play and discovering. The children really enjoyed the sensory activities we did in term 1 and they showed a very keen interest in messy play and experiments. Due to this curiosity and interest we have chosen S.T.E.M for our term 2 provocation. S.T.E.M. sands for science, technology, engineering and maths. It’s a combination of two or more of these four pillars that makes for a great S.T.E.M activity. A toddler’s world is filled with new and exciting things every single day and the discoveries and possibilities are endless. This week our provocation focus was colours. Our first sensory activity was based on colours and colour sorting. Classification and sorting are important skills to develop for maths science and language arts. Sorting colours is one of the first sorting activities a child master. Sorting objects, matching shapes, colours and then pictures helps build visual perception and thinking skills. Children can generally sort into colours before they can identify the name of the colours. Learning to categorise and classify helps memory skills. The children really enjoyed this activity and did extremely well at sorting their colours. Our second sensory activity was coloured rice. This activity helped build fine-motor skills and we developed language as we named our colours and spoke about the texture of the rice. As part of our provocation the children created a watercolour art piece. We took 4 different colours and the children used cotton balls attached to pegs to dip in the food colouring and tap onto their watercolour paper. They all thoroughly enjoyed this creative process and developed their love for art and fine-motor skills. During our provocation group times, the children sang a variety of songs about different colours. We used our laminated colour cards and the colour sorting objects and the children each had the opportunity to match the colours, they all enjoyed participating in group activities and have become very good at waiting for their turn. Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 1E: Colour Sorting

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 1E: I Can Paint a Rainbow

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 1R

By Ms Amanda Felton

Colours and Shapes! Welcome to Term 2 as we explore colours and shapes that make up our beautiful world. We start with the colour yellow and the different possibilities that we can create from this colour. Through painting and exploring shapes and objects that represent this colour. Our aim is for our children to expand their minds and learn new concepts by responding to their curiosity and supporting their interest. We make certain that activities are hands on and offer a sensory experience as this is how young children learn. Our Children also jumped right back into our specialist classes this week - My Gym and Music and Yoga offer wonderful opportunities for our babies to build their coordination, socialisation and concentration skills whilst having fun and and building confidence and healthy self esteem. Housekeeping- please can we have all items labeled, this includes shoes too. Thank you in advance!We look forward to an amazing Term 2 and we hope you enjoy hearing about what your little ones have been up to.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Stage 1R

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Drama

By Ms Laura Hudson

Welcome back drama. In our first week back in term 2 we had an adventure with a treasure map. I started by telling the children in the holidays I found something at my grandma’s house. We went through lots of old boxes filled with dust. I gave them all 4 clues and asked the class if they could work it out. It was old, made of paper, with lots of images and we follow it. Stage 3 and 4 knew it was a treasure map! I showed everyone the map and we decided to pack our bag for the adventure. In Stage 3 we went around the circle and everyone had a turn naming one or two things they wanted to bring. Owen wanted to bring some sausages, Franco suggested a jumper and Caelie had a torch and snacks. In Stage 4 I asked some prompt question for what we might need like “What if we get hungry, what if it’s cold? What if the sun is burning us? The children excitedly screamed out snacks, hats, sunscreen, glasses, jackets. Julian suggested we should also packed a tent, sleeping bag and Clemmie had a torch. First, we needed to get to the Island. I asked them if we could swim? Walk? Drive? No, they all shouted. Deyanna suggested a pirate ship! We used our bodies to make the big pirate ship. We thought about the different parts of the ship and worked together to make it. Once our boat was built, we sailed the seas to the edge of the Island. We saw some Whales, Sharks and choppy seas. Finally, when we found the island. We had to set our anchor in the sea, walk down the ramp and jump over the big gap (the tambourine) to make it to the Island. We did this one at a time. Lucas did a very good job waiting for his turn. When we arrived on the island, we decided to go exploring to find the mountains. As it took so long to get to the Island, and it was getting dark. We decided to set up camp and set up our tents. We made a big fire pit and all the children helped collecting firewood. The tambourine was our Pitt and we all sat in a circle around it. We pretended that our fingers were sticks and sung a song called “Tap your sticks" we did different actions and instructions on how to tap them and create a fire. We all made a big circle and sat by the fire eating marshmallows and warming up our hands. As we got warmer, we got in our sleeping bags and pretended to fall asleep. Then we heard a hooting noise (from the train whistle instrument). The children awoke to a pretend owl flying above them. The owl was flying above the mountains and heard a cry for help! Who could it be? We ended the lesson on this cliff hanger. I explained what a cliff hanger was. Some children were excited but little scared to find out what will happen next. We reviewed the map to try and find out what was screaming. We couldn’t work it out and will have to wait till next week. What a fun lesson and see you next week to help the Owl!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Drama

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Yoga

By Ms Nicole Mulholland

This week we started our CORE Kids yoga lessons. We learnt about how to position our bodies to take a deep breath. We read a book 1,2,3 of Australian animals where we practised our counting and turned our bodies into Australian animals with poses, balancing and lots of animal noises. We played a game of toe-ga, where we picked up pom poms with our toes and placed them into the coloured bowls. To finish we took some more deep breaths with our breathing ball (Hoberman sphere), popped some bubbles and finished our lesson with one big calm deep breath together. Lovely to meet so many new friends! I’m looking forward to next week, Nicole