REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Principal’s Message By
26th August 2022 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 1
Dear Acrossparents,theschool
this week the children were invited to join in Book Week Celebrations, with the theme for 2022 being “Dreaming with Open Eyes”. It is important in this technological world in which we live that we remember the importance of exposing children to the joy of a good book and it is never too early to nurture a love of reading. Dressing up as our favourite book character or sharing our favourite stories with others allows our children to be introduced to new authors and illustrators and inspires a love of reading in our children. We are most excited that we will shortly have a new council library right next door to us ,in the recently constructed building next to Reddam, which will allow us to take our children for regular visits and story time and will be a lovely resource for all of our families in supporting our children on their reading journey. If you are not already doing so, I would encourage you to establish a regular nightly routine for reading. Not only is this beneficial in boosting brain development and fostering children’s enjoyment for reading , it also creates a special time for you both to relax and bond together after a busy day. By reading to your baby, toddler or preschooler you are fostering a love of books and reading which they can take with them throughout their lives. Teaching children from a young age how to hold and care for a book is also important as it sends important messages on the value you place on reading and models expectations on how a book is to be treated. From a young age, children can be taught how to turn pages, view illustrations and read along to favourite stories. Discourage tearing or damaging books and provide babies with hard bound or cloth books which can endure hard play. Repetition is extremely important when it comes to reading to children you may tire of reading the same book, but this repetition is important for children as it helps them to predict what will happen in the story and make associations between words and text. Mrs Simone Cooke
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Principal’s Message Continued… 1st April 2022 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Reading together each night not only builds good concentration and listening skills at this age but is a lovely, calm way to end the day together. When reading with your preschooler you can assist in building up their pre reading skills by pointing out the direction of print and the fact that it runs from left to right. Discuss individual words, letters and sounds and discuss how they are separated by spaces. As you read each page you can teach simple decoding skills by pointing to each of the words with your finger, using this one-to-one correspondence reinforces to the child that each word conveys meaning. Encourage them to guess what a word might say by looking for clues in the illustrations and build phonemic awareness by talking to your child about the sound that individual letters Remember that learning the sound a letter makes is more important that learning its name! Above all else put the laptop or iPad aside once in a while and pick up a book!! SOME OF OUR TEACHER’S FAVOURITE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS We’re Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle I Love You to the Moon and Back - Amelia Hepworth Elmer - David McGee The Rainbow Fish - Marcus Pfister Giraffes Can't Dance - Giles Andreae The Paperbag Princess - Robert Munsch The Gruffalo - Julia Donaldson Koala Lou - Mem Fox Who Sank the Boat? - Pamela Allen Where is the Green Sheep? - Mem Fox The Jolly Postman - Allan Ahlberg It's Mine - Rod Campbell Guess How Much I Love You - Sam McBratney Magic Beach - Alison Les Corduroy - Don Freeman Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - Mo Willems Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth - Oliver Jeffers Dear Zoo - Rod Campbell Hairy Maclary - Lynley Dodd Room on the Broom - Julia Donaldson The Velveteen Rabbit - Marjory Williams Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - Judith Viorst 2
It is vital that preschoolers practise their number recognition and as well using their finemotor skills to write out numbers. This week the children were able to work on their add and subtracting skills by creating number sentences using sea turtles. We asked each child to pick out two numbers and the number symbols in order to calculate. Each child was able to pick out different numbers and a one with the number symbols successfully. We encouraged them to use their fingers when counting when completing the number sentence. Once they had finished calculating their number sentence together they used their fine-motor skills to write it on the whiteboard.
A Sea Turtle Life Cycle
Let's Add and Subtract Sea Turtles
The Deep Blue
The children excitedly continue on with their exploring and discovering the deep blue. So far they have used their sensory skills to explore the zones of the ocean, used their thinking skills and cognitive skills to gather an understanding of the food chains and why the sea is important and shown their beautiful creativity skills to create various sea life. This week we moved onto another important area of the deep blue. The life cycle of sea turtle. Healthy oceans need sea turtles. Sea turtles are a "keystone species", which means they are an important part of their environment and influence other species around them. Sea turtles are regarded a important biological transporters of nutrients and energy between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, therefore ensuring the children gain an understanding of these beautiful creatures and work is involved in their life cycle was crucial.
By Ms Emily
This week the children learning all about sea turtles. Today we focused on the life cycle of a turtle. This cutting and glueing experience allowed each child to work individually as they used concentration skills whilst showing dedication to their work. This experience encouraged each child to practise their fine-motor skills, cutting skills and hand-eye coordination when cutting. It is important that children have the opportunity to practise their scissor grip snd cutting skills in a preschool environment as it gives young children independent movements of each finger. Cutting with scissors works on the separation of two sides of the hand and strengthens hand muscles. Elizabeth showed great cutting skills through this experience, holding the scissors in the correct grip in her right hand. Well done!
A Group Learning Experience
This week the children have began learning about sea turtles and their life cycle. Before the children began their writing exercise we had a group discussion on a turtle life cycle and what each stage involves. Once this was over the children set to work individually, practising their writing skills. Firstly Elizabeth was asked what order the life cycle goes in, using her language and communication to articulate effectively. Elizabeth confidently informed her teacher of the various stages before putting pen to paper. She showed great hand-eye co-ordination and she held the Texta in a tripod grip in her right hand.
Brazel REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 4
Stage 4R
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 5
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 6 Stage 4R: Sea Turtle Life Cycle
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 7 Stage 4R: Turtle Addition and Subtraction
Over the past two weeks the children have been engaging dramatic role play using light and shadows in our puppet theatre with much delight. The children discovered that they could change how dark or light the shadow appeared on the wall.
Technology
We began our week with a game of ‘Simon Says’ to test our knowledge of directional language including; left, right, forwards, backwards. The children acted out the positions with their very own teddy bear after each Simon Says request. It was lovely to see all the children challenged and engaged as they sought to learn the difference between their left and right.
“Active involvement in learning builds children’s understandings of concepts and the creative thinking and inquiry processes that are necessary for lifelong learning”
Stage 4E
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 8
To extend upon this learning the children were invited to create patterns on paper with the bee bot robots by taping markers to them and programming them to move about the table resulting in an array of colourful abstract lines. Each child discussed with their peers and teachers about the directions their bee bot moved in and pointed out their individual contributions to the art piece.
Following this investigation our shadow theatre turned into a photo booth where the children became photographers and playfully posed and edited photos with colourful Afterwards,filters.
– Early Years Learning Framework
Designing Robots
Next week we look forward to exploring all things Engineering!
This week Stage Four continued their investigation into technology by creating patterns with bee bots, becoming photographers in our photo booth, and building robots with paper cups.
By Ms Sarah Ross
the children were invited to engage in an art experience where they used water colours to paint over black and white photos of themselves and designed their own visual effects.
Following the introduction of Sphero last week the children were very eager to continue to interact with the small spherical robot. This inspired an opportunity for design and engineering as the children were tasked with creating their own robot using paper cups and a variety of craft materials. All the children were very interested in giving their robot human features such as; eyes, mouths and arms. Afterwards, each child tested out their robot by placing Sphero underneath the paper cup robot and programmed the robot to move along the floor using an app. Stage Four were thrilled to see their robot come to life and showed pride in their achievements as the robot moved in their intended directions.
Light, colour and shadows
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 9
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 10 Stage 4E: Robotics
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 11 Stage 4E: Art and Technology
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 12 Stage 4E: Book Week
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 13 Stage 4E: Book Week
On our light table the children had free flowing exploration with a book, pictures, and figurines. This type of experience allows for children to progress at their own pace and further explore their interests. They develop decision making skills and an understanding of their environment and surroundings.
This week the children further explored the many different types of animals in the ocean. We first began listing marine life and then began to break them down into Togroups:further engage our curiosity of unique sea creatures, the children created sea urchins. Using play dough and purple sticks the children engaged in a fine motor to push the stick into their ball. Fine motor skills assist children in performing important tasks such as grasping objects and writing, The ability to complete simple motor tasks helps children develop self-esteem and confidence growth. å
Invertebrates:Mammals:DugongDolphinWhaleOrcaOctopusStarfishJellyfishCrabs
"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."
Stage 4D By Ms
MarineOarfishFlatSeahorsefishfishReptile:CrocodileIguanaSeasnakeTurtle
Deep Blue
Next week we will flow into ocean habitats. Now that we know about the ocean’s marine life, it’s time to explore the place they call home. Emily
– David Attenborough
Chacon REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 14
Fish:Flying
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 16 Stage 4D: The Deep Blue Sea
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL Stage 4D: Ocean Colour Mixing
After a few weeks away from our current provocation, we decided to return our interests back to the topic of Minerals, Rocks and Gems.
Minerals, Rocks and Gems
By Ms Riina
A reference book was also on hand for the children to turn to when labelling the items that they had found. As the children were exploring this reference book, they were interested in the names and spelling of each of the particular minerals that we found.
Andrew REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 18
Please continue to encourage your child to bring a volcano drawing to school to share with the class. We have had some fantastic artwork over the last week and cannot wait to see what exciting items we can share next week. As each child has the opportunity to share their creation with the class, an increase in confidence and language skills arises and develops a life-long love of language.
To start off, we planned to participate in a mineral dig. Sourcing a block of plaster, we chiselled, brushed, chipped and used a magnifying glass to try and discover a mineral or two. The class worked in small groups of four and shared the equipment well as to ensure that all the group was able to work with each of the mineral dig utensils. Shouts of “look, I found one” were heard from the children as they took turns of working with the equipment.
To extend this interest, an experience was created to encourage the children to practise their hand writing skills. By providing a variety of mineral words to copy and dissect, the children’s knowledge of the names of the minerals and their defining characteristics, enhanced a holistic learning experience.
Stage 3/4
Finishing off this provocation, a suggestion was made to make a collage of all the different types of rocks and minerals that we had studied over the course of this provocation. Excitedly, the class took turns of pointing out their favourite mineral, cutting out the picture of this mineral and pasting it onto a piece of paper to make a beautiful piece of artwork. A wonderful end to this explorative unit!
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 19
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 20 Stage 3/4: Minerals, Rocks and Gems
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 21 Stage 3/4: Minerals, Rocks and Gems
Stage 3E
This week’s element is AIR. Each table activity included concepts of AIR. The children were read books about AIR, “The wind blows” by Linda Booth Sweeney and Jana Christy and “The Breathing book” by Christopher Willard and Olivia Weisser. After reading the breathing book the children were encouraged to focus on their breathing, using their imagination they blew up a balloon and then let it “POP”. This meditation activity is a great way to help children focus on breathing and without knowing slow down and focus.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 22
“Let’s go fly a kite” - Mary Poppins
Another activity this week incorporated the early literacy concept of letter recognition. The children used balloon pumps to knock over cups with the letters of the alphabet on them. Teacher’s conversations were around the letters blown Theover.children given were also given the chance to fly a large foam toy plane glider, this activity was done outdoors. In small groups the children were shown how to hold the glider, then let it glide onto a number on the target mat. Having numbers in children’s lives is an important aspect of early numeracy, as they learn that digits have meaning. Toys from home Please try to limit toys brought to school. As we don’t want anything to be lost, children will be asked to leave toys in their lockers. Reddam is a learning environment we do encourage only soft sleep toys.
By Ms Brooke Fox
Housekeeping REDDAM is a SUNSAFE School and will reinforce a “NO HAT, NO PLAY” rule during the summer months. Please encourage your child to wear a hat during the day.
Table activities this week included making kites from paper bags. The children marked the paper bags with crayons (as we need them to dry quickly so we could fly them). Allowing the children to draw freely gave them the opportunity to practice their pencil grip and draw what they chose to draw. Teachers then attached some bright curling ribbon to paper bags.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 23
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 24 Stage 3E: Kite Making and Flying
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL 25 Stage 3E: What Does Air Do?
During our group discussion we talked about hibernation. We checked our heart rates before and after doing jumping jacks and discussed how activity affects how fast our heart beats. We taught the children that hibernating animals heart rate drops significantly and their bodies get cold. Next, we discussed migration. Our STEM challenge this week was to make a cave for sleepy bears using sticks and marshmallows. Maths was incorporated in our Feed the squirrel’s station. The children were invited to feed acorns to the squirrels according to the number on the cards. We were very surprised how well the children knew their numbers and how great was their fine motor while feeding this woodland creature. In the art atelier the children were invited on a painting activity using watercolours. Each child had the opportunity to pick which woodland animal they wanted to paint over and create their landscape. Please come and check our art Gallery for your child’s creation.
By Ms Gabriela
In the Woods
Guimaraes REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 26
This week we went to the woods and all the woodland creatures fascinated the children. We set up our campfire, gathered our camping gear, roasted our marshmallows and were on the lookout for bears. In our learning stations this week we had a sensory bin, STEM activity, maths activity and a process painting activity. Anytime we have the chance to encourage sensory play in our classroom we do so because it’s such a great invitation. Sensory development also goes hand-in-hand with fine motor skills as well, which is crucial for our young learners to experience on a daily basis. This week in our Sensory bin we explored the natural elements of the woods.
Stage 2/3 & 3R
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 27
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL Stage 2/3 & 3R: Marshmallow STEM
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 29 Stage 2/3 & 3R: Woodlands Investigation
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 30 Stage 2/3 & 3R: Book Week
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 31 Stage 2/3 & 3R: Book Week
Cinderella
The children then had a turn at creating their own magic coaches. They were given a real mini pumpkin and a range of paints, and asked to use paintbrushes as their magic wands to transform them into beautiful coaches. They were fascinated by their unusual canvas, and showed great concentration as they delicately covered the pumpkins until they became a ride fit for a princess!
One aspect of the story the children found fascinating was when the fairy godmother transformed the pumpkin to take Cinderella to the ball. At first they accepted that a pumpkin was a suitable means of transportation, so we asked them to think critically about it. Could you ride in a pumpkin? Did any of us drive a pumpkin to school today? They soon realised the absurdity and hilarity of it, and we explained that the fairy godmother used her magic to transform the pumpkin into a beautiful coach!
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 32
As we told the story they loved acting out the fairy godmothers waving and tapping her wand as she helped Cinderella. In the art atelier they made magic by creating their own fairy wands! First we asked them to identify the range of shapes to use at the end of the wand, and they used pastel paints to give them a base colour. They they applied lots of glitter and chose some precious gems to give their wands their magic. Again they were asked to identify the colours, shapes, and amount of gems they used, a relaxed way of allowing them to demonstrate and extend their ever expanding knowledge and skills. This week we also celebrated Book Week! A big thank you to all the children who came in dressed up; we had some of our favourite book characters, as well of course as princesses, Spider-men and Emma Wiggles. The children loved sharing their books and showing off their costumes to their friends. It brought so much joy to the class that we want to extend the dress up invitation throughout next week, especially for children who did not attend on Thursday. If your child would like to wear a costume to school next week we welcome you to do so, and will find a way to incorporate this into our play and group times!
Stage 2R
This week our chosen fairytale was the beloved classic Cinderella! Each group time we retold the story, focusing on different themes and discussing how similar tales were found across Europe and Asia. The main themes we connected to the children's own knowledge and experiences were the good and poor choices made in the story. The evil stepmother and stepsister made poor choices by being mean to Cinderella, and the Fairy Godmother made good choices by being kind to Cinderella and finding solutions to her problems. We talked about how we can make good choices in our own lives, by being a good friend and comforting those who are sad, as well as taking advice from our teachers and parents on how to respond to difficult situations.
By Ms Madeleine Grant
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 34 Stage 2R: Pumpkin Coaches
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 35 Stage 2R: Fairy Godmother’s Wand
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 36 Stage 2R: Book Week
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 37 Stage 2R: Book Week
This week in Stage 1E we enjoyed another fun filled week exploring and discovering new things about our community helpers provocation “Chefs” . During our group times the children sang a variety of songs related to cooking and healthy eating, the favourite being “Pizza party”. This song tied in well to our other activities this week that were based on pizza Ourmaking.first sensory activity this week was play-dough pizza making and decorating. The children each had a chance to play and explore using play-dough. We also used different wooden toppings to add to our pizza and the children used a wooden pizza cutter to slice their play-dough pizza into little pieces. There are so many benefits for children when they play and discover using play-dough. It motivates children to explore its sensory qualities, strengthen small fingers, hands and wrists muscles which is later used for skills such as cutting and holding a pencil with a pincer grasp. Children also develop hand-eye coordination as they used their hands to shape the play-dough. The children all had a great time playing and exploring with our pizza play-dough. After all the children had fun with the pizza play-dough we embarked on a fantastic cooking activity. The children each had the opportunity to make their very own pizza. We used a variety of ingredients such as; ham, cheese, capsicum, mushrooms, pizza sauce and a tortilla for the base. The children learnt a range of skills during our pizza making such as counting, new vocabulary and following directions. Cooking is a life-long skills they learn and all the children had such a great time participating in this activity.
After we made our pizza’s chef Caleb cooked them in the kitchen and the children enjoyed their self-made pizza as part of their afternoon tea. This also encouraged the children to try different foods such as the ones we used as topping. Everyone had a great pizza making
Stage 1E
“Cooking with children is not just about ingredients, recipes and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment and creativity.” - Guy Fieri
By
Ms Justine Heydra 38
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 39
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL Stage 1E: Community Helpers - Chefs
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 41 Stage 1E: Making Pizza
By Ms Amanda Felton
Yoga was so much fun as the Babies had to do a ball and feather workout. Yes, it sounds more complicated than it was. Holding the feather in one hand and gripping the ball with their inner thighs and lifting up!
Everyone showed lots of enthusiasm and curiosity towards their learning experiences this week and it is so wonderful to see them already making little friends and to observe the lovely sharing by everyone, with lots of smiles too.
What a fabulous time the children had this week... the children absolutely loved their painting activities and we had splats of Orange and brown everywhere as we experimented in recreating our very own giraffe interpretations. Some of our little friends had fun just creating splats, laughing with joy and getting very creative with the painting brush…which creatively was used as a fly swat!
Giraffes!
Well done everyone, what clever children we have ! Gym and Drama this week kept everyone very busy and our children are making good progress with their gross motor skills as they develop greater confidence and mobility It is really is a privilege to observe our clever children building their social, emotional and physical skills each and every day as they learn more about themselves and start to foster friendships and connections with others.
Stage 1R
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 43 Stage 1R: Giraffes
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 44
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 45 Drama
By Ms Brooke De Silva
This week during our yoga classes we focused on how we use some of the smallest parts of our bodies – our toes! So much of good balance is relevant to focusing on our feet as our grounding anchor. We started with some seated balancing postures which also encouraged us to use our core, another key aspect of good balance. This helped us out a lot when we moved on to a game which involved passing a ball around the circle using just our feet – with the extra challenge being to not let the ball touch the ground! We then moved on to some standing poses where we practiced standing and balancing on the very tips of our toes. The students proved that ‘tree pose’, our go-to balancing pose, was becoming too easy for them so they were challenged with a new balancing pose – Extended Hand to Big Toe pose where we tried to lift our foot above our head! It was so nice to see the students challenge themselves with so much enthusiasm. We introduced dragonfly pose where the kids balance on the tops of their feet (great stretch for the ankles!) and then practiced rolling back and forth between
Yoga
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 47 Yoga
Piano By Mr Alan Tang
To all the parents who wanted to know the Piano's lessons timetable at Reddam ELS: on Thursday I started at 9:30am with Stage 3/4 upstairs and on Friday I started at 10am with Stage 3 downstairs. This week was another productive week for Piano's lessons. The theme for this week was "How does the song make you feel". This was inspired by listening to 92.9 Classical FM Radio, the presenter stated that it was a great game to play with children of different ages. It encouraged them to use words to describe their emotional responses to the song and ability to identify Major or Minor tonality. Beethoven's symphony No 5 in C Minor Op 67 was played across all stages this week. It is one of the most popular songs that is often associated as "Scary" or "Dramatic" in our modern popular culture. Stage 4 and 3/4 kept learning "Baby Shark" and "Rocket's Ship". Stage 3 and 2 looked at a finger exercise song named "Banana" which involved using C, D and E. They were all reminded how to find and identify the name of the keys. The children of stage 1 and baby's stage all participate in the "How does the song make you feel" game with some super cute and adorable responses.
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 49 Piano
My GymREDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 50
| ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 51 My Gym
