Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Vol 22 Issue 35

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents,

By Mrs Simone Cooke

We have been taking full advantage of the sunshine this week to enjoy some Spring planting with the children. Our Stage 4 children under the guidance of Miss Lili decided which plants we should grow and enjoyed the responsibility of weeding, replanting and watering their plants and watching them grow.

The Stage 3 children this week planted their sunflower seeds and it has been delightful watching them staring eagerly at the soil each day enquiring where the flowers are. Fortunately, it only took a few days for the first sprouts to emerge and there were many excited shouts of joy on discovering the first shoots of green, it was as if we had unearthed a buried treasure! The Stage 2 children have been loving the independence of using the watering cans and are taking their responsibilities of caring for the garden very seriously.

Involving children in gardening is a wonderful way of teaching them about cause and effect, as they learn that without soil or water plants will not grow and if they receive too much sunshine they can even get burnt, just as we can if we do not wear our sunscreen. The children love digging in the soil, planting the seeds and getting their hands dirty. It was important that the children had the chance to plan and design the garden beds and worked together as a team. They decided to include flowering plants that attract butterflies and birds to our playground and were very happy to find a little ladybird had come to investigate the new flowers.

Principal’s Message Continued…

The children also decided that we should have our own Reddam Scarecrow to help keep away possums and other animals that may try to destroy their garden. Miss Lili is busy working on this and making garden markers with the children so we know what has been planted in each of the garden beds.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

The children are learning lots of new terminology such as mulching, composting and fertiliser. Living in an inner-city environment doesn’t mean we can’t get our hands dirty and the children are learning all about sustainability and have created their own little ecosystem. They were surprised to see how many bugs, worms and other insects live beneath the soil and to hear how our flowers are important for small animals such as bees who need the flowers pollen to make honey.

1st April 2022

The children were also interested to learn about how Indigenous people have a close connection with the land and we are also looking at creating a bush tucker garden. Next week the children in Stage 3 are planning on using Native Aboriginal herbs to add into their playdough, so that they enjoy the sensory experience of the various herbs.

Involving our toddlers and preschoolers in gardening is also a good way to teach them where our fruit and vegetables come from. The children have planted strawberries, beans, tomatoes, lettuces, passionfruit and blueberries and many of the children were surprised to see that peas come in a pod. Some of the children have told me that they think they like peas now that they know they come in their own ‘sleeping bag”! Exposing children to edible gardens is a good way to promote healthy eating and to encourage them to try new fruits and vegetables.

Working in the garden is also very good for locomotor skills as they tackle tasks such as filling watering cans, picking out tiny seeds, digging and weeding. If you think about it gardening exposes children to a wide range of sciences, from being budding Meteorologists and predicting what the weather will be and the effect it will have on the garden, to Botany and looking at the various types of plants they can grow or Chemistry and the importance of compost and fertiliser to help plant growth.

REDDAM

Stage 4R

By Ms Emily Brazel

Stage 4s Garden!

Holistic, wholesome and heartwarming – gardening ticks all those boxes. Outcome 2 of the Early Years Learning Framework, supports children becoming socially responsible and respectful of their environments.

This week Stage 4R and 4D and teachers worked together to create a beautiful garden in the upstairs playground. Undertaking a gardening project can teach responsibility to children, as they learn that it is their job to take care of their seeds and plants each day in order for them to be healthy.

Planting seeds, scooping dirt and watering plants all help to improve children's motor skills, which can in term help to improve their concentration and learning capabilities. Gardening is a healthy, fun activity for all children that includes spending time outdoors. Spending time in the garden offers opportunities to develop all kinds of skills. Physical, emotional, spatial, mathematical, sensory awareness, character development, creative ideas, and just a love and appreciation of nature. It is important that teachers foster the children's learning of caring for our natural world by encouraging them to be involved in the maintenance of the garden including watering and fertilising the plants.

Firstly the children used their muscle strength to pull out the old weeds from the soil. After this was complete the children were given a spade each to dig a hole for new plant to go. The children showed eagerness, excitement and commitment to their new garden. Digging, pulling out weeds, raking and planting new plants are the physical advantages of working in the garden. Once this was complete the children began planting new plants into the garden trays. As it was such beautiful weather the children were able to enjoy some sunshine whilst planting. The children were able to use their sensory skills to feel and press firmly down on the soil to assure the flowers stayed firmly in its place. Finally, Stage 4 were able to stand back and admire their hard work.

Gardening allows children to develop their sensory skills and hand-eye coordination to dig, plant and water a variety of plants with their teachers. Gardening can heighten all senses in children. They can feel the dirt, flowers, fruit, leaves and seeds, see the vibrant colours and sizes of plants, hear the sound of leaves rustling and fruit/vegetables being picked and smell the flowers, fruits and herbs fresh. Best of all, they can taste the outcome of their hard work! By engaging all five senses, gardening can help children to better understand the process of gardening and where their food comes from.

Stage 4 will take on this responsibility of our new garden for the rest of the year!

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Planting our new garden

Planting our new garden

By Ms Sarah Ross

Fine Motor Play in School Readiness

“From birth to eight years, children continually acquire, refine and consolidate their motor functions and skills and integrate their skills across domains” VEYLDF (2016)

Fine motor skills are essential for many aspects of self-care and are critical for the development of emergent writing skills. When young children engage in fine motor skill activities they are developing and strengthening muscles throughout the whole arm , hands and their fingertips. This developed strength and control of the hand and fingers support children in achieving tasks such as; tying shoelaces and doing up buttons, feeding themselves, creative arts, correct pencil grip and writing effectively.

Throughout the year in Stage Four we have had fine motor activities embedded into our educational program and daily routines. From this we have seen excellent progress in the children’s fine motor abilities so much so that the children are very eager to continue to learn how to write and grip their pencils correctly.

Some activities you can do at home to support your child’s fine motor development further include;

Filling cups and different sized containers and pouring with water.

Rolling play dough and making smaller objects by pinching play dough and using smaller tools to manipulate the dough.

-Squeezing triggers on spray bottles to water plants.

Drawing and painting.

Building with smaller blocks and connecting toys.

Threading beads, moving to smaller beads and thinner string/thread as finger dexterity increases.

Picking up objects with tongs and tweezers.

Cutting paper with scissors.

To celebrate and challenge the Stage Four children’s fine motor abilities this week the children engaged in a fine motor play provocation. This saw the children; thread beads onto pipe cleaners, painting and colouring, using tweezers to transfer pom poms into bowls, weaving fabrics through string, and connecting a variety of different construction toys together. Each child demonstrated perseverance and persistence as they approached each challenge and displayed their creative pieces proudly to their peers, teachers and parents.

Reminders: As we are moving into the warmer months the UV ratings are becoming higher so it is imperative that each child’s skin is protected when playing outdoors. Please ensure your child comes to school wearing sunscreen and has a hat in their bag each day. In addition, please make sure clothing covers the shoulders.

Fine Motor Play

Getting Creative

By

Ms Emily Chacon

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER

Maintaining our gardens

Maintaining our gardens

By Ms Riina Andrew

Revision of the Year

Over the next two weeks, the class decided that they would like to revisit their favourite experiences of 2022. We sat at our Morning Meeting Group and everyone had the opportunity to share their ideas and express their favourite activities of the year. Tianze wanted to revisit Volcano Sculpture, Valentina wanted to explore Fairy Tales again, Jack suggested Dinosaurs, Marcus requested Coding and Photography was recommended by Jane.

To foster the above requests, tables and activities were set up to reflect these requests. The light table was offered to the children with the option to look at negatives with the naked eye or use a magnifying glass to see the images on the negatives. We also revisited the Photo Scavenger Hunt as the children took the opportunity to choose a card, read the words and follow the instructions on that card.

A Prehistoric World was recreated by placing a variety of Dinosaurs on the table with loose parts for the children to manipulate and replicate the environment of the Dinosaurs. We also included a Volcano Sculpture experience. Trays of sand were arranged across the table with small glass jars which held lava (red water). The children first created the shape of a volcano and then used droppers to add the lava to the sand sculpture. “It exploded” was a popular comment as each child added their lava to the activity.

At the Fairy Tale table, the children were first read the story ‘The Ugly Duckling’. This was a new fairy tale that we had not explored earlier this year but most of the children were familiar with the book. The children then had the opportunity to draw their favourite part of the story using coloured markers. Each drawing was as individual as each child!

The final revisit of experiences was the game of Twister. As it was a much loved game earlier in the year, we decided to play again. This game assisted the children in the learning of the Coding Provocation as they were required to familiarise themselves with left and right as the aim of the game was to place a certain body part on a particular coloured spot, for instance, left hand on green dot and right foot on red dot. As the children became Twisted into funny body positions, the spectators laughed when the children could not twist anymore!

Thank you to all the families who have started to bring in their Christmas Concert outfits. Please continue to bring these in next week in a plastic bag with your child’s name written on it. The children are all very excited when practising and cannot wait to until show time!

Term 4 Reflections

Term 4 Reflections

Stage 3E

By Ms Itziar Garcia

Friendships

During this week Stage 3 has been focusing on self-identity and friendships. We have been working on how to be kind to each other, the concepts of being a good friend and the importance of sharing. Research shows that establishing friendships is an important developmental goal for children. Friendships developed during preschool and early school years give children valuable contexts in which to learn and practice skills related to social, cognitive, communicative, and emotional development.

Why do we need to share?

James “Because you can play with your friends”

Claire “You have to share and be nice or none wants to play with you”

Ethan C “If you are pushing your friends will hurt you”

Sophie” Yes, if you push your friends, they won’t be your friend anymore”

Gisele “I am always share with my sister”

Caelie “If you are not sharing you can’t play”

Jake “The toys are from school so that’s not yours”

Henry “If I bring my toys from home so everyone can play”

Mylan “Everyone can play with all the toys”

Aneilia “We need to share because we are all friends”

After listening to all their peers’ ideas about sharing, they concluded that “sharing makes you a good friend”, in keeping with our philosophy of “sharing is caring”. Following up the conversation about friendship we encouraged the children to do some drawing about friendship.

Another activity Stage 3 has been working through the week is the concept of themselves. Children engaged in a self-portrait project where every child had the time to look at themselves in the mirror and draw themselves. They all enjoyed drawing and painting on canvas, making wonderful keepsakes that we have displayed on our walls! There are many benefits to doing self-portrait art projects with children. One of the key benefits is that it is a great way for kids to make observations about facial structure and features. Children can also compare similarities and differences with their peers and discuss how everyone is unique in their own special way. Self-portrait art projects are a wonderful way to allow children to dive into art exploration.

With all these activities we want to make children have the sense of being and belonging to our class. Childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world. Being recognises the significance of the here and now in children’s lives. It is about the present and them knowing themselves, building and maintaining relationships with others, engaging with life’s joys and complexities, and meeting challenges in everyday life. The early childhood years are not solely preparation for the future but also about the present.

Housekeeping: With the weather warming up we please ask that your child comes to school with shoulders covered and sunscreen on. Staff will reapply during the day and will continue to ensure your child is drinking water and wearing their hat. Please ensure all items are labelled with the child’s name.

Making Friends

Stage 2/3 & 3R

Welcome to Japan

By Ms Gabriela Guimaraes

Japan provocation is a great fun and a perfect way to learn about other cultures in the classroom. We had fun studying Japan as we learned about Mount Fuji, the cherry blossom festival, Japanese food and Japanese costumes!

We started our week with the question: What do you know about Japan? Lots of hands up and the most common answer was Sushi. All children knew what sushi was and most of them have already tried. We discussed which ingredients we can add on our sushi, here are some of the answers:

Harper Buzzel – “I would like to eat a unicorn sushi”

Hannah O’Reilly – “Mango Sushi for me.”

Hazel Qian – “We need to put rice on sushi”

Arush Graham – “I like soy sauce on my sushi”

Henry Peacock – “My mum puts cucumber on my sushi”

Madeleine Kearns – “Wasabi is very spice.”

In one of our learning stations, we set up a Japanese restaurant where the children were invited to use their fine motor skills and eat pretend sushi by using chopsticks. We also pretended to drink Japanese tea and when it became too hot, we used Japanese paper fans to cool down.

We learned that the Cherry Blossom Trees bloom for about two weeks every year in Japan. The Japanese people believe that cherry blossoms are a symbol of the cycle of life. They have big festivals each year and picnic under the trees. We painted our own cherry blossoms at the art atelier.

Next, it was time to learn about the people of Japan. We learned about their special holidays called Boys Day and Girls Day. We learned that sometimes girls wear an outfit called a Kimono(Yukata) for special holidays and carry a special Japanese fan.

We are very lucky that we have a Japanese mum in our class, and she was able to share lots of resources with us including a Yukata, making our learning a lot more meaningful. Thank you, Yasue (Amelie Daoudi mum), for all the resources and the time invested in assisting us with our Japan provocation.

Arigatou Gozaimasu!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Exploring Japanese Culture

By Ms Madeleine Grant

Becoming

This week we began exploring the final element of the term’s theme. We have touched on being and belonging, with activities and discussions with the children about who they are as individuals and as members of their families, school, and community. Now we are looking at becoming, a timely subject as we are looking back not he year that has been, and preparing the children for the next stage of their preschool journey.

Back in our first term as we explored the letters of the alphabet we had planned a gardening experience, which was unfortunately called off due to the rain and an alternate indoor experience was created instead. Now with the return of warmer weather and sunny days, we decided to revisit ‘G is for Gardening’, taking the children to the back garden and planting a variety of seeds in the planter boxes. We connected this to becoming by showing the children the seeds in their hands and the plants in garden, and explaining how all plants, flowers and trees start their lives as tiny seeds, and with the help of nutrient rich soil, fresh water and natural light, they grow!

Revisiting a provocation that was planned in February also allowed us a chance to see just how far each child has come over the year. Our learning goals for this activity in term one were to get the children participating in something new, following instructions, sharing the play space, and listening to our explanations. After ten months, the possibilities for teaching have only grown as the children expand their cognitive capabilities! We asked them to describe the seeds using mathematical language, articulate their thoughts on what they were doing and what would happen once the seeds were buried, and use their fine and gross motor skills to get involved as active participants of the experience.

During group times we have been encouraging the children to speak up and take control of the discussions. Through show-and-tell, child-led singing, and skill demonstrations, the children’s language skills and confidence have blossomed. We have begun asking the children to reflect on the year, in preparation for our end-of-year celebrations. When asked what their favourite things about the year have been, Dylan said ‘dinosaurs’, Liv said ‘Wheels on the Bus’, James said ‘playing’ and Bella said ‘eating lunch’!

A popular answer was painting, an activity we have reimagined throughout the year, and something that offers a huge range of possibilities for expanding their cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. We set up a variety of painting activities, allowing the children to decide what colours, surfaces, types of paint, and tools they could use. A different experience each day meant they were kept on their toes and required to experiment and navigate the tasks, and produced a wide range of artworks that are as beautiful and unique as the minds that created them.

for Gardening

P is for Painting

By Ms Justine Heydra

As we are entering the final few weeks of our Nature and Loose Parts Provocation we have been focusing on building our vocabulary and our love for the outdoors and nature.

The children have been enthusiastically helping their teachers water our beautiful garden and we even enjoyed a spontaneous session of water play one afternoon as we were watering the plants and the children started playing with the water. We have also been learning about different types of leaves and flowers and our focus this week was lily pads. We incorporated “5 little speckled frogs” as our focus song and the children loved the sensory tubs that they explored with blue sand for water, lily pads and frogs.

Our second sensory activity this week was rainbow coloured sand and small branches with bright green leaves. The children each had the opportunity to explore and investigate this activity. The children identified and named all the different colours they could see and we worked on our numeracy skills by counting how many leaves we had on our branches. All the children enjoyed the different textures in this sensory activity as the sand was rough , yet the leaves were really smooth. They all thoroughly enjoyed this activity and had so much fun with their peers as they did this activity in small; groups of four.

Our literacy focus for the week was an inspiring book called “Look inside Nature” by Minna Lacey and Carolina Buzio. This book explored the wonders of nature with gorgeous illustrations and ingenious flaps. We looked up in the trees behind the reeds and under the ground to see what was living there and discovered how plants grow and make seeds.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend with your little ones.

“Children deserve to grow and learn in a place and alongside a force that is as wild and alive as they are.” Nicollete Sowder

Planting and Exploring Nature

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL

Nature, Colours and Counting

By Ms Amanda Felton

Water is Life

Splash! splash! Oh no…we are all wet. Lots of little hands where enjoying their sensory play with water. We had lots of laughter and fun while doing this experience, while at the same time our Babies learned about where water is from and why.

Babies also engaged in looking at pictures of water and clouds and learning about that it gives us life to the earth, plants, animals and us.

The Babies then explored their wonderful world of art as they engaged in using their fine motor skills and practicing their concentration of the task that is in front of them. There was also lots of enthusiasm and encouragement form the Babies, as they really enjoyed this experience. Even though it was hard for some to hold a paint brush that had a large handle. Great going everyone!

We have been working towards our social interaction skills with one and other during free play. Teachers have been very diligent and conscious that next year a lot of Babies will be going to big class. So, it is very important that the Babies who are no longer Babies do need to understand how to play nicely, show sharing and of course kind hands. And not to forget working on our manners during meal times…please and thank you! As Reddam is very big on grace and courtesy program.

Well done Babies ! Everyone is have been doing such a wonderful effort.

Water is Life

Piano

By Mr Alan Tang

This week has been a great music reading week for Stage 3, 3/4 and 4. I am currently teaching the children how to read music with Oxford's method "Ten fingers piano book" from the UK. The children have been taught how to identify Treble Clef and Bass Clef and learn how to read and play their favourite song "The Potato Song". Interesting fact of the week, potato was introduced to Europe in 1536 from South America. The children also learnt a song named "Doggy D with tea and egg" to help them to recognise notes C, D and E. Stage baby, 1 and 2 were taught the pattern of the black keys and to distinguish between higher and lower pitches of different sounding chords. This week has been a wonderful

REDDAM