REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER Dee’s Message
11TH MARCH 2022
Dear Parents and Caregivers, Many, many years ago, Plato made the insightful comment that “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” We can all probably think of uplifting moments when our spirits have been lifted by a piece of music, or when a song has taken on added significance because of the association it has with a particular person or moment in our lives. There are those artists who paint, and authors who write, with music in the background. And some of us might risk our creaky early-morning voices to sing in the shower, or while driving to work in rush-hour traffic. Music is like that – it hovers just under the surface of our lives, waiting to spring forth and lift our spirits. Researchers have long known the benefits of introducing music and songs to babies, toddlers and young children. Music has the ability to transcend boundaries, as it touches the cognitive, social-emotional, creative and even physical aspects of a young child’s life.
It allows them to express their emotions in a manner unlike just about anything else, as their sounds and imitated words are often expressed with unrestrained glee. Music and sounds hold a fascination for children, and this is so evident in their weekly Music lessons and in other opportunities to engage with music and song in their classes. The combination of sounds, words and movements draws them in completely, and while some children might initially be somewhat reticent, it’s not long before they too are swept up in the joy of the music. Whether in these structured lessons, or the songs which burble unrestrained from their lips while they work away at something in class, music should never be far from a young child’s experience of life. While their prerogative to change lyrics and tunes might give us some moments of laughter, these too are important aspects of engaging with music. In a sense, they are making the music their own.
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I encourage you to read the Music, Drama and Sport content in these weekly newsletters, as they give a very special insight into the range of opportunities which the children experience each week. By exposing them to varied moments of exploration, doors are opened into the richness of life. Their enthusiasm buoys all of us – and no doubt puts a song into the heart of all their teachers. Have a happy weekend! Dee Pitcairn Principal
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The Nest (1R)
Kiri Winders, Helena Zhang, and Min Pattarasiritanarat
artwork in our entrance for all to We have noticed how much our little toddlers enjoy dropping or "posting" objects into different containers or boxes around our room. We watch on as they engage in a state of pure wonder exploring the shape, texture, smell and taste of a myriad of things that are all new to them. Many of our children are particularly interested in dropping small objects and picking them back up again. This is called the “enveloping” stage in child development, where they like to put things inside boxes, tubes and pots and then find them again. We enjoy games of passing the pieces back and forth, dropping and picking up, hiding and uncovering, or shaking objects inside a bottle.
see! Other activities enjoyed this week were ball play indoors, playdough, story time, water paintings and making a special card for our Teacher Min, whose mother passed away this week. We thank all our parents for donating to the flowers for her and we all send her lots of love through this difficult time.
This past week, we set up a “posting” activity for the children. We made some recycled boxes into post boxes and let the children post some colour pieces of paper. Each of the children had a turn to post the card inside the slot. It took some concentration, coordination and finger dexterity to get the pieces into the slot. Some of the children enjoyed opening the boxes to see what they could find and then closing them, discovering and learning the concept of object permanence (when something is hidden it still exists). We could see their little minds trying to figure things out and problem solve when an object didn’t fit. We look forward to extending these abilities by making more complex games of this nature for the children to play. As a follow up activity, we made our very own post box envelopes at the mini-atelier. The children loved dabbing the paint onto their little envelopes and later placing their little picture cards inside. We will display their REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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The Nest (1R)
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
This week we celebrated International Women’s Day with the Fledglings group. For this occasion, the children were invited to create a flower painting using cotton tips. At group time we spoke about our “mummies” and “grannies” and all the important women in our lives.
At group times, we called out the children’s turn to wash their hands, by calling the name of a colour that they were wearing. This was a nice way to get them engaged, as they were enthusiastic to see what colour would be next and if they had that one on their clothes.
We invited the parents and carers to contribute towards the tree decoration. Each one received a cupcake holder and wrote the name of all the significant women in their lives. These papers symbolised flowers that made our tree very colourful and beautiful.
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners. Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity. EYLF, 2009
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation. EYLF, 2009. “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?” At group times, we have been reading Bill Martin Jr book about the Brown Bear. The children have enjoyed exploring this story not only for the animals displayed in each page, but also because they are having fun talking about the colours highlighted for each animal. We promoted activities in our classroom this week that encouraged the children to identify and name colours. For example, in the Atelier, the children created beautiful drawings with the teachers. In this process, we encouraged the children to talk about the colours they were using.
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
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Stage 2
By Daniella Gosty, Shauna Corry, Sarah Noone, Roberta Sokame and Joyce Matsui
‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ is a growth mindset book, which we read this week, during which the Stage 2 children cheered and smiled as it was read to them. From listening to the story, the children realise that although Gerald couldn’t dance like everyone else, he eventually found his groove. This book was chosen to be read to the children as some were hesitant from the beginning of the year about completing provocation artwork. The children were given a choice of materials to use when completing their very own Geralds, beginning with using the outline of their forearms for Gerald’s long neck. For Gerald’s features, such as his eyes, nose, mouth and patterned skin, the children were given a black, a brown and an orange marker, along with brown and orange stickers, and even some glue and scrap paper to add to their pictures. All the children chose to use the stickers and their fine motor ability was challenged as each of them tried to peel the stickers from its paper.
of this as they make attempts at new activities and artworks throughout the year. If it becomes too difficult there are other methods the children can attempt to continue to succeed. A character at the end of the story helps the giraffe come to understand this, and then the other animals come to the same understanding. All it takes is one kind "person" to make the difference. As we continue term one in Stage Two we will focus on kindness and helping our friends to succeed through shared experiences and helping each other. · 1.4 Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect · 5.1 Children interact verbally and nonverbally with others for a range of purposes · 5.2 Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
As the children are active learners it is great to watch them extend their learning of the story through both artwork and physical movement. Each time we read the story we extended our bodies, pointed out our body parts that were similar to Gerald’s (knee, legs, necks) and even tried to create our own dance moves as we imagined dancing to the night moon. This book is excellent for pointing out that we all have different strengths. And even if we don't perform a skill the same as others it doesn't mean we don't have the skill or can’t develop it. The children are reminded REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 2
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Stage 3
By Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan and Sarah Garderner – Ventura
It was clear during the past week that the children showed an interest in their names and in recognising letters. Before children can write they need to be able to recognise and execute certain lines, curves and symbols. This is all part of pre-writing. Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills children need to develop before they can write. These skills contribute to the child’s ability to hold and use a pencil, and the ability to draw, write, copy, and colour. A major component of prewriting skills are pre-writing shapes. These are the pencil strokes that most letters, numbers and early drawings are comprised of. In this experience the children will use the large pattern and symbol cards to follow lines, symbols and patterns with an assortment of loose parts to develop fundamental pre-writing skills. Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. After the children found their name on the table, they found a page with the initial letter of their name. First, we looked at each letter in the alphabet and the children were able to recognise their own. We then looked at the correct way to hold the pencil before each of the children attempted to trace the letter with great confidence and eagerness to participate. One of the best places to start when it comes to teaching young children how to read is to begin with their name. Young children are highly interested in their own name. It has meaning and value to them. I am amazed at how much progress the children have already made in recognising not only their own letters but the others too. After tracing the first letter of their names, the following day each child had a turn at taking the small, coloured pieces of paper and gluing and sticking them onto their initial letter of their name.
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Stage 3
By Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan and Sarah Garderner – Ventura
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Stage 4
By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Bri Rees
Over the past few weeks, the wet weather has kept Stage 4 from going outside and enjoying the adventure of going to the big playground and undertaking play in our beautiful garden area but that hasn’t stopped physical activity being encouraged, planned and promoted for each child. During this period of wet weather, children in Stage 4 have been engaged in a wide variety of learning experiences which support their physical development through fundamental movement skills. Many fundamental movement skills can be practised safely inside during rainy days including jumping, hopping, leaping and side sliding. This might be through dancing, yoga, organised group games such as ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’, or in our weekly indoor sport lesson with Tegan.
daily yoga sessions. Yoga has multiple benefits for preschool aged children which include building physical strength and flexibility as well as the ability to self-regulate their emotions. Stage 4 teachers plan programmes to meet the physical and emotional needs of each child. Maslow believed that if educators help young children to meet their physical and emotional needs then they will grow into strong, resilient, competent adults which is what we all want for children in Stage 4 and beyond. When asked what they enjoy most about yoga in 4M the children said: “I can stand really tall and strong.” Maximilian
Giving children the opportunity to strengthen their bodies through physical movement not only aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework Outcome 3, (Children have a strong sense of wellbeing), but it also allows for the support and development of the dispositions for learning such as curiosity, co-operation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity which are an important component of Outcome 4 of the EYLF. Many of the gross motor skills children gain and strengthen in Stage 4 are important for academic success in primary school and beyond. Having a high level of motor planning, strong muscle tone and coordination allows children to more confidently undertake group learning experiences and develop the skills needed for academic success. In 4M the children have been engaging in REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 4
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Early Learning School Drama This week in the Nest, Stage 1 and 2, the children went on an expedition ‘Under the Sea’! At the beginning of the lesson the children practised shaking the parachute, freezing skills, colour recognition, and their singing skills. Frankie said the parachute looks like the waves in the sea.
sunglasses, hats, short sleeves, and sunscreen before opening our rocket door. When we stepped out, we needed to drink lots of water and eat ice-cream to stay cool. Thanks Tommy in Stage 3 for suggesting we have ice-cream! It was too hot on Venus, so we decided to go to Neptune instead.
Next, I handed out the “fishing rods” (ribbons) and asked the children to follow the various movements which I did. We made a circle shape, a rainbow shape, and used the ribbon as a tail. The children were really good at packing away the ribbons when I said that I had brought back Tommy the turtle (puppet) as he loves the water too! They loved it the last time I brought it in. Seeing their faces light up and their imagination switched on was very special, especially as they thought that it was real!
On Neptune it was very cold. We mimed putting on warm clothes. The kids suggested lots of different warm clothes we could wear like jumpers, beanies, warm socks, gloves, and Ugg boots. When we exited our rocket, we noticed that Neptune was HUGE. I asked the children to explore Neptune and to find something special to bring back to Earth.
For the final activity we listened to classical music using our hands and bodies to act as different sea creatures. They all wanted to tell me what their favourite was! In Stages 3, and 4, we recreated our time machines from last week, and travelled to the moon! I brought in a book that showed us astronauts with a rocket-ship bouncing and floating on the moon. We planted a flag on the moon and practised our slow and bouncy walks. Stage 4 were very convincingly walking on the moon! Well, done to Ashleigh and Gabriel in Stage 4 on your cool moonwalks. We decided to use the rocket to visit lots of other planets. We counted down from 5 and said, “Blast off!” before flying to each planet. First, we visited Mercury, but it was too hot, so we went to Venus. On Venus it’s very bright and hot. We mimed putting on
After Neptune, Stage 3 and 4 looked through their telescopes and saw a new planet! It was gold and didn’t have a name. I asked the children for name suggestions. Some included gold planet, monkey planet, money planet, and yellow planet. Bianca in Stage 3 thought it should be “Mystery planet” (as the paper plate to show the planet had a ? on it). We decided to check it out. When we landed on the new planet, it turned us into whatever we wanted to be. Some children became gorillas, some princesses, some unicorns, and many more! When we arrived back on Earth, I asked the children to share one at a time what they found on Neptune. There were lots of diamonds, yummy foods, and race cars found on Neptune! Stage 3 and 4 are working on listening to their friends. I am encouraging descriptive language, imaginative and unique ideas, and clear voices. Well, done everyone. I wonder where we will go next week!
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Early Learning School Drama
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Early Learning School Sport All of the students thoroughly enjoyed moving their bodies this week, they are coping so well with all of this extra indoor time. Our focus for the sports session this week was continuing to work on the fundamental movement skills of throwing and catching as well as a new skill of aiming. We warmed up by playing one of the students' favourite games, ‘Stuck in the mud’. They are getting very good at looking out for their friends who have been tagged and going to help unstick them. It was also excellent to see some communication between students, with those who were stuck calling out to be freed. Communication in this form is a nice foundation for teamwork.
Our second learning activity for the session was ‘clean the house’. The class was broken up into two teams who were separated by lines approximately 4 metres apart. The aim of the game was to keep their house clean by using an underarm throw to throw it over the lines to be in the other team's house. This is the first time we have focused on aiming and this activity allows the students to make perceptual judgments about distance, throw strength and space. The classes loved this activity, and it was wonderful to see them solve problems by changing the angles of release or throw strength.
The students were introduced to a new game; ‘Beat the ball’. In this game they were in a circle and had to throw the ball to the person next to them who would then continue on to the next person until the ball had made an entire circle. At the same time as this was happening one of the students was hopping around the outside to see if they could get back to their spot before the ball had done a full circle. Adding the little bit of competition was interesting to watch as you could see the children getting visibly excited about beating the person hopping. Some groups were able to get a full circle complete without a dropped ball, and all groups made huge progress with their catching and throwing throughout this game. We will continue to work on throwing and catching in a variety of situations as the year progresses.
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Early Learning School Music We all have a natural connection to music. We can feel the beat and rhythm move through our body, and it has such a great impact on how we feel. The beat is a steady pulse, keeping us in time – and the rhythm is the expression of the beat.
is one of my all-time favourite songs. It sings about acceptance and understanding. We spoke about how people can have different hair, eyes, skin; but we are still all equal and must treat each other and nature with love and kindness.
In Stage 3 and 4 this week, we began the lesson with belly breathing, laying on our backs and breathing in so our bellies went up when we breathed in, and down when we breathed out.
To begin the lesson, we looked at our musical alphabet – ‘A B C D E F G’. Using our Piano Play Mat, I asked the children to identify the letter I had chosen, find that on the mat, and give me a word that starts with that letter.
Now focused and ready for the lesson, we took up a maraca and sat in our circle reviewing our rhythm animals – ‘dog’, ‘cat’, ‘spider’ and adding ‘bumble bee’. We started off by shaking to a steady beat, before adding our rhythm and changing the timing. We explored syllables and how many shakes make up each word: 1 for dog and cat; 2 for spider and 3 for bumble bee. Still exploring syllables, I asked the children if they could work out how many shakes made up each of their names, and which animal it matched with.
In Stage 2 and The Fledglings we opened the lesson with ‘Wake Up Body’ – our S2 kids are getting right into it, but our Fledglings were very quiet this week. We woke up our hands, feet, hips and body before another whole body warm up with ‘Hokey Pokey’. Once our bodies were warm, we did some single note scales on ‘DA’ before moving into our ‘Good Morning Song’.
Layering this exercise, we stood up and added stomps and freezes as we marched to ‘Ants Go Marching’, changing up the timing of our marches with our different animals. We also tried to run on the spot as fast as we could, and tested to see if we could move in slow motion. Once we had stomped around the room, we warmed up our voices with ascending ‘LA’, descending scales on ‘ME’ and changing our shapes with ‘FA-FOH’. Stage 3 sang through ‘Do Re Mi’ and satisfied their obsession with a quick dance through ‘The Sunflower Song’. I introduced Stage 4 to the song we’ll be learning this term, ‘Colours of the Wind’. This REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Early Learning School Music The Fledglings sang through some of our usual sing-a-longs of ‘Wheels on the Bus’, ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and ‘The Sunflower Song’. With maracas in hand, the Fledglings went to the zoo and acted out our different animals – getting those major motor movements going. This week I introduced ‘Gahloomph Goes The Little Green Frog’. Using bells on our wrists, the children tried to crouch down on their hands and feet, and then spring off the ground like little frogs; which is quite a difficult task for our little ones! Then we made our bells ring by clapping and shaking our hands in time with the music. Stage 2 revisited our rhythm animals, and we shook along to ‘DOG’, ‘CAT’ and ‘SPIDER’. We stood up and added in our stomps, before marching around the room to ‘Ants Go Marching’. As with the older stages, we tried to march to different beats, while adding in freezes and different instructions for the children to follow.
Once we got through our marching, we quick danced through our ‘Sunflower Song’ before moving onto ‘Do Re Mi’ and continuing to add in our actions for ‘SO’ and ‘LA’. To end the lesson, we had a game of musical statues to ‘I’m a Gummy Bear’ which instantly sent smiles around the room as the children danced like crazy. In The Nest we again opened up the lesson with ‘Wake Up Body’. We have many young ones in The Nest, so we spend time trying to build confidence in the children with using instruments, standing up and walking. We used various instruments like maracas, castanets, symbols and wood sticks in our sing-a-longs and free play to get them moving and bouncing along. We tried to get up and moving with ‘Ants Go Marching’, but it still proved a little difficult for some children – however, we’ll work on it! They were more confident and comfortable with the Piano Playmat this week – with some of the children heading over to play on the mat by themselves.
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Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Zachary Butcher, Riley Yu and Coby Clark who celebrate their special day this week We hope you have a fabulous day!
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