REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
Dee’s Message
13 May 2022
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Last Sunday, households across the country awoke with a little more excitement than normal. In many homes, kitchens became a hive of activity, as special breakfasts were concocted, coffee brewed, and flowers picked from the garden. Then there was the thrill of delivering the breakfast prepared by little hands to a mum who was awaiting her once-a-year treat of breakfast in bed.
The Early Years Learning Framework reminds us that “Research has shown that babies are both vulnerable and competent. Babies’ first attachments within their families and within other trusting relationships provide them with a secure base for exploration and learning. Through a widening network of secure relationships, children develop confidence and feel respected and valued.”
Mother’s Day is one of those occasions on which we pause to honour the special women in our lives, and it was evident during the build-up to the event just how much the children in the ELS enjoyed preparing something unique for their mums. The enthusiastic chatter as they went about their creative tasks gave some indication of just how much they love their mums and the other wonderful ladies in their lives. We hope that you all enjoyed their gifts and the sentiments which went into creating them!
These “trusting relationships” allow children to develop to their full potential, as they feel confident enough to try new things, to explore, to create and to express themselves. It cannot be underestimated just how important it is for this loving, caring ‘scaffolding’ to be placed around children, especially as they navigate their way through the often-complicated new experiences which each new day brings.
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We are ever mindful of the fact that Mother’s Day may also bring mixed emotions for some families. We know that the anticipation of occasions such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day may create anxiety for a variety of reasons – and as such, we are all the more aware that we should celebrate all significant adults in the children’s lives, and not just keep it to the narrow definition of ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’. It cannot be emphasised enough just how much all these people have done for the children, and it is our great joy to celebrate them with the children in the ELS. The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is so very true, and we are constantly aware that we as teachers work alongside some very special people in the children’s lives. For this reason, we join in the celebration on such occasions as Mother’s Day, and we hope that everyone in our broader Reddam House ELS family had an equally memorable day last Sunday. Have a great weekend! Dee Pitcairn Principal
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The Nest (1R)
Kiri Winders, Helena Zhang, Fiona Liddell and Min Pattarasiritanarat
This week in the Nest room a special package was delivered. Inside was an array of wonderful song books along with props. One of the children’s favourite songs, ‘Five Little Ducks’ was one of the titles that had arrived. The book came with a mother duck and her ducklings. They were invited to join the teachers and read the book and became actively involved in the telling of the story. They were each given a duckling as the song progressed, until all the ducklings had been allocated. Next, they were encouraged to give the mother duck a cuddle and return the duckling as they said “bye” to her. Throughout this activity they were eager to receive a duckling whilst developing turn-taking skills as they waited to be given one. (EYLF Outcome 5.1)
We are extremely excited to welcome Charlie to the Nest room. However, we aren’t the only people at Reddam House feeling this excitement, as his siblings and their friends have been enquiring from his teachers about how he is settling. We look forward to exploring our world through our senses next week. Perhaps we will find some feathers like the five little ducks in the story to touch, feel and explore with.
The children continued to explore the leaves that were collected from our playground. We only gathered the ones that had fallen on our ground naturally, as we are supporting the children in developing an awareness of being respectful towards and looking after our environment. Previously they had worked in collaboration to produce a group collage using a range of media. Extending on their previous experience, they created an individual art piece by selecting a leaf of their choice. Then, using various autumn-coloured paints, they decorated their chosen leaf using a paint brush. Furthermore, they created an illustration on the backing paper for the leaf. Painting provides the children with the opportunity to express themselves whilst developing their grasp, holding a utensil used for making marks. (EYLF Outcome 2.4, 3.2 and 5.1)
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The Nest (1R)
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
The World Around Us Term Two started with a busy week in the Fledglings. The children arrived at school and found the classroom re-arranged with new activities and resources, and they were excited to explore them all. In the first week of the term, we promoted activities related to celebrating all mothers, due to their special date on the weekend. We spoke about love and all the beautiful things their mummies do for them. In the Mini Atelier, they coloured a wooden heart with vibrant colours of their choice and then helped the teachers to stick their photo with a loving message to share their love with their mothers. This turned into a beautiful heart chime to give out in this celebration. This week, all families received the Provocation Letter for Term Two and we are all very excited to discover the new adventures for the next few weeks. The idea of the Provocation Letter is to share with the families the interests we have observed in the Fledglings so we can plan accordingly, while respecting each child’s journey. For this reason, we keep the provocation as openended as possible, so we can take the children to different paths and experiences.
children to create bridges with the big wooden blocks so they could drive their cars on/under them. We set up a tube structure to pretend it was a bridge and invited the children to explore around it. It didn’t take long for them to find out that they could “drive” the toys through the tunnel. In the Atelier, we set up a sensory tray with different textures, and gave the children excavators, roller trucks and dump trucks to engage in this activity. We also invited them to make paintings using the car toys as paint brushes. At group times, we have been reading the books “Dig, Dig, Digging” by Margaret Mayo and “Down by the station” by Jess Stockham. We encouraged the children to identify the different vehicles noises and to name them. Next week we will continue to explore transport but adding nature resources to support this learning. Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners. Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
Considering all of this, this term we are focusing on “The World Around Us”. The children have displayed a greater interest in transport and nature to begin this provocation. We focused the activities of this week on transport, promoting experiences that extended the students’ previous knowledge. For example, this week we invited the REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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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
Celebrations
The places you go
Mother’s Day is an event that is celebrated in different parts of the world to express regard, respect and love towards mums. The day is an occasion to respect the commitment of mums, recognise the efforts of maternal bonds and the role of mothers in our society.
At the beginning of this term, many of the children in the Kookaburra class had been on holidays with their families with lots of them talking about aeroplane trips. We are excited to extend on these experiences with our provocation titled “The places you go”. To start this, we have introduced transport yoga poses. Yoga helps to strengthen children's growing bodies and helps them improve their flexibility, which can reduce their chance of injury. Yoga teaches discipline and reduces impulsivity. Yoga can reduce challenging behaviours in the classroom by providing a physical outlet for children to express themselves. We will be practising our yoga poses daily and the aim is to create a different story every day about the places you can go.
In Stage 2 we celebrated our wonderful mums by reading stories about mums including ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ illustrated by Nicolette Hegyes, ‘Hide and Seek with Mum’ by Ed Allen and Laura Wood and ‘Are you my Mother?’ by P.D Eastman. These stories gave the children the opportunity to think about and then share with their friends and teachers the things that they like to do with their mums or what it is they love about them.
We set up a photo booth shoot where the children said “I love you mum” as we took a photo of them with a love heart sign. Canvas paintings of a love heart made with our own fingerprints was the gift we gave. The children enjoyed learning the song “We love mothers” and we hope they shared this with their families.
Learning Outcome 3.2 - Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing
“We love mothers. We love mothers. Yes we do. Yes we do, Mothers are for hugging, Mothers are for kissing, We love you, Yes we do.”
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Stage 2
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Stage 3
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
The children have also been introduced to another new Montessori activity. The Montessori Metal Insets consist of five flat metal squares. In each of the squares is a metal shape cut-out. The Metal Insets are accompanied by colour pencils, white square paper, and a tray specifically designed to hold the paper and insets. The children were free to select the shape/s they wished to use and the colour/s. They traced the outline of the shape and then shaded the shape in a continuous motion. The Metal Insets help to prepare the hand for writing but what does this really mean? Metal Inset work can help the child to: · Grip and hold the pencil (and hold the pencil upright). · Refine hand control to steady the pencil. · Develop movements of straight and curved lines, in preparation for letter formation Develop hand-eye coordination, to make small, coordinated movements. · Experience the result of pressure on the pencil (light and dark), experience graduation of colour. · Develop fine muscles in the hand but also the larger muscles required for sitting and maintaining posture for writing. · Focus the mind, develop and strengthen the child's concentration. · Make movements up and down and left to right (when filling in or shading), this is significant when reading and writing. As the seasons change and we feel the first chills of Autumn, the children and teachers alike have begun to layer up. Many of the children’s jackets and jumpers have buttons and zippers which the children have difficulty manipulating. For this reason, this week the children were introduced to the Montessori dressing frames. The Dressing Frame is a key Montessori Practical Life material which helps children to develop independence and care of self as they learn to fasten different clothing implements. These frames hold material and different types of fasteners which children may encounter while dressing. The Dressing Frames primary purpose is to teach children how to dress themselves through mastering different clothing fasteners. This process also tests a child’s hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, as they work with each material. The children were first introduced to the Large Button Frame and Button Snap Frame and as their skill level builds they are challenged with harder frames, the Zip Frame, Small Button Frame, Buckle Frame, Lacing Frame etc. REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 3
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
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Stage 4
By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Christina Mandalidis
Welcome back to Term 2. For most of the children, it had been a long break from school, and they were so excited to see all their friends again. It has been a great joy to observe the children in their play and social interactions and to be part of their happiness. The children have been very excited to explore the new classroom setups, in particular the dramatic play areas which change every term. This term, we have the baby corner in Nina’s room. There are so many important benefits of dramatic play; the more important is to encourage it whenever possible. And it’s simple to do because kids naturally gravitate toward it. Dramatic play teaches and encourages expressive language. Children are motivated to communicate their wishes to their peers and therefore must learn to speak from the perspective of their pretend roles. Dramatic play is often a very comfortable place for children who are shy or withdrawn, and who struggle to participate in a group. Both unstructured and structured dramatic play offer teachable moments about conflict resolution. Inevitably, disagreements will naturally arise during dramatic play, which offers children a chance to work through their differences and arrange a compromise. It also encourages children to consider alternate perspectives as they recognise various roles of people in their lives and communities. The children were also invited to bring in
baby photos to decorate the wall and add a sense of belonging to the area. The photos were a wonderful opportunity for Show and Tell. The children loved showing their friends their cute pictures, taking about their ‘memories’ and answering questions. At the start of this term, the children eagerly discussed their travels and excursions over the school holidays as well as adventures they have planned: Gisele: When I went to Melbourne, the Easter Bunny went to Melbourne too. I also went to Canberra. Julian: I went camping. Ava: I’m going to go to Hawaii. Alfie: I went to Sea World, and I saw a Dolphin Show. Luca: I went to Boambee Bay and there was a big pool and a little one. Frankie: We travelled to Perth on an aeroplane. It took a very long time. Zoe: I went to Tasmania, Mariah Island and Cradle Mountain and we did a few walks. I caught the plane to Tasmania. I caught a boat to Mariah Island, and we drove in a taxi to Cradle Mountain. Gabriel: I went with the ferry to Circular Quay and then I took the light trail. And I went to the Aquarium. William: I went to Japan. I was working there. Emily: I went with my friends to the park. Tatum: I went on a Ferry to watch Bluey. Ren: I went on an aeroplane to Japan. Skye: I went to Thailand to see the Chocolate fountain and there was a big giant buffet. I also went skiing. As an extension, the children drew and painted pictures of their travel experiences which can be admired in our Stage 4 Piazza.
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Stage 4 At the start of this term, the children eagerly discussed their travels and excursions over the school holidays as well as adventures they have planned: Gisele: When I went to Melbourne, the Easter Bunny went to Melbourne too. I also went to Canberra. Julian: I went camping. Ava: I’m going to go to Hawaii. Alfie: I went to Sea World, and I saw a Dolphin Show. Luca: I went to Boambee Bay and there was a big pool and a little one. Frankie: We travelled to Perth on an aeroplane. It took a very long time. Zoe: I went to Tasmania, Mariah Island and Cradle Mountain and we did a few walks. I caught the plane to Tasmania. I caught a boat to Mariah Island, and we drove in a taxi to Cradle Mountain. Gabriel: I went with the ferry to Circular Quay and then I took the light trail. And I went to the Aquarium. William: I went to Japan. I was working there. Emily: I went with my friends to the park. Tatum: I went on a Ferry to watch Bluey. Ren: I went on an aeroplane to Japan. Skye: I went to Thailand to see the Chocolate fountain and there was a big giant buffet. I also went skiing. As an extension, the children drew and painted pictures of their travel experiences which can be admired in our Stage 4 Piazza. We wish all our families a wonderful weekend.
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Early Learning School Drama This week in Drama we explored the theme of bears using the well-known story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. In Stage 1, we are working on getting the children comfortable with new and interesting objects and concepts as well as building confidence. Drama can be overwhelming, especially for our younger ones. At this early stage, we are happy if they get involved! This week, after parachute work, Stage 1 gathered around a jack in the box with a bear inside. We watched as the music played and the bear popped out! We showed our bear faces and listened to what they sound like. Stage 1 then had a visit from Peter, the friendly rabbit puppet. A few of the children were brave enough to come and have a look at Peter and were all willing to go under the parachute when encouraged. Great work Stage 1! Stage 2 were told the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. During the story, the children were encouraged to mime some of the key parts. We mimed brushing Goldilocks’ hair, putting on a lovely dress, finding a house, and looking through the windows. We then jumped up and acted out the story. Stage 2 were encouraged to skip through the woods. Once we arrived at the bears’ house, we knocked on the door using our voices, feet and hands to do the action. Alas! There was no-one home. We peered through the windows, and we could see three of everything. The children held up the number 3 with their fingers, working on their fine motor skills. We decided to check the back door, and, to our surprise, it was open!
Once inside the bears’ house, we could smell porridge. We used our noses to lead us into the kitchen. The children showed me a big bowl of porridge, a medium one, and a small one, using their bodies. The children showed me with their faces that the big one was too hot and the medium one was too cold. We gobbled up the small one and then moved to the lounge room.
In the lounge room, we saw a big chair, a medium chair, and a small chair. We showed the difference in sizes with our bodies. When we sat on the small chair… it broke! The children showed me, with their faces, how upset they were. The stairs were very creaky, so we made onomatopoeic sounds while we walked. In the bedroom, we picked the small bed straight away after recalling that in the kitchen and lounge rooms, the small one was always just right. Stage 2/3 fell asleep, and I became the bear coming home from my walk. I chased the children out of my house! The treasure map was a big hit in Stages 3 and 4 last week! All the children were keen to know who the cry for help was from. We followed the sound and it led us to a lake. Here we saw a mermaid who had been washed up with a broken tail and needed help. She explained that she was swimming, and a big wave came and something big bit her. She couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was something she had never seen before.
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Early Learning School Drama I asked the children to see if any of them had packed a first aid kit in their backpacks from last week and sure enough they had. We helped the mermaid and some of the children suggested we find what bit her. On the treasure map it showed a lake, so we used or bodies to create a boat to sail over it. In Stage 4, Hector said, “We better be careful as there might be crocodile swimming below us.” This led us to a bridge. I asked some of the children to work together to create a bridge shape and the boat sailed underneath it. However, there was someone hiding underneath it. Who was it? Nina and Noah from Stage 4 said it was a mermaid, Max suggested a monster and Lily guessed correctly, a troll! Everyone then knew who was on top of the bridge, as they could hear the clickety clack of the goat’s hooves.
(Stage 4). In Stage 3 they were asked to think of a word starting with the first letter of their name. Once everyone was at the other side of the bridge, they heard a noise and a vibration on the floor. What was it? It was pretty scary! I’m sure we will find out next week.
We discussed the characters in the story of the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’. What is different about each of the goats? The children used their bodies to show the different sized billy goats, while being aware of their personal space. They thought about the steps, if they were lighter or heavier? Was the shape of their body bigger or smaller? Next, we acted out the story of the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’, highlighting key phrases. They imitated specific creature movements and demonstrated their understanding of the story’s characters and setting. All the children took on the role as one of the goats and I gave them a letter e.g. ‘G’ and in order to cross the bridge they had to think of a word beginning with that letter e.g. grape, giraffe, gumboots etc. etc. REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Early Learning School Sport It was fantastic to have the students back for Term 2. They were excited to get back into our sports sessions and move their bodies. In our warm-up we played an old favourite, ‘Stuck in the Mud’. The children did a great job to explain the rules to me and quickly got back into the swing of the game. The students who were ‘stuck’ are very confident now in guiding their friends to help free them. This warm-up game is not only excellent for getting the blood moving and stretching out the children’s muscles for the rest of the session, but it is also a great opportunity for the students to continue practising spatial awareness in an everchanging environment. Coupled with body awareness this helps our little friends avoid bumping into things in their everyday activities.
An obstacle course was created for the students with three different sections. In the first section, the children were required to crawl along a raised platform with either their hands or feet on the higher section. Crawling along with hands on the ground and feet on the raised section was the more difficult option, but most children wanted to do this. Weight bearing in the shoulder girdle is excellent for strength building and posture. In the second section, the students had to jump into hoops and over hurdles using the locomotion skill of a two-footed jump. For the shorter students this was quite difficult as the hurdles proved to be a little bit challenging. Not to be deterred, these students simply changed to a leap – it was interesting to see them work out what other locomotion options they could use to get to the end. The last section was a line of
balancing blocks of different heights that were spaced at irregular intervals. The students tried to make it from one end to the other without falling off. The children noticed that if they bent their knees and lowered their centre of gravity that they were more balanced. At the end of this section the children had to pick up a ball and try to successfully throw it into the bucket – this section was very much enjoyed by all. Our last activity for the day was a new game: ‘Cat and Mouse’. The children were ‘mice’ who had to run from one line of cones to the other while the ‘cat’ rolled a ball across their path attempting to tag them with it. If the children were tagged with the ‘cat’s’ ball, they themselves became a ‘cat’. We changed roles around so that all of the children had a turn at rolling the ball at their friends. They look forward to playing this game again in the future.
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Early Learning School Music Welcome back to Term Two! It's so great to see all of the smiling faces again – I hope all of our families had some time to relax over the break.
ended the lesson by stomping to ‘Ants Go Marching’ – swapping between crotchets and minims, the children were asked to identify which value was being stomped.
In Stages 3 and 4 this week we began our lesson with 'Around the Circle' to get our minds focused. It was good to see many children build their confidence in this exercise and see them win; reinforcing good sportsmanship with everyone and that it's okay to be out.
In Stage 2 and The Fledglings we began the lesson with a warm-up of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ before warming up our voices with our single note scales. Ready for class, we sang through ‘The Good Morning Song’, ‘Open Shut Them’ and picked up our maracas for our layered sing-a-long with ‘ABCs’.
To warm up our voices we sang our scales on ascending 'Do Re Mi', adding descending on 'La' and thirds on 'So'. After our voices we warmed up we sang through 'The Good Morning Song’ and revised our songs from last term. With our eyes closed, we revised 'Colours of the Wind' from last term before we began to learn the second verse. We also revised 'Do Re Mi' with our actions. This term I want to introduce the kids to musical notes - both letters and the notation which represent the duration of notes. Last week we looked at the first symbol for CROTCHET, which is a quarter note, or equals one beat. This week we added the MINIM, which is a half note, or equals 2 beats.
Keeping our maracas, we introduced a new exercise called ‘I’m a Little Scarecrow’. We pretend to be scarecrows stuck on our sticks in the farm to scare off any birds. We have to balance on one leg while shaking our maracas to scare off the pesky birds trying to steal our food!
While we were on the farm, we sang the ‘Sunflower Song’ which is always a firm favourite, but it’s also a great exercise to help build the confidence in the children. I was super happy to see many kids step up to be the farmer who were previously a bit too shy too.
Using our whiteboards and markers, the children took some time to try to copy and draw both crotchets and minims. They love drawing, so I thought why not incorporate that into our lessons. Stage 4 were also challenged to draw a TREBLE CLEF which produced some amazing squiggles. To reinforce the duration of each note we REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Early Learning School Music Before we swapped our maracas for bells we quickly took a trip to the zoo – we stomped and pretended to use different types of transport to get to the zoo we flew; drove and sailed. With our bells we hopped like frogs to ‘Gahloomph’ before introducing a new movement activity of ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’. First, we’ll build up their call and response and learning the movements to act out the environment for grass. Later we’ll add explorers who’ll take turns adventuring through the different environments to hopefully find us a bear! To end the lesson, we quickly revised ‘Do Re Mi’. We are confident with the first four lines but will need a little more revision for the last three. We sang through at different tempi encouraging the kids to shake and dance along. In The Nest, we opened the lesson with ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, helping create body awareness before singing through the ‘Good Morning Song’. Helping with that awareness and movement, we sang through ‘Open Shut Them’ and ‘Wheels on the Bus’ before picking up our maracas for our other sing-a-longs. Trying to build strength and get those legs moving, we encouraged the little ones who can walk to get up and march with the teachers around the room to ‘Ants Go Marching’. Using the Play Mat encourages the kids to get up to walk and stomp along the mat; but it also builds their confidence by engaging with the group.
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Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Isabelle Ristevski, Mikala Shao, Ella Aurel-Smith, Siena Ho, Scarlett Jandegian, William Phillips, Shirley Xue, Marcella Tesoriero, Amanda Vo and Aurelia Watson who celebrate their special day this week
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