Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Vol 22 Issue 17

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

Dee’s Message

10 June 2022

Dear Parents and Caregivers, As reflected in last week’s newsletter, the teachers in the ELS embraced the opportunity to reflect with the children what National Reconciliation Week means and why it is important for even the youngest in society to understand its relevance. Even though the children in the ELS are still young, it was interesting to observe their sensitivity towards the themes of reconciliation, kindness, empathy and understanding.

Throughout the year, the teachers make the most of teachable moments which arise spontaneously in the classroom, or those which revolve around special days on the calendar. Some of these are focused on different cultural and religious events, while others remind us of our rich – and, at times, also painful – historical past.

theme. In recent times, we have seen a growing acknowledgement of our need as a nation to do just this. Honouring the past, and those who have gone before us, colours the way we approach the future – and with a school full of young people we have the privilege of laying even firmer foundations for the generations to come.

The words ‘Be Brave. Make Change.’ also have a wonderful synergy with what we hope to inspire in the children each day.

Their growth as individuals has a lot to do with stepping out, bravely, and trying new things, conquering fears, and discovering their potential. Our teachers have created spaces in which the children feel safe, nurtured and confident – in which they can ‘be brave’ and discover more about the richness of life.

This year’s National Reconciliation Week had ‘Be Brave. Make Change.’ as its central

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We also hope that this bravery to be themselves and to realise their innate potential will create adults of the future who are part of an even more optimistic, understanding and hopeful generation. Change is an inevitable part of all of our lives, and we have the choice of how we approach the various challenges which arise.

It is our great hope that the children in the ELS are being gently guided in how to deal with change and that as they grow older, they will make decisions in their lives – and in the broader communities in which they live – that will bring hope to others, greater tolerance and understanding, and a gentler impact on the environment. We look forward to seeing them growing in ‘braveness’ each day and in their willingness to embrace ‘change’, for in so doing their lives will grow ever richer and more meaningful.

Have a great weekend!

Dee Pitcairn Principal

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The Nest (1R)

Kiri Winders, Helena Zhang, Fiona Liddell and Min Pattarasiritanarat

We welcomed new friends Harlow and Lilla to our Nest family this week. They are settling beautifully, and all our little ones have been welcoming them in their own way. Forming positive and trusting relationships with the children is a top priority for us in the Nest as the educators spend lots of quality time with them, getting to know them and being responsive to their needs. Furthermore, children thrive on routine, consistency and predictability which supports them by creating a sense of security and belonging. Psychologist and theorist John Bowlby believed that children who have secure attachments to their educator will be more likely to explore the environment around them, which then supports their all-

watched as she continued the steps. Initially, Kira was apprehensive to attempt, then her confidence grew, and she then located the nappy and began the process. Once she had completed the steps once, she repeated them numerous times throughout the morning.

Leo decided to lay the doll on the mat, then placed a netted piece of material over the face, before grasping the corner and pulling it away whilst stating, “Peekaboo” then laughing. His friends were intrigued by his actions and intently watched as he repeated the same motion numerous times. During this interaction with the doll, Leo had implemented a game he had

round development. (EYLF Outcome 1.1) Many of our children have been enjoying role playing with our baby dolls in the bedroom corner. Particularly, Kira and Ethan spend their time patting the dolls to sleep, putting the blankets on and caring for them.

We extended this interest this week by providing a changing mat and nappies to the area, for all the children to role play. Fiona demonstrated the process of putting on a nappy by firstly placing the doll on the mat, then she sung the rhyme, ‘Round and Round the garden’ with the actions. Ethan immediately placed the dolls on the opposite side of the mat and mimicked what he had observed. Then he REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

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The Nest (1R) During sports, the children were given the chance to participate in a range of games that required balls of all sizes. One of the games was placing a ball on top of a cone, then placing another one to hide the ball before saying, “Peekaboo”. In addition, they were to throw or place the ball in the net and they watched as teacher Rama said, “Let’s make popcorn.” Then she shook the net before releasing the balls. As the balls bounced around the room, they chased them with sheer delight. (EYLF outcome 3.1) Within the Nest the children are being supported in making choices that are age appropriate to them, such as what they would like to eat from their lunch box and in the order of their preference. We also encourage and support independent eating, as it helps their development growth in various ways such as giving them a sense of autonomy, hand and eye co-ordination, and fine motor skills as they use either their hand or utensil to transfer food from the bowl/plate to their mouth. Lastly it provides them the opportunity to explore various textures, smells, temperatures of foods, whilst recognising an understanding of which foods are easier to pick up using their hands or with cutlery. (EYLF Outcome 1.2 and 3) “With music, one’s whole future life is brightened. This is such a treasure in life that it helps us over many troubles and difficulties.

Music is nourishment, a comforting elixir.

Music multiplies all that is beautiful and of value in life.” – Zoltan Kodaly

part of the song is, ‘wibbly wobbly wibbly wobbly into the water we go’ and they rock from side to side and pretend to fall into the water. As they partook in this experience, they were developing their social skills, exploring the various ways they can move their body, whilst maintaining control and demonstrating their receptor skills as they listened and followed the lyrics of the song. (EYLF Outcome 1.4, 3, 4.1 and 5.1) The Nest children have a fascination with music and movement, and they thoroughly enjoy participating in their weekly session with teacher Nick. On his arrival, he will receive a warm welcome from the children, and they smile as they know what they are about to experience. He uses a range of media such as keyboard, percussion instruments and his voice which captivates them. Every class they begin with their wake -up body song, which they are familiar with and can mimic his actions. Some children are beginning to sing a few of the lyrics too. Next, he offered them a maraca which they could were able to shake along to the repertoire of songs they have been learning which include ‘Wheels on the bus’, ‘Down in the Garden’ and ‘A, B, C’. Within the songs he is supporting the children to develop an understanding of pace through repeating the song whilst increasing the pace. As the timing becomes faster, the children start to move their bodies and instruments quicker which creates laughter as they try to remain

Songs and rhymes are embedded within our daily routine and also spontaneously during the day. One of the children’s favourite action songs is ‘Row row row your boat’ in which they will either partner with a teacher or by themselves and create the motion of rowing a boat by moving their bodies forwards and backwards whilst remaining seated on the floor. During the week, the children were supported to hold hands with one of their peers and to perform the actions of the song. Leo and Theodore’s favourite

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The Nest (1R)

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Fledglings (1E)

By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus

Last week we noticed that the children in the Fledglings were getting very excited whenever we read books with bear characters. This week, we read “The Terrible Plop” (Ursula Dubosarsky), “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?” (Bill Martin Junior) and the “Very Cranky Bear” (Nick Bland). The teachers read the stories, making different voice intonations, which kept the children hooked in the group time.

Reading the same books throughout the week encourages the development of children’s language, as it gives the children the opportunity to become very familiar with the stories. It gets to the point that the teacher only reads the beginning of the sentences, and the children will say the last word aloud: “the terrible… PLOP!” Considering this new interest, this week we created a new set-up in the classroom – a cave for the bears to sleep in. The children enjoyed spending time inside the cave

cuddling the teddy bears we added in the cubbyhouse. While the children are in there, the teachers take the opportunity to talk to the children about some facts regarding bears. For example, bears like sleeping, they hunt their fish in the rivers and they like eating honey.

In the Atelier, the children started making their bear masks, by using sponges to paint paper plates. Once the masks are ready, everyone will have a turn to take photos like bears if they want.

The children were introduced to our new class mascot. We will choose a name for our new friend in the Fledglings with the support of all families and soon the Bear will do home visits to everyone.

Early Years Learning Framework (2009): Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity. Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.

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

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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

Drawing Music and Sound Full of joy and discovery, just like our Stage Two Tree Frog children, music has such a profound effect on the children. Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words.

As we discuss the sounds around us, the children continuously reference songs and sounds as important noises they hear.

Following this observation, it became apparent for the children to follow their music preferences. The children sat in front of an A3 sized piece of paper in a casual setting, either on the ground in the classroom or at the table. There was a large choice of colours for them to draw with. It was so much fun to listen to their chosen song while they created their masterpiece of what they imagine the music represents.

As the children continued with their provocation work, they were discussing their favourite songs and some of our friends began their drawings while listening to their songs. Callum told us his favourite song is ‘Upsy Downtown’. Artie likes ‘Humpty

Dumpty’ while Siena likes music from ‘Hello Kitty’. Isabel and Jamie both like ‘Baby Shark’ and Sophie told us she likes the ‘Wishy -Washy song’. Bella likes The Wiggles and she picked ‘Toot, Toot, Chugga, Chugga’ Coby loves ‘Twinkle-Twinkle’, while Stanley told us he likes ‘Wonkey Donkey’. Lyla has continued her firm favourite to be ‘Cover me in Sunshine’. Rafi finished our favourites with telling us he likes the music from Peppa Pig. The children loved the experience as they got to choose their favourite music and to be creative while listening to it.

3.1 Children become strong in their social and emotional

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Stage 2

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Stage 3

By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia

Last week, we Introduced the children to the concept of gratitude, along with everyday blessings/reasons to be grateful. As the children learned about the concept of gratefulness and while some answer included, food, water, favourite toys, everyone spoke about their families.

This week we worked on creating our individual family portraits. This experience gave the children the opportunity to engage in conversation and share information about their families and home life. There was lots of selfconfidence, and a sense of identity growing and pride, as each child spoke about their family.

The children enjoyed looking at the photos and engaging in conversation and sharing information about their families. This also encouraged a lot of imaginary play scenarios in the classroom and playground.

First, we discussed what we enjoy doing while spending time with our families.

Hunter: “My Mummy and Daddy and my brother love playing the big and small Lego with me.”

Matilda: “I like going to Monkey Mania and jump on the jumping castle with my family, and we go to the beach too.”

Coen: “We go to the baby chino shop.”

Marley: “I love reading a book with my Mummy."

Esther: “I like doing puzzles with my family.”

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER Phoebe: “I like to go to the playground on the slide with Mummy and Daddy.”

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Stage 3

By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia

Creating our family pictures builds the ability to think beyond the here and now and make choices as we draw.

It also helps the children to practise and develop memory and visual expressive skills.

“Who is in your family?”

Matilda: “My Grandma, my Mummy and Daddy, my sister Aria and me.”

Marley: “Mummy, Dada and my brother Harry.”

Phoebe: “My Mummy, my Daddy, my Grandpa and my Grandma.”

Gabriel: “My Mummy, my Daddy, Noah, Josh and me.”

Sergio: “Georgia, Mummy and Daddy.”

Hunter: “My brother, my Mummy and Daddy and also big monkey my sleep toy. Nanny too but she lives at a different house.”

Coen: “Daddy and Chloe, Grandma and Jesse Mama too.”

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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

Our children wanted to explore more, and the discussion continued throughout the day. I sourced wooden peg dolls to add to the Bronwyn Bancroft book display. I invited the children to help me mix the colours that would best represent the families in the books.

We embed awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures within our play invitations and practices. It builds on cultural awareness and understanding and brings change for an educational journey in which children can thrive. We appreciate the importance of acknowledging and respecting each other’s perspectives and ways of seeing the world and finding that place where we can all meet, grow and learn.

The children requested to build and make a humpy (campsite) for the dolls to live there.

During the week, we gathered together for group time and sang our good morning song, as we do most mornings. We had been pondering what words and actions we could add at the end of the morning song to acknowledgement the traditional owners of our land. I asked the children to think about the Indigenous families, and I asked them what words or actions we could add to include a “acknowledgment to country” in our morning song.

A Bronwyn Bancroft book project was set up on the curiosity cube. The children observed the display in their own time and spotted an Indigenous theme. The children asked the teacher to read one of the books during morning group time.

“I have lots of aboriginal books at home,” commented Oscar. I pointed to Bronwyn Bancroft’s name on the front of the book and encouraged him to look for the BB in her name. He nodded his head. “I will look at my home to see if I have one of her books.”

The story talked about a campsite where Indigenous people lived, which is called a ‘humpy’. The children enjoyed saying the word.

“Is it like sleeping in a tent?” asked Noa. “I like camping, and I have a new tent,” commented Adam.

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Stage 4 Adam: Are they still alive?

Teacher: Yes, their lives are similar to ours now. Some families live close to the city like us, they buy their food from the supermarkets, have jobs and their children go to school just like us. Some Indigenous families choose to live in the bushlands. They might grow some foods too if they have lovely extensive back gardens. They like to live in the quieter part of Australia where there are no skyscrapers, fewer cars and no traffic jams.

Mikala: I like to pick chestnuts from the trees.

Harvey: They love animals.

Lincoln: I speak Aboriginal, you know.

Our interest led us to observe the display during this conversation, especially the Indigenous flag added during the week. The flag ignited an excitement in the children; they began shouting out and putting up their hands, desperate to share their stories. Many children knew the Indigenous flag, but they wanted to talk about other observed flags. Adam commented that Indigenous people and their families like to keep warm and live in houses. I posed the question, “What do you think of their homes?” Noa added, “Just like ours but colourful like a rainbow.”

The next day our class greeted the children with a large wooden house. I asked the children if they wouldn’t help me design the home for the families who might be too cold to live in the humpy.

The children clapped with joy and asked for rainbow colours and aprons. The Indigenous flag

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Early Learning School Drama This week in Drama it was all about discovering make believe and playing pretend. All stages began their lesson with some physical warm-ups to get their bodies warm.

In Stage 2, Marlo giggled a lot when we were stretching and laying down like seals.

Leonie loved the dance stretch being a butterfly.

We used the popular song "Going on a Bear Hunt" and explored our imaginations and actions. The children used their bodies to act it out. James showed us how long the grass was, and Hudson screamed and ran very fast from the bear.

In Stage 4 I explained that in drama we can pretend to be different things. The children told me what they wanted to be, and we acted them out. I then asked the children where we are right now. Nina said “Australia” and Owen said “Reddam”. Next, I asked the children to pretend we were in different places. We went to the beach, hospital and Fiji!

so we bent our legs and did the dance pose butterfly. I told the children to give the butterfly a kiss (touch our toes). Lily gave her toes a big kiss. Our legs then turned into windscreen wipers, as we swished them back and forth. I pretended to use a magic wand and turn our hands into spiders, which went creeping all over our legs to touch our toes. Alfie tickled his toes and Olivia had a big smile on her face.

I explained that in drama we can become different things and also pretend to be in different places. We listened to the song "Going on a bear Hunt". We then used our bodies to show the grass, bear, the cave, rocks and mud.

We had a busy week, filled with voice exercises, stretches and movement. The children enjoyed using their imaginations and had a lot of fun. I wonder where our imaginations will lead us next week.

Now that our bodies and imaginations were ready, Stage 3 and 4 did a mime exercise.

Hector remembered what mime was – he told us it's when we are quiet, but we act it out. I called out different actions and the children had to act out the action with no sound e.g., climbing a tree, brushing teeth, building a sandcastle.

Stage 3/4 also explored their voices with the popular song "Bear Hunt". They learnt the skill "Call and Response". Stage 4 continued working on their imaginations in a little more detail. We sat in a circle and pretended we were going on a picnic. I asked each child what they would bring to the picnic and to show us an action for it. Alfie brought an apple and bit into the apple. William wanted to bring chocolate and Ava decided to bring her teddy bear and toys!

The babies and Stage 1 listened as I told them to pretend their legs were butterflies, REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

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Early Learning School Sport beginning of the game the teacher would say ‘run the gauntlet’ and the children had to jump down from their platform, and run to a different platform, making sure that they did not run into their friends in the class. The children loved doing this activity and would try to see if they could beat their friends to a particular platform. The children were then introduced to two ‘sharks’. These sharks were two soft balls named Vanessa and Phoebe who were particularly hungry as they had not eaten breakfast or a snack and they were rolled along the ground as the children moved platforms. The children had to continue to run the gauntlet, except if Vanessa or Phoebe hit them, then they needed to hop the rest of the way. The children relished dodging the ‘sharks’ and we played many rounds of this game.

Despite the cooler weather, the children are as excited as ever to move their bodies, and this week in our sports sessions they worked hard to keep their body temperature up.

To finish up, we passed the balls that were previously the ‘sharks’ around a circle. The children are improving their controlled throwing to their friends. They have figured out that for a pass to be successful and land in their friends’ hands they need to manipulate the amount of force they exert, and in most cases when throwing to their

We took advantage of some new equipment today with the introduction of a warm-up game using some large soft dice to guide our locomotion activities. The students moved around the space in a variety of locomotion styles and when they heard ‘freeze’ the first person to freeze got to roll the dice to find out how many times they had to do a task. The children were excellent at their number recognition and would run after the roll excitedly to see which number came up. I had a separate dice with some physical activities and rolled it simultaneously. For example, some of the tasks were 10 star jumps, or stamping feet 8 times.

For our next activity the students each stood on a multi-coloured platform. These platforms were arranged in a circle with the children facing each other. At the REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

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Early Learning School Music In Stages 3 and 4 this week, we began the lesson with ‘Around the Circle’ – aka ‘The Clapping Game’. It is great for helping focus and settle the children into the lesson while teaching them good sportsmanship; it’s also very exciting for the kids when someone new wins.

Once we were ready for the lesson, we picked up a maraca and sang through our scales. We sang a variety of scales on ‘LA’, ‘SO and ‘ME’ – ascending, descending and then singing in thirds; helping create various shapes while strengthening our articulators.

each time. We sang through our scales on ‘MA’ – and Stage 2 did ascending scales on ‘MA’ with our counting. With our voices now warm and ready, we sang through our ‘Good Morning Song’, ‘Open Shut Them’ – with Stage 2 doing it in reverse. Using our maracas, we revised our rhythm animals for ‘DOG’, ‘CAT’ and ‘SPIDER’ before stomping them out in ‘Ants Go Marching’ – also adding in freezing, spins, running on the spot and moving in slow motion.

We sang through the entire Solfa Scale before revising ‘Do Re Mi’ with our actions; singing it multiple times through at an increasing tempo, to see if the children could keep up. We also revised our term songs for each respective stage – Stage 4 singing through ‘Colours of the Wind’, while Stage 3 have added their second chorus for ‘Here Comes The Sun’.

When we were through our songs, we picked up our maracas and we sang ‘Going To The Zoo’. Much like in the younger years, the children had a lot of fun marching and shaking their maracas around the room while acting out all the different animals. This exercise helps us work on our timing by shaking and moving to the beat, but it also allows the kids to have fun and express themselves through the actions of their animals.

Using our bells, we wore them on our wrist and hopped around the room to ‘Gahloomph Goes The Little Green Frog’.

This song is good to build strength in our major motor movement as we pretend to be frogs and we hop around the room to get our bells to ring. Then all the frogs get out of the pond to step-clap or shake; helping work on our coordination and timing.

In Stage 2 and The Fledglings we opened the lesson with ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ – shaking it out and getting faster REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

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Early Learning School Music With our maracas we had a quick sing of fan favourite ‘Out In the Garden’, before moving onto ‘Gahloomph’ with our bells.

Using the playmat, we tested our listening and following instructions. The Fledglings made a really great line and waited patiently for their turn to jump, stomp and run across the mat. Stage 2 also adding in jumping and tested their ability to walk backwards, which not everyone was confident at doing so they needed some help.

Stage 2 revised our actions for ‘Do Re Mi’ to end the class, while The Fledglings sang through ‘Twinkle Twinkle’.

In The Nest, we opened the lesson with ‘Wake Up Body’ and then sang through our ‘Good Morning Song’. We sang ‘Open Shut Them’ with our hand movements as well as ‘Wheels on the Bus’; before picking up our maracas for ‘ABCs’.

Our goal in The Nest is to build everyone’s confidence and get out little legs moving.

We encourage movement with ‘The Sunflower Song’ by standing up and laying down, and then try to get everyone up moving and marching in ‘Ants Go Marching’. We used our bells and maracas to encourage the babies to make as much noise as they could as they moved around the room.

Then using the playmat, they explored their hands and feet as we used them to create sound – all while being obsessed with the speaker where the sound comes out of!

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Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Alfred Lehrer, Chloe Marshall-Teo, William Chambers, Lilla Hunyor, Caleb Fisch and Max Moffatt-Murphy who celebrate their special day this week

We hope you have a fabulous day!

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