animated expressions and sparkly eyes told all that was needed about their special dads and significant men.
Enjoy celebrating the special men in your family this weekend!
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOLREDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTERWOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
Dee PrincipalPitcairn
One activity which children love to mimic is when they see their parents or other adults building and making things. This interest is often transferred to the classroom or to their own play experiences, as they can be seen excitedly constructing houses, driving cars and building bridges. And many of those activities revolve around the very simple One‘block’.educator reminds us that “Despite the advances in gadgets and devices, blocks should still be at the top of the toy list for motor, social, language and cognitive skills.”
In an age of computers, television, smartphones, video games and other technological distractions, it is heartening that a child’s innate sense of discovery and creativity can be set free through the simplest of tools. And that while enjoying themselves they are also developing a host of other cognitive, social and physical skills.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 2
We had a wonderful, and busy week in the Nest, with various interests and developmental milestones emerging amongst our children. Language is blossoming as we hear new words and sounds every week. It is such a delight for us to hear our little ones talking and communicating with us throughout the day. We have been responding to this with lots of discussion, books, reading, songs and modelling. Under the sea We continued to explore their interest in creatures that live in and around the ocean. We set out our activity table with a land and sea animal exploration with half of the table in yellow paper to represent the sand, and the other half in blue to represent the ocean, with various sea creature figurines placed around it. At group time we revisited the book ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ by Giles Andreae and discussed the various creatures using the illustrations and the figurines to match the book. Each of the children was given a figurine to hold whilst we explored and learned about the sea animals in the book. The Big brown turtle was a favourite. As we passed it around to the children, they were able to touch and feel and compare to the turtle in the book. The shark was of course another class favourite with the great big teeth being a fascination amongst the children. “Teeth,” Olivia exclaimed with excitement, whilst Teddy and Leo chomped and showed their teeth.
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The Nest (1R)
After group time, the children continued to explore the classroom, holding and playing with these toys in various different ways, showing their creativity and curiosity. Introducing bubbles to their play has also been an addition to their under the sea interest. Teacher Fiona bought out the bubbles to their outdoor play. The children loved this! many of them wanted to chase the bubbles in the wind! The educators often ask open ended questions to evoke curiosity and investigation, for example, “Where did the bubbles go?” Joshua in particular was so fascinated with this that he ran around pointing and shrugging his shoulders and verbalising as if to say, “Where did it go?” It was a delightful experience. Outcome 4. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
The Nest (1R)
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Transport play
The children continue to express an interest in transport, especially buses. They like to look out of our window and find them, including the school bus or the local transport buses. Our outdoor set up included various transport vehicles of differing sizes, which the children quickly zoomed around the space. Whilst manoeuvring the vehicles, they are demonstrating control of their bodies and moving them with ease and confidence. In addition, they were able to access the sensory tub filled with sand which included small trucks, spades and rakes. As they noticed the sand, they swiftly made their way over and began to dig and scoop the sand using the various utensils. As there were several children playing in the same area, they were developing the skill of sharing the space with others and taking turns using the tools. Whilst outdoors they can select where they would prefer to play, and risk assess their own play when using the fixed equipment. As they climb up onto the various platforms, they use their upper bodies and lay their torsos down before swinging their one leg up onto the platform. Then they pull themselves up and bring up the other one. Then, when transitioning back to the ground, they have mastered the technique of sitting down onto their bottoms and sliding themselves forwards, until their feet dangle over the side, after which they slowly slide off until they are standing. The more times they practise these skills, the stronger and more confident they become. Furthermore, they develop an understanding of what their body can do. Playball Our playball is always exciting, and this was clearly demonstrated by the children as they eagerly welcomed Teacher Rama as she entered the room with her bag full of sports equipment. The children quickly made their way to sit at the mat and wait patiently for her to begin her session. She created suspense and held out a bag and offered the question, “What’s in my bag?” As they waited with anticipation, she unzipped it and produced an array of sensory rings which were spiky. She offered one to each child, and they all accepted and examined what they had been given through touch. Next, they were asked to place it on top of the cone and watched as she placed hers on top too. Successfully, they followed the instructions. Next, they placed it inside and then positioned it on the floor, and, using the cone, hid it after which they began to play peekaboo which created laughter from them. They were fully engaged in this session and happily continued to play peekaboo with the ring and cone. Before it was time to tidy up, Teacher Rama enquired if they would like to build a tower using the cones. Immediately they responded and began to construct one. Harlow's response to building a tower was to revisit the wooden logs she had previously used to create a tower and commenced building another one. Harlow demonstrated a strong understanding of what was asked of her and selected an alternative item that teacher Rama had anticipated.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 5 The Nest (1R)
Over the previous weeks, we have had new children join our class in the Nest. Our aim is always to provide them with a sense of security and belonging. We create this feeling by forming trusting relationships with them by spending time getting to know them and responding to their needs. Bowlby believes that children who have formed trusting connections are more likely to explore their surroundings, which then supports their overall and all round development. We would like to wish all our Daddies the happiest Father’s Day. The children in the Nest have been busy painting and creating a little surprise for you. We hope you enjoy it!
Construction The children have been spending their time engaging with constructing towers using various resources such as wooden logs and large bricks. As they build, they are developing their mathematical skills such as balancing and considering which item to use and where to position it to ensure their model remains stable. Or in certain scenarios purposefully placing the selected piece to ensure it does collapse, which creates the sound of laughter. They then continuously repeat this method, which leads to even more hilarity. During the week, we offered another alternative item, paper cups. They were immediately intrigued by these and incorporated them into their construction with the small wooden logs and blocks. Leo decided to take a different approach. He found himself a spot on the floor with cups that were already stacked within one another. Carefully he began to pull one out at a time and once they were all separated, he then placed them together which made one large tower. Music Time Teacher Nick arrived for music and the children were eager for his class to begin and were excited when it was time to use the maracas. As teacher Nick passed them out to each child, we encouraged them to walk up to him to take the maraca and say “ta”. Many of our children are now able to say this. When the music started, they shook them with sheer delight and played along with the music. Teacher Nick played many tunes that the children are becoming to know and love. It was really great to see all of the children joining in, imitating the actions and moving their bodies. Some of the children are also becoming very verbal and singing along. It is such a delight to witness this in our group. Music provides the children with the opportunity to express themselves through dance, movement and sounds.
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
Dinosaur World One of the main benefits of having open ended Provocations is that we can respect children’s interests and create new projects as needed. In the past few weeks, the children in the Fledglings have displayed a greater interest in dinosaurs, as Wolf and Cruz found the basket with these kinds of toys. We set up the “Dinosaur World” in the light box, creating a space for the children to explore these beasts. For example, Alex picked up a dinosaur and said, “Dinosaur eat trees” while pretending to feed his toy. Cruz, Wolf and Marcella, walked around the classroom roaring at each other while holding their toys. Francesca and Jaden liked stomping the dinosaur on the table, roaring and smiling at each other. Alfie was interested to learn about the dinosaurs, comparing them to present animals long neck like a giraffe and flying dinosaur like a bird. We read books aboutdinosaurs. The children particularly enjoyed “The Dance of the Dinosaurs” by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins. In this story, the children discovered that thundering storms are in fact dinosaurs dancing and stomping. In the Atelier, the children used the dinosaur toys to stomp on their paper, printing their footprint. While creating their artwork, the teachers created a special dinosaur set up on the table to inspire the children as an object of beauty and then played dinosaur noises, so the children could feel as if they were in a party with the dinosaurs, just like mentioned in the book. Through learning about dinosaurs, the children can discover what they liked eating, their names, as well as their main characteristics. We also continue to investigate the natural world and encourage the children to explore imaginative play.
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 7 Fledglings (1E)
Families play an important role in our lives because they provide love, support, and a framework of values to each of their members. Parents form a child’s first relationships and are the most influential part of a child’s life. They provide all members with security, identity and values which is something that we have learnt to appreciate, more so during these uncertain times we are currently living through. We wanted to celebrate this special occasion by expressing our love and admiration for all those special and wonderful things our dads and father figures do and share with us. With this in mind, we asked the mums to help us with the special surprise plan by sharing a photo of the dads and father figures with the children thank you mummies. The children then used the images as their inspiration to draw their dads’ portraits or an image that reminds them of their relationship or something nice they do together. Throughout the week we read ‘A thousand hugs from daddy’ by Anna Pignataro, ‘Daddy, you’re awesome’ by Laine Mitchell and Renne Treml and ‘Hugs for daddy’ by Louise Coulthard. Each story reminds us of all the wonderful things that our daddies do for us, which allowed the children to share some of their own experiences of what makes their daddies special to them. Their quotes, along with the portraits, will be displayed on our art gallery wall so keep an eye out for these. As the children also introduced their fingerprint for their special surprises, they had a chance to share something unique from them and which is special to them. We will continue to share their uniqueness as we continue with our provocation ‘Our Bodies’.
2.1 Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
5.2 Children engage with a range of texts
By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser , Roberta Sokame and Viviane Zieatter
5.1 Children interact verbally and non verbally with others for a range of purposes.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 8 Stage 2
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 9 Stage 2 By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser and Viviane Zieatter
In Stage 3D, our Initiating Idea this term is to focus on sustainability and the natural environment by learning about the world around us, taking care of the environment, discussing community issues, and researching and investigating to find out more information using books and Wetechnology.watched a short video about the process of recycling in the Central Coast Recycling Video on YouTube. Central Coast Recycling Video YouTube Stage 3D then revisited the ‘Michael Recycle’ book, a wonderful book with great facts on how we can help save our planet. We then talked about our contribution to the environment looking through our folder in the classroom.
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
“Don’t throw that away” is another story we focused on this week and the children had some fabulous ideas, like making musical instruments from old food containers or making things out of cardboard boxes and yogurt lids; sharing toys and clothes rather than buying new; taking reusable bags to shops instead of plastic bags, etc. We read a book called ‘Recycle and Remake’. After a show and tell experience of everyone’s “Environmental superhero” moments, we decided that if everyone can bring in an old milk bottle or drink botte, yogurt pot, anything from home, we could all make our own reusable pencil holders in school. Thank you to all families who continue to complement our learning. The Mini Atelier was busy with creative, sustainable artists as they begin the process of transforming used bottles and pots into colourful pencil pot holders.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 10 Stage 3
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 11 Stage 3
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 12 Stage 4
“In every country around the world are Grandmas short and tall. Though they go by different names, we love them one and all” We engaged in lots of meaningful conversation about this project, which followed the children’s lead. After reading the book, the children expressed particular interest in the various words used for Grandma, as they discovered individuality and uniqueness. We also discovered and researched the word ‘Grandma’ in various languages. We collected dialogue and a photo from each child about their Grandma or significant older person in their life. The children presented this for ‘Show and Tell’ in front of the class. The children showed great enthusiasm as they connected with grandmas and family members, asking questions, and then sharing the information they gathered.
The following are words we collected for ‘Grandma’ within our class: Nonna Abuela
DidiYayaGrammyNanaNannyGrandmaGrannyNonnaBabcia
By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Christina Mandalidis
Father’s Day Father’s Day on the 4th September is a day to acknowledge and recognise Fathers and male figures in our lives. The children were very busy this week preparing gifts and cards for this special day. We wish all the Dads, Granddads and male figures a very Happy Father’s Day.
In 4D, the children engaged in a range of play and learning experiences based on our Provocation ‘Let’s Read Together’. Our most recent Provocation project came from the children’s interest in one of the CBCA shortlisted books for Book Week, ‘What Do You Call Your Grandma?’ by Ashleigh Barton. This glorious book celebrates cultural diversity, individuality, family and love. The book depicts the special bond grandchildren share with their grandmothers whilst highlighting that every Grandma and relationship is unique.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 13 Stage 4
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 14 DRAMA
After discussing some animals, I read the book ‘Animal Pants’ by Brian Moses and I asked the children if they thought animals really did wear pants? Maybe we should go, and see? Next, we played a game where we became different animals to warm up our bodies. We are starting to work on using different parts of our bodies to create specific characters. This game encouraged the children to become aware of what body parts we could use to create different animals. First, we started as bears sleeping in a cave. When the bears woke up, they were itchy all over. We then became a caterpillar in a cocoon and grew up into a butterfly, using growing and shrinking to emphasise size. We then used our arms as trunks of an elephant. When we breathed in our trunks went up, and when we breathed out our trunks went down. We became lots of other animals like penguins waddling, donkeys kicking their back legs, monkeys swinging through the trees, snakes slithering on the ground, dolphins splashing through the water, and pigs rolling around in the mud.
In the Nest, Fledglings and Stage 2, this week’s Drama lesson was an adventure with our imagination through the circus! We explored all types of marvellous performers in the circus troupe as well as working on big reactions as the audience. Each class performed a 3 minute circus to finish the lesson, which was spectacular! In the Nest, Olivia and Ethan did some great clapping and, in the Fledglings, Amanda was the best juggler! They also learnt a new song to sing. It’s a song with lots of different actions and requires lots of listening. The words go: wiggle and wiggle and stop x2. We played lots of different variations including dance and dance, freeze, hide and hide and boo, and shake and shake and stop with the parachute.
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This week in Stage 3 and 4 we started our new theme ‘Animals’. The children were asked “What’s your favourite animal?” There were lots of cool answers including elephants, pigs, cats, dragon lizards and, of course, a cuddly koala.
The next activity we danced to was “We’re going to the Zoo” which was a nice introduction to the story I was going to tell. They needed to listen and add in animals and other ideas so we could act it out. The idea here was that they tried to mime as much as possible.
Here is the story: Once upon a time, there was a group of children who went on a field trip to the zoo. What were they excited to see? (Children shout out different animals.) Wonderful! Can you all show me these animals? How do they move? What do they sound like? (Children moved about the room) Well, on this particular day, the children were very eager to see the big cats. You see, they had been studying felines. Can you all say the word ‘feline?’ That means cat. Can you tell me the names of some big cats? (Children listed off lions, tigers, and cheetahs.) Wow! You know your cats. Well, when they arrived at the lion environment, there was no lion! But something very curious was there on the ground. What was it? A pizza! Yes. It was a big pizza box. What kind of pizza do you all like? (The children answered.) They were very curious, so they asked the zookeeper what was going on. Thomas, what was the zookeeper’s name? Mr. Peanut? Okay. Well, Mr. Peanut informed the children that last night all the animals had a big slumber party. They ordered pizza and watched movies and ate lots of cookies. And because they stayed up so late, they are all still sleeping. Just then, they heard a big yawn. Can you all yawn? Isn’t it funny that when one person yawns, we all yawn? Well, this was no ordinary yawn. It was the lion! He came crawling out of his den and what was he wearing Sarah? Yes, he was wearing pyjamas. What did these pyjamas look like, Mathilda? Yes, they were red and white polka dotted. So, fancy! And that my friends, is the story of ‘The Lion in the Pyjamas’.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 15 DRAMA .
Overarm throwing: Using upturned cups as a target the children tried to knock them over with a small squishy ball. Stepping forward with the opposite leg to the arm throwing was the focus here. This helps the children to maintain balance and generate sufficientforce.
Two legged jumping: Using flat dots and beanbags the children played hopscotch. The focus here was on bending the knees when landing and using the arms to help propel themselves upwards and forwards.
Our warm up this week was ‘spaceman tag’, the current favourite. When a child was tagged, they needed to freeze and were only able to continue running when one of their friends came and put an imaginary spaceman helmet on their head and said the words ‘spaceman helmet’. At the beginning of the warm up we spoke briefly about the best ways to avoid being tagged. It was amazing to hear so many children talk about dodging in a variety of ways, with ‘being tricky when running’ the favourite response.
Forward and side sliding: Using the sliders to race their partner. This activity challenges the children to really think about where they are placing pressure to propel themselves forward.
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Kicking at a goal: We are still working on making sure that children use the inside of their foot when they kick. Catching the ‘fireball’: In pairs, the class threw a fireball to each other. They had to throw with the ball end and catch with the tail end. Making sure to keep an eye on the tail end of the ball was important in helping them catch it.
The focus this week was on fundamental movement skills, and we worked through these skills in a new way, having five stations set up around the space and having the children stay at the station for a little while. The fundamental movement skills we focussed on were:
In Stages 3 and 4 this week we opened the class with our animals scales; firing our articulators by imitating various animal sounds across various vocal warm ups the hardest of the week was definitely the elephant! We continued to warm up our voices with ‘The Good Morning Song’; got focused and ready with ‘Open Shut Them’ along with the reversed actions. With our maracas in hand, the children sang and watered their gardens in ‘The Sunflower Song’ this time, with our maths equations, we did some subtraction as well as addition. We continued refining our lyrics for ‘I Am Australian’ before moving onto making our Iinstruments!broughtin boxes, bottles and aluminium cans and we made little guitars, various types of shakers and wind chimes. With the old boxes, I cut out a small hole in the centre and then stretched the bands around the boxes and we tried to pluck or strum them. The bottles we filled with various items made from plastic, to wood, to cotton and water to hear the different sounds they would make. And with the wind chimes, I tied ribbon to the can, and then a loop on the other end for the children to hoop onto cardboard rolls to create their wind chimes.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 17 MUSIC
Some of our classes are looking at the topics of recycling, the environment and sustainability. So, I thought, what better way than to re use some common recycled items and turn them into music instruments!
Stage 2 are looking at construction, so we also had a look at what instruments we could build with our recycling. In The Nest, we opened the lesson with ‘Here Comes The Sun’ as the babies made their way to the mat ready for music. We began the lesson with “Wake Up Body” to get us moving before picking up our maracas ready for our sing a longs. As the lesson progressed, we got out more percussion instruments to use, explore and play with. We tried to get our legs moving across the Piano Play Mat, by either walking or stomping; and then sang through ‘A Rum Sum Sum’, continuing the hand actions before singing our “Goodbye Song”.
Stage 2 and The Fledglings began the lesson with movement warm ups “Wake Up Body” and “Johnny’s Hammers”, before picking up our maracas and getting into our scales. With our voices warm and ready, we sang through our sing a longs of ‘ABC’ with our layered stomping and freezes; and ‘The Sunflower Song’ with Stage 2 adding some simple 2 + 2 equations. The Fledglings continued their learning of “Do Re Mi” as we marched and danced around the room; with Stage 2 continuing to sign “Twinkle Twinkle”. The Fledglings used our castanets to click along with our rhythm animals, and this week we layered it with stomps to help build our coordination before clicking along to “Twinkle Twinkle”. To end the lesson, we began looking at the actions for ‘A Rum Sum Sum’ some simple arm movements which we will slowly get faster with.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 18 Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Alfie McKenna who celebrate their special day this week We hope you have a fabulous day!
