REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOLREDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTERWOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
During the lockdowns over the past couple of years, many parents found themselves running out of ideas when it came to providing new and stimulating options for play around the house. One spin off from this was an Australian online platform which launched earlier this year, namely Play and Learn Together www.playandlearntogether.com.au/(https://).
The website reminds us that “Children from birth engage in discovery as they wonder, investigate and explore the world around
Providing opportunities for the children to play around the ELS is an ongoing delight for the teachers. While there are the regular indoor and outdoor spaces which the children enjoy, quite often a new activity or interest is sparked by the children themselves. What a pleasure, then, to watch them explore their new found interest, while spurring on those around them.
“Children learn as they play. More importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” So wrote play specialist, Fred Donaldson. It seems only correct that in an age when there are specialists for just about every ailment or problem, there should also be one who focuses on the critical role which play should hold in the life of every young child. One of the fundamental tenets of the Reggio Emilia approach to education is that play, as a means of learning, should be open ended and driven by the interests of the children. By seeing them as capable individuals, ready to explore and learn about the world, we empower the children to learn at their own pace and in ways unique to each child. Play is far from only being a form of entertainment for young children. While enjoyment is obviously at the core of all play, so too is the potential for learning and discovery. Each day brings with it new opportunities to learn skills, gain knowledge, interpersonal relationships, and so much more. And all of this is done from the launchpad of play.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 2 them. Play is the driving force for learning and as children engage in play they learn to make sense of their world. Through play, children learn to communicate, innovate, create, imagine and problem solve. Who else is better to take this play journey with children…but families and children’s educators.” The many other stimulating sites on the web reveal that the options really are endless when it comes to paly for children. Whether using digital platforms to encourage play, or physical activities and games, our children have so many ways in which play can be not only enjoyable but a wonderful opportunity for learning at the same time. Have a happy weekend!
Dee PrincipalPitcairn
We had a wonderful week! We had plenty of outdoor play in the morning sun. The children continued to explore inside the sand trays under the trees with scoops and containers. The sand play provides endless opportunities for the children to explore, experiment and learn in the outdoor natural environment. We noticed the children being so calm as they played alongside one another harmoniously, while having the freedom and choice to come and go as they wished. Bubble play has been very popular, with the children loving to chase and pop Withthem.the Chinese Autumn festival coming up this weekend, Teacher Helena decided to share some stories and mooncake with our group as a new learning experience for them. First, she told the children a story all about the celebration, showing the children pictures of the festival. Next, she bought out beautiful traditional box with mooncakes inside. The children were so excited to see what was inside. As she explained all about it to the children, they were each given a chance to explore the beautifully painted cake tins, whilst Helena cut a small portion of moon cake for them to taste. The children absolutely loved it! Robbie and Capri said, “yummy”, Joshua nodded and laughed, Krishna said “mooncake”, and Olivia said, “More” with a big loud voice of excitement. “Teddy said, “Cake” and “more”, Harlow said, “More!” And at the end we all said, “Ta Helena!” Later in the week, the children had an opportunity to paint their very own lanterns. Children love to express themselves through painting. They are learning to hold the paintbrush, dab and brush strokes of colour making their own creations that we can display. In the Nest we love to explore the diversity of cultures within our community as it presents opportunities for choices and new understandings.
EYLF Learning Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their Constructionworld. is another emerging interest within the group. Teacher Fiona bought along some colourful paper cups for the children to stack. This provided hours of entertainment as the children regularly visited the construction area to play with the cups. Many would place small toys or objects inside or stack the cups on top of one another. It was also a great opportunity to learn object permanence by hiding things underneath. The children are extending their fine motor skills as well as cognition, special awareness, hand eye coordination, and working together on a shared project. EYLF Outcome 44.1 Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 3 The Nest (1R)
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 4 The Nest (1R)
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 5
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
The Loris Malaguzzi approach to education places great value on taking the ‘whole child’ into account when planning educational experiences, with an emphasis on engaged creativity and artistic self expression. Extending on the children’s interest in dinosaurs, this week we added lots of sensory experiences around the pre historic world to our planning. In the mornings, the children arrived at school to find a tray of kinetic sand and dinosaur toys. The children engaged in this activity for longer than usual, as they got to explore the “hard but soft” texture on their hands, while they used the toys to dig in the sand. The teachers observed the children scrunching the sand on the tips of their fingers, using the pinch grip to manipulate that medium. At group times, we adapted our “Counting Fingers” song, and instead of giving a clap for each child in the circle, we encouraged the children to give big “roars”, which caused a lot of excitement. We then read the book “The good Dinosaur”, based on a Disney movie. Hattie was very excited with the story, and she even created a new term for dinosaurs that swims the “Dino fish”! In the Atelier, the children continued to make dino paintings, using the toys to stomp on their paper. Some children preferred not to participate in the painting experience, but instead they stamped dinosaurs on their papers. A great thing about the program in the Fledglings, is that we listen to every child’s interests, being able to adapt the planning to achieve the child’s best outcome. 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. Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another. EYLF, 2009. Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators. Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts. EYLF, 2009.
Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 6 Fledglings (1E)
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 7 Stage 2
How are you feeling? This week, ‘R U OK? Day’ took place. It is a National Day of Action dedicated to reminding everyone that every day is the day to ask, “Are you OK?” and support those struggling with life's ups and downs. What does this look like for our Stage 2 children? The ability to regulate emotions is the biggest challenge for children as they develop a strong sense of wellbeing and is a crucial skill for improving children’s outcomes in school and life. (EYLF Outcome 3.1 Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing) Our daily interaction with children consistently brings with it emotional language such as sad, happy and angry, which we use to help children develop and understand their feelings and those of others. We assist children to label their own and other people’s emotions and we aim to connect emotions to their feelings as we talk to children and label what they are feeling and what others are feeling and expressing throughout the day. For example, “You’re smiling. I think you’re very happy with that toy.” This week, we focused our attention on children’s understanding about feelings, associating them with colours they might know. This supports emotional development through expressing emotions and feelings and helps children understand what it is they feel, and possibly why. We used the book ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas as our starting point, in which the monster uses colour, along with facial expressions, to show his emotions. We looked at different colours and asked the children what colour they liked and how it made them feel. The easel was set up and the children were asked to choose the colour they like to express their emotion. Some children chose pink for happy, some blue for confused, some yellow for happy too, and some children chose to mix colours for different feelings. There is no right or wrong answer to how the colours make you feel, it is about developing the language skills to express the feelings you have. We also used facial expression cards for the children to explore on sticks and we sang the songs “If you’re happy and you know it”, and “Put on a happy face”, with lots of action involved in expressing our Eachfeelings.week we always embed in our practice the Reddam school values kind words, gentle hands, good manners, warm hearts, and respect. These values also model emotional language to children to make them aware of how they may be feeling and how others may feel. When Teddy was playing with his peers he said, “Caring is sharing” and with a big smile handed over a construction toy to another child. Through his own facial expression and his action, this was a happy moment for both children, and it is in these moments that we can model the emotional language associated with the action. “You have made … happy Teddy. That was kind and I can see that you feel happy and proud about that too.”
By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser , Roberta Sokame and Viviane Zieatter
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 8 Stage 2 By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser and Viviane Zieatter
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 9 Stage 3
In the perceptual atelier, the children were introduced to new Montessori material. The large moveable alphabet is a key part of the Montessori Language curriculum. The material primarily teaches the children how to develop their knowledge of the alphabet and thus the written language skills. The moveable alphabet is a very versatile material as it has endless learning extensions that teachers can build upon to challenge children’s increasing language competency. It is known as one of the most diverse materials in the Montessori curriculum. The moveable alphabet consists of a box with 26 compartments. Within these compartments are letters of the alphabet, all in lower case. Consonants are pink in colour and vowels are in blue.
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
“She has brown hair and legs and arms and fingers. Finished.” Valentine “I’m a circle. It’s me all by myself.” Bianca “My skin is green and black. T for Tommy.” Tommy “It’s me Chloe.” Chloe “That’s me. I want my jumper black. I want to draw my mummy and daddy.” Ollie “It’s daddy and me.” Riley
Last week, the children were invited to take turns to find their initial name sound. For some of the children this was a little tricky as they only recognise their sound in the capital form. Instead, they found other sounds from their names, or even their mum’s, dad’s, brother’s, or sister’s initial name sound. Becoming a little more familiar with the material this week, the children’s abilities and confidence with the material has grown, to where they are now using the large moveable alphabet to build short three letter phonetic words. We will continue to work with this material for the rest of the term. So far, the children have built words such as pup, sun, ant, dot, hen, bat and tub. Inspired by one of our favourite books from the term, ‘The Colour of Us’, the children this week were also invited to the atelier to complete their self portraits for Term Three. This book explores and celebrates the many different colours of us, introducing a first conversation about skin colour. Using the book as a guide, the children looked at the images depicting different face shapes and colours to draw inspiration as they were invited to complete their own self portraits. Self portraits are an important tool in the development of the children’s sense of belonging and identity. The children’s identity is one that they will be constantly developing and challenging. Part of their identity is based on how they perceive themselves, emotionally and physically. This is why self portraits are a great way for the children to express and show their own perceptions of themselves. They used a mirror to look at their own reflections and used their hands to feel different parts of their faces and bodies to understand their shape. The children were then invited to use a black texter to draw their own representation of themselves, whilst being offered different skin tone paint to further identify themselves as individuals.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 10 Stage 3
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
Children's books were: Super E by Owen; Batman by Oscar T; Disney is the Best by Emily; The Rainbow People Shine by Luca; The Doggy House and The Pizza Man by TheVasia;Magic Kingdom and Silly Mood by Presley; The Robot Daddy by Finley; The Rhyming and Telling Story by Eva; The Whale’s Tale by Alexander; The Family Book by Scarlett; The Ninjago book by Monty; Cinderella by Aiya: The Cuddle Man by Oscar; Banana Book by Yanni;
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 11 Stage 4
The Puppet Show experience was another inviting experience for the children to use their creative thinking, role play, imagination, listening and communication skills. Puppets let children's voices expand through the characters. Our children wrote and illustrated their books and placed them in the show and tell basket to read.
By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Christina Mandalidis
Each year, the Children's Book Council of Australia brings children and books together to celebrate CBCA Book Week. The theme for this year was 'Dreaming with our Eyes Open. During this time, schools, libraries, booksellers, authors, illustrators and children celebrate Australian children's literature. Book characters' costumes for the children's show and tell were a joy to experience. The children were invited to draw their book character costumes and write the characters’ names. There were Ariel, Astronaut, the Vampire Magician, Hog, the Policeman, the humongous crocodile and a Stormtrooper from ‘Star Wars’, the Butterfly from ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, the Detective from ‘Billy B. Brown’; Harry Potter; Ninja; BFG from ‘The Big Friendly Giant’; Cinderella, a Clown, Coco Chanel from ‘The Little People, Big Dreams’, Batman, Sleeping Beauty from ‘My Rainbow Fairies Collection Book’ and Wally from the ‘Where is Wally?’ book.
The children’s books and wonderful drawings are on the wall display for everyone to admire. This week, when the children arrived, they noticed a sign saying ‘Let’s save Books’ made by Vasia. The children were then invited to look for books needing to be fixed. Together with the children, we have observed a lot of books ripped and damaged. The children agreed that we would have to fix them. Through this learning experience, the children were able to ask each other for assistance using kind words and manners. The children worked collaboratively, helping each other with sticky tape, and scissors and holding pieces of the broken pages. I praised the children for their wonderful work. The children's faces were all smiles.
What next: We will continue taking care of books so we can all enjoy them for longer. We will hold the books carefully and use gentle hands when turning pages; we will put books back on the shelf when we have finished. Many thanks from all of us to our wonderful families for sharing their talents throughout this term! We are so grateful!
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 12 Stage 4
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 13 Stage 4
This week in the Nest and Stage 1 the children had lots of fun participating in several teacher led adventures using props and music involving dinosaurs, animals, and a safari hunt.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 14 DRAMA
.
Activities included using props to create shapes and patterns. We moved our bodies to the rhythm of the music, as well as listening to African animal sounds and dinosaur sounds. I became an explorer and guided the children on an adventure through the jungle. I used a call and response activity to make sure all the children were following direction. Well done to Vanilla and Billy, who responded to the elephant noise I made. Next, we used different parts of our body to balance when we went on our adventure, standing on one leg when going over the stepping stones and placing one foot in front of the other when crossing the bridge. Along the way, the children met different characters from Nursery Rhymes (teacher in role and images) who needed help from everyone. A problem was given to the children, and they had to solve it. This is a method used by Dorothy Heathcote, a wonderful drama practitioner who used drama as a tool to promote holistic learning in schools.
In Stages 2 and 4 this week, the children used their imaginations to go through the magical wardrobe, discovering a fantasy world behind it. They all took on the role of being a fantasy character, developing a whole class improvisation. The lesson began by discussing what a wardrobe is and what you usually find inside as well as what the wardrobe looks like. We revisited mime and used music to mime going through the wardrobe.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 15 DRAMA .
Next, we used our imaginations to go through a Magical Wardrobe (like Narnia). I was in role as a witch from the fantasy world. The children gave the witch character a name, while in Stage 4 they thought of their own fantasy names too before going on an adventure with the witch. We had some wonderful ideas. We travelled on our broomsticks to the first destination “Rise rise, really high, just as high as a butterfly”. The aim is to get something from each place we visit so we can go back home (as they can’t go back through the wardrobe), such as a pearl from the sea; breath of a dragon; hair of a unicorn, sugar drop from the fairy and a golden egg from the giant. The children used their bodies and worked together to make the shape of the cauldron. We received a message from the Lion about how to save Narnia. We put all the objects we had found into the cauldron to create a spell, which melted the Ice Queen and transported us back home. Stage 4 loved the Bubble, Bubble toil and trouble spell! Stage 3 had their turn at the circus. The children started under the parachute as the ringmaster (teacher) introduced that they were at the Circus. Next, I dressed up as a clown, doing a mini performance while making the children laugh. The children then had their turn at being a clown, copying how the clown walked, leading with their nose, tummy, and bottom. They also did some funny gestures and teamed up with a partner to do a duo act. Next the wands acted as a weight and the children used their bodies as well as facial gestures to show that it was really heavy. The final part of the circus involved the children spinning plates on a stick. It was very tricky, but everyone managed to keep the plates up. Well done, Hunter and Marli you concentrated well when doing this exercise. Well done, everyone!
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 16
SPORT
This week's sports session began with our usual stretching up to the sky to give the sun a hug, taking in some deep breaths to give our lungs oxygen and lastly showing off our sports muscles. We used our executive skills in the warm up, when a variety of different numbers were placed around our space and when the number was called the children had to use a particular locomotion technique to get to the number as fast as they could. We used movements such as galloping, side sliding, hopping and skipping. A new skill was introduced this week, namely dribbling. While the children have done lots of catching and throwing this year, this was their first introduction to dribbling a ball to themselves. We started off by simply throwing the ball and catching it. The children were told to try and help themselves out by doing a nice and controlled throw, one that just went past their eyes, and having soft hands when catching the ball. Next, they had to throw the ball in the air, let it bounce once and then catch it. They really enjoyed this step. Once they had mastered letting it bounce, we added some force to the ball and pushed it to the ground before catching it. This then developed into using one hand and trying to get the ball to return so that we could bounce it a number of times. Some tips for dribbling are to say ‘soft hands’ when making contact with the ball, this helps to make sure that the children are using their fingers rather than their palms or slapping the ball. We applied our new skill with some dribbling relays. The children love the competitive element of a relay and for those that found the one handed dribbling a little difficult, two handed dribbling was encouraged until they became more confident. We ended our session with some fun aiming practice, giving the children as many turns as possible trying to get the ball through a modified hoop.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 17 MUSIC
In The Nest, the lesson opened with me playing some music and singing as they made their way to the mat before we got our hands moving with “Open Shut Them”. We sang through our warm ups “ABCs”; “Wheels on the Bus”; and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as we slowly introduced our instruments through the lesson.
With our voices warm, we sang through "Do Re Mi" with our actions at an increasing tempo following by "Twinkle Twinkle" with our signs. Again, in S4 we went through them once together and then once without me following along. Out in the garden this week we worked on simple minus equations. Almost everyone started as a farmer and each round we worked on taking away farmers and adding more sunflower seeds until we only had one farmer left. We sang through "I Am Australian" before revisiting "The Crane Dance" and how Indigenous Australians pass on stories through music and Dreamtime this tells how birds find food and feed. Stage 2 began music with maracas in hand, warming up our voices on ‘DA’ with counting before moving onto “Apples and Bananas” to work on our vowel pronunciation and shapes. The Fledglings began the lesson with “Open Shut Them” before moving onto our warm up scales and shaking our way onto the warm ups. We sang through the “Good Morning Song” and some of our usual sing along songs to get everyone moving and dancing around the room. We did our “ABCs” and “I’m a Little Scarecrow”, while working on our coordination and balance. We revised and sang our “Do Re Mi” with actions, followed by “Twinkle Twinkle” with our signing as well; while The Fledglings used our castanets to click along with “Twinkle Twinkle” and get our fine motor movement active.
Stage 2 also looking at the indigenous “The Crane Dance” as they followed along to the movements and story, before doing it along with traditional Aboriginal music. The Fledglings ended the lesson with some free exploring and play time between the bells, sound boxes and our clapping sticks.
Some of our S4 classes are looking at storytelling this term; and what goes better with music!
In S3 and 4 we began the lesson with our maracas and warm up scales on "LA", followed by "Apples and Bananas" to warm up our articulators, along with our "Good Morning Song".
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 18 Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Benjamin Marshall-Jones, Milo McLachlan, Noah Wexler and Halle Corrigan who celebrate their special day this week We hope you have a fabulous day!
