REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
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However, just as important as listening to stories is for young children, so too is it for them to create their own stories. As children grow older, they become increasingly aware of the difference between reality and fiction (although, as a real treat, that division sometimes becomes wonderfully blurred and they are able to slip away into entirely ‘real’ worlds far beyond ours!).
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOLREDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL
Listening to stories, whether in school or at home, opens the door to the creation of their own stories. Whether based on events and people in their own lives, or on the
Albert Einstein once emphasised the importance of storytelling for young children in this way: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them fairy tales.” Research has proven over the years that stories have the power not only to develop a child’s imagination and creativity but also to impact their intellectual and emotional intelligence.
characters they have heard about in other stories, or even ones entirely made up, they develop a gift of their own to conjure their own stories. And what wonderful adventures they turn out to be!
As the children mimic what they have heard adults do and say while reading a story, so they are taking ownership of the storytelling process for themselves. Their own creativity is set free, as they imagine characters, events and places beyond their own lives. We as adults can support them in this process of creating their own stories by providing a warm and supportive environment in which they can explore their own fictional worlds.
Friedrich Froebel, the German educator commonly regarded as the ‘father of kindergarten’, heavily influenced Loris Malaguzzi, who initiated the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. His view of children was that they are unique, competent and capable, and this we see playing out in the act of storytelling.
While Einstein was undoubtedly correct when he suggested that reading fairy stories to children will ultimately increase their intelligence, perhaps far more importantly they learn how to tell their own stories, and in so doing ignite their creativity and imagination.
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Dee PrincipalPitcairn
In the ELS, the teachers provide an environment rich in stimuli. Props, clothes, playground equipment, books and other items are often the inspiration for stories to develop in the minds of the children, whether playing on their own or with their friends. And the teachers love nothing more than to listen to the newly created stories which tumble enthusiastically from their mouths, often marvelling at the depth of detail woven into them.
Have a great weekend hopefully with some fantastic stories thrown in for good measure!
Reddam House has 5 values and two of these include kind hearts and manners. We have been encouraging the children to share and wait their turn throughout the day. This can be a challenge for some of our little ones as they start asserting their independence. However, we have observed this week that many of our children passed toys to one another or picked up one of our younger friends' comfort toys and gave it to them. It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating this empathy and kindness towards their peers and educators.
The Nest (1R)
On Saturday 10th September, it was the Chinese Mid Autumn festival, also known as Mooncake festival or Moon festival. During last week, the children were given the opportunity to try a small amount of mooncake they devoured it and asked for more. This week, the children undertook the role of an artist, as we made our very own paintings in the traditional colours of China, namely red, gold and black. Red traditionally symbolises fire, good fortune, and joy. These colours appear during festivals. Gold, on the other hand, represents wealth, illumination, and prosperity. The children really enjoyed dabbing the coloured paint onto the paper and helping teacher Helena sprinkle the gold. We will display our artworks, along with the lanterns we made, in our entrance for all to
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“Once I caught a fish alive”, “Incy spider” and “Ba Ba black sheep” to name a few. The children demonstrated their familiarity with these rhymes as they pointed, laughed, and verbalised along to them. Harlow, Leo, Capri and Krishna sang along whilst Robbie tried wiggling his little finger when Kiri demonstrated the actions of the fish song. The others laughed when she said “ouch!” Olivia was fascinated with the pictures. When given the choice to get up and play, Leo, Capri, Olivia, and Harlow chose to stay in their chairs and keep listening to the stories. Later in the day, Teacher Min spent some time with Arjun and Frankie reading and singing through this book. Frankie said “Moo” and “Oh Wow”, while Arjun tapped his little hands on the pages and listened along.
The children absolutely love to read and sing along to our old fashioned nursery rhyme book! After coming in from outdoor time on Tuesday, we sat around to drink our water, wash our hands and ready through the rhymes. “Hickory hickory dock”,
have a keen interest in books and following on from the Chinese Moon festival, they were able to read a book about the moon, ‘On The Moon’ by Anna Milbourne. When the teacher asked “Would youliketoreadthebook?”, Joshua responded by smiling and Leo immediately replied, “Yes.” They examined the pictures and Leo pointed, “Moon moon.” We discussed the illustrations and Fiona encouraged them to locate the moon on the page. As there were lots of stars on the pages, this led to an impromptu rendition of ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. Joshua and Capri raised their hands into the sky and followed the actions demonstrated by Fiona. Once they had finished the song, Joshua requested, “More, more.” Illustrations in books can be used to create topics of discussions and to support children in expanding their vocabulary and provides them an opportunity to demonstrate their current knowledge and understanding of the world.
With the weather getting warmer into spring time, we went outdoors for sand play a lot this week. The children really loved this experience. Sand play around the table allowed the children to come and go freely to play in the sand with various scoops and containers. Pouring, touching and feeling the sand through their fingers is a soothing and calming activity for the children and, added to the trees blowing and the sun shining, it was a wonderful sensory experience for all. On Wednesday, we added paint brushes to the sand trays, where the children were able to paint and draw patterns. This type of activity pre empts writing skills as they learn to hold the paintbrush and use hand eye coordination to produce swirls and shapes. They are creating the foundations and skills they require for writing in the future. Also, during this time, they are developing their grasp of holding a writing implement with ease and control, as they express themselves while experimenting with shapes and patterns. The children are also learning to work alongside each other around the table. They learn to cooperate, use their own paint brush, wait, and ask for a space. Furthermore, they were all positioned around the trays, which encouraged them to share their work space with their peers and respect each other’s personal space. Joshua was concerned for his friends if they had not been given a paintbrush and happily shared his with others, as he had one in each hand.
As they investigated the sand, Fiona sang songs such as ‘Sandy children’ which August adored and smiled with delight as she sung. Then, using the paintbrushes, they created a circular motion as they sang, ‘Round and round the garden’ as if it were a person’s hand.
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The Nest (1R)
We look forward to our last week of term 3 next week starting with a dress up day for Pirate Day on Monday!
This is all due to the morning circle time, when we get together to count how many friends joined us at school. It has been a while since we started to observe the children spontaneously counting toys,
We have no intention of teaching the children numbers and quantities; however, it is important that we value this emerging interest, validating the children’s voices. Therefore, we added some new resources in our classroom, for example, an abacus and number puzzles, to ensure that they will have resources available to encourage this learning.
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators. Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work. EYLF, 2009.
Counting Fingers
Outcome 4: Children are confident and EYLF,hypothesising,solving,ofinvolvedlearners.Childrendeveloparangeskillsandprocessessuchasprobleminquiry,experimentation,researchingandinvestigating.2009.
In the atelier, the teachers hid small dinosaur toys inside an egg made of playdough. In the first moment, as the children joined the table, they didn’t know what to expect. As they started to manipulate the playdough with their hands and fingers, they noticed something else was there. They quickly found the dinosaurs evolved from the dough, which created a lot of excitement in the Fledglings.
pencils, peers and even their shoes! Nora placed the baby dolls in the basket, lined them up on the floor, then she stood up and started to count them, at the same time she was pointing her fingers at each of the dolls. Pip stood up in the circle at the “Counting Fingers” song, as she wanted to be the one counting her peers.
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Fledglings (1E)
The dinosaurs took over the Fledglings classroom for another pre historic week. This time around, we extended the children’s interest through sensory experiences.
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus Sensory Explorations and Dinosaurs
The children were also invited to “Rescue the Dinosaurs”. Many dinosaur toys were stuck on a board with sticky tape. The children used their fine motor skills to peel the tape from the board and free the dinosaurs.
This week, the children were invited to explore numbers, as this has been an ongoing interest in the Fledglings. We promoted experiences that encouraged the group to become familiar with numbers and counting. In the Atelier table, they had an alphabet and numbers stencil available to explore and have fun. They also played with number puzzles and sorted dinosaurs, all numeracy experiences.
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus
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Fledglings (1E)
3.1 Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing.
develop their emerging autonomy, inter dependence, resilience, and sense of agency.
1.1friendships.Children
Our provocation ‘My Body’, along with the children’s interest in their bodies, how much space they take up, and how they can be in a space with another person and move around together, has all led to some interesting moments. Small pockets of conflict can arise as the children focus on their wants with toys and play but at this stage of development the children begin to use their social skills of turn taking, waiting, watching, and sharing as they begin to transition to play together.
This is the real learning of parallel play, and it's commonly seen in this age group as they learn to communicate to each other how they want to play and share. The children are showing intentional play as they create scenarios together at the kitchen of Jamie or Lyla cooking while Siena, Mila or Bella waits to be served their food, talking about their likes and dislikes. Shared interests kick in as part of a stage where friendship developments are helped along by “associative play”.
By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser , Roberta Sokame and Viviane Zieatter
children begin to form queues when waiting to jump from the box they might need assistance from a teacher to keep the activity orderly and fair, but the children begin to mimic this turn taking experience Atthemselves.thisage,some
1.2supported.Children
1.3 Children develop knowledgeable and confident self identities.
One reason children with the same interests start to become friends through this more active play comes down to the unspoken and unwritten rules behind games. The
feel safe, secure, and
As we approach the end of Term Three, it is becoming evident that some children are finding their friends in Stage Two and forming connections with friends, along with their already strong bonds with the educators in Stage Two. Two to three year old are moving to a stage of friendship known as parallel play. They understand they may be playing a game where another child is present, and they may even be doing the same actions, but they won't necessarily talk to each other. Parallel play can increase confidence because children are learning to play near others. Children can observe one another and learn to use new skills from playing alongside others. Eventually, it will lead to social development where the child will form relationships with others during play.
1.4 Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect.
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children have a clear idea of who their friends are and they can name them. They might look for their friends when they arrive in the mornings before morning tick tock to share some of their favourite toys, creating train lines or dramatic play, while using the dress ups and teddies. Other children at this age might not have friends they can name, but they approach the friend making process by watching the other children and the activity to figure out social cues where they can join in.
At Reddam, we use the word "friend” when talking about both children and adults alike as we teach the children to consider all a possible friendship. This promotes equality for all children, as they transition into the world of
2.3 Children become aware of fairness.
By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser and Viviane Zieatter
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 8 Stage 2
Stage 3
“You feel happy.” Bobby “What about sad?” Sarah “I know one angry.” Hugo “Maybeyoufeelsilly.”Zara “I know confused is funny.” Benny
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The children then showed me what their face looks like when they are feeling happy, sad, angry, confused and tired. They each made a face and their friends guessed what emotion they thought they were feeling.
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
Most of the children are able to name emotions; however, it can be difficult for them to label what they are feeling, so this is what we have been working on with them. To further support this learning we have been having conversations about how we respond to emotions and learning skills for self regulation.
“Mummy giving me a hug.” Innaya “Maybe drawing on paper, swimming in the water.” Zara “Eating ice blocks and giving mummy a big hug.” Sarah “Giving mummy cuddles and going to the gym with daddy, you can push your legs on the bike but it’s not a real bike.” Jack
This week it was R U Ok? Day. On this day we are reminded that every day is the day to ask, ‘Are you OK?’ and start a meaningful conversation. In Stage 3 the children are learning about their emotions and how to express them. On R U OK? Day we had discussions around our feelings and emotions.
We had a conversation about what can make us feel better if we’re not feeling ok.
We have been using books to support learning about our emotions. One of the children’s favourites is ‘The Red Beast’ This book helps the children to explore the feeling of anger, which can be difficult to understand when they are feeling it. After reading the children were asked what can make them feel better when they are angry, or how they put the red beast back to sleep.
I asked the children if they could name any feelings.
“I drink some of my water, that’s how my red beast goes to sleep.” Thomas “I sleep and I eat my dinner.” Rhys “Call mum and call dad and call my brother.” Harry “Ivy water, also get a squishy ball to get the red beast to sleep.” Kaitlyn
We will carry on this learning over the next couple of weeks as we continue to have open discussions with children about how they are feeling and why.
By Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 10 Stage 3
Stage 4
Cecilia: The teachers give me nice textas to use, Sandra is kind.
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By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Christina Mandalidis
The children were offered a sparkly array of collage materials to create cards or draw pictures for the Stage 4 teachers. The children then had the choice to either display their offerings on our appreciation tree or hand deliver their handmade gifts of gratitude to the teachers themselves.
Mikala: The teachers are kind, they let me take books home.
Adam: The teachers are friendly and kind and give us hugs.
Lincoln: Reddam teachers are kind, it’s my best school.
Last week, we celebrated Early Childhood Educators’ Day. Early Childhood Educators’ Day recognises and celebrates the work of Australia's educators in early learning services for their wonderful contribution to the wellbeing and healthy development of the children in our care. Our children shared their words about what makes the Stage Four teachers so special.
Alfred: The teachers help me learn about Harry Potter.
Lindsey: The teachers are helpful, sometimes I need help with my lunch box.
Harvey: Sandra gives me hugs if I am upset.
Noa: Christina is funny and likes to have fun.
Valentino: I like the Reddam teachers because they let me play with cars.
Arthur: Yuliya is a nice teacher.
Oscar: I miss my mum, but the teachers help me feel better.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 12 Stage 4
Key pictures of the story, including the characters and objects, were used to tell the story. The pictures were then shuffled, and the children had to place them in the correct order
Each character was introduced with the flashcards in turn (Jack, Mum, Daisy, the stranger, the beanstalk, the giant). To begin, I asked the children to respond non verbally to the character flashcards through actions, gestures and/or noises. Each group invented an action, gesture and/or noise to correspond to each character; for example, Jack might climb, Mum might be looking very angry, Daisy might ‘moo’, the stranger might be looking very strange, the beanstalk might stand on tiptoe and the giant might stomp about. Could they mime those actions?
Teacher: “One day Jack’s Mum sent him to the market to sell their old dog, Daisy...” Children: “Stop! ‘Cow!’”
The children used their imaginations and creative skills to act out the story. We decided to change the story, so instead of Jack taking the golden eggs he decided to take a shiny key (we will need the key for next week’s class). Once Jack had the key, he ran as fast as he could and climbed down the beanstalk to tell mum what had happened and what he had found.
Everyone had so much FUN with Jack and the Giant this week!
Jack’s mum ended this week’s drama lesson on a cliff hanger by telling Jack she had seen a door in the forest. This might be the key that opens the door to the magical forest!
Before acting out the story, each group created a soundscape of Jack climbing the beanstalk. When telling the story, the children used mime, stopping frequently along the way during which they were asked how certain characters were feeling at that particular point in the story. Each child was also given a character flashcard and asked to hold up the flashcard whenever they heard the correct name. In this way, the children connect the language with the actions.
This week in Drama we explored the classic fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. In Stage 1 and 2 we began by looking for things around the room that started with the letter B and then I showed the children some different pictures of beans and we played the bean game. This is a movement association game (e.g. Jelly bean, wobble like jelly, broad beans stand tall with their arms in the air and walk around the room). James, Maeve, and Saskia loved the Mexican bean actions every time we did it, they couldn’t stop laughing! We then used our bodies to be small like a bean and grow into a beanstalk, using music to accompany our actions. Vanilla and Billy loved marching around the room like giants. I used my shaker and some of the children used the tapping sticks.
Next, I went into Role (TIR) as Jack’s mum, playing ‘I spy’ something being with ‘B’. Different objects starting with B were placed around the room including beans and a beanstalk.
In Stages 3 and 4 I introduced the fairy tale by eliciting the children’s prior knowledge of the story, and I showed the children the book cover to arouse their interest and trigger their memories. Who can they see on the cover? (Jack) Where is he? What’s he doing? Where’s he going? Is he a good boy? Why/not?
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 13 DRAMA .
Teacher: “One day, Jack’s Dad...”
I retold the story and made deliberate mistakes. I asked the children to say ‘Stop!’ and to correct any mistakes they hear. For example,
Children: “Stop! ‘Mum!’”
SPORT
We began our session this week by reaching up to the sky, on our tippy toes, and pretending to pull planets out of the sky. The children knew so many and were quite excited to yell out which ones they had selected. Then we popped our sports muscles on to get started on our soccer based lesson.
Next, we played a new game called ‘trap the mouse’. The children have become quite good at dribbling a soccer ball around the space. They are confident in dribbling, making sure to use the insides of their feet to tap the ball in front of them, but to maintain control. The aim of the game was to dribble the soccer ball around, whilst at the same time making sure that they were dribbling to free space where they could move. If they heard ‘trap the mouse’ they had to trap their ball as quickly as possible so that the ‘cat’ could not kick it away. We then progressed this game by adding in another option: ‘score’. If this was called out the children had to dribble the ball to the nearest goal that had been placed around the space. The anticipation of either hearing ‘trap’ or ‘score’ was exciting for the group, and they really enjoyed trying to get to one of the goals first to have a shot at goal.
The warm up this week was ‘freeze and thaw’. Two children were selected, one called ‘freeze’ and the other one ‘thaw’. It was the job of ‘freeze’ to tag their classmates and tell them to freeze, and then they werestuckuntil‘thaw’taggedthemandsaid‘melt’. The classes were excellent at moving around the space in a zig zagged manner, avoiding just running in a circle.
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This week, we explored how to make instruments from recycling. This week we looked at building our own a Kazoo. This is an American instrument which changes the timbre of a sound which is the tone colour or quality of a sound. We used cardboard rolls but if you DIY, at home you could use paper towel, toilet rolls or thicker ply paper.
We secured baking paper squares over one end of the roll with an elastic band and then spoke/sang into the open end. The vibrations against the paper make a 'buzzing' timbral quality to our voices which the kids had so much fun with.
With our maracas, we counted and sang on ‘MA’ to warm up our articulators and voices, before getting into our morning sing a longs. We pretended to be sunflowers and we danced through the garden, and also shooed away the birds in “I’m a Little Scarecrow”, while working on our balance. We went to the zoo and acted out the various animals we saw before ending the lesson on the xylophones. We practised sharing with our instruments and worked on colour recognition.
In The Fledglings we began the lesson with “Hokey Pokey”, which helped us to learn our left and right, followed by “Wake Up Body” as we found our cheeks, shoulders and knees.
To end the lesson, we had our free play and exploring on our xylophones which always means let’s take everything out of the box which we always have a great time doing!
In The Nest, we began our lesson with motor movement in “Open Shut Them” and Olivia’s favourite “Wheels on the Bus”. With our maracas we shook our way through the “Good Morning Song”; “ABCs”; “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Bingo” as the babies all moved and bopped along. We are working on building our confidence in some of our little ones by trying to encourage to select their own instruments to use.
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MUSIC
After we built our instruments, we sang ascending and descending scales on ‘LA’, and then went from “Apples and Bananas” into the “Good Morning Song”. With our voices warm, we sang our other sing a longs and layered them each time. “ABCs”; “The Sunflower Song” with our simple maths additions; tested our balancing and coordination with “I’m a Little Scarecrow”; and finally went to the zoo. The kazoo really helped bring our elephant sounds to life!
This week, we sang ‘I Am Australian’, helping to refine some of our verse lyrics, while Stage 4 also revised “Colours of the Wind”, and Stage 3 did “Here Comes the Sun”. Stage 2 are learning about construction, so we also built our own kazoos in class to use for the lesson.
In Stages 3 and 4 we made our Kazoos and used them throughout our warm ups and songs, which they loved. We sang scales on 'LA', followed by "Apples and Bananas", and our "Good Morning Song". With maracas and our Kazoos, we marched around the room to our "ABCs", adding in our freezing and then reversing it by singing and walking backwards.