Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Vol 22 Issue 36

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Undoubtedly some of the most heart warming moments in the ELS are when we see the children showing kindness and compassion towards each other, especially when this is done spontaneously and without prompting from one of the teachers. As the children become more and more aware of the feelings of others, and as they realise the impact of a warm gesture or kind word, so they grow in their ability to reach out to others.

As parents and teachers, we all hope that our children will grow up to become gentle, kind and caring. Because, as we all know only too well, showing kindness and compassion benefits not only the receiver but the giver too. As the Dalai Lama wisely pointed out, “If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.”

The word compassion has its roots in Latin, meaning “to suffer with”. While we all try to

do what we can to avoid suffering, and we certainly do all in our power to help our children avoid it too, the reality is that we all face challenges, painful moments and difficulties in our lives. For that reason, we value those who are willing to come alongside us, to help us, to show compassion.

The teachers often speak to the children about their emotions and help them to understand that we all experience a variety of emotions. The older children in the ELS also learn how to name these emotions, in order to show them how to deal with the difficult feelings that might arise from time to time. By understanding how all people experience a range of emotions, they are better able not only to deal with their own but also to help others who might be struggling to show them compassion.

One article makes the important point that “Research has shown that compassion and kindness are deeply rooted in human nature our first impulse is to cooperate rather than compete. Even toddlers spontaneously help people in need out of genuine concern for their welfare. This innate kindness, however, often gets lost in a society built on competition.”

This is one of the great privileges for the teachers in the ELS to help the children navigate their way through their own complex emotions and to become more aware of the needs and emotions of others. We all know only too well how fraught some moments can be in the interactions among young children, especially when a favourite toy is at stake; however, as the children learn about sharing, showing kindness to others, and being more aware of the feelings others experience, so they grow in compassion and kindness.

As someone once said, “Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give.” We trust that as the children move through the ELS they will not only receive kindness and compassion from others but will be generous givers too.

Enjoy your weekend!

Dee Pitcairn Principal

The Nest (1R)

The sun and blue skies deceived the children and teachers on Tuesday morning, as we thought it would be a warm morning; however, the reality was very much the opposite. When teacher Fiona informed Capri we would be going out that morning, immediately she placed her arms around her and responded, “Brrrrr.” Fiona agreed with her statement. The children were rugged up and eager to be outside even if there was a breeze in the air. Over the previous few weeks, the children have been fascinated by the wind and impact it has around them including blowing hats off their heads, watching the branches blow whilst listening to the sounds created by the leaves.

On Monday morning, a big wind was gusting through our play yard, so we decided to head out and get amongst it. We took out our large parachute to watch it blowing like a boat sail in the wind. The children all gathered around to take a handle. We lifted it up and down. The children were in awe as they watched the colourful material blow up and down, as the wind caught it. Some of the children ran underneath it and squealed with delight, while others laughed and jumped up and down. The rustling noise, the colours and the feeling of the wind made for an amazing sensory experience for the children. There were many looks of surprise, and plenty of “oohs and ahs”. We sat down to play a game of ‘row your boat’, which the children loved.

Over the following days we took out the ribbons and balls. As they held the ribbons in their hands, the children watched as they danced around in the air with minimal movement from them, as the wind was making them move. The teachers described the process of how they were blowing in the wind to the children.

Leo, Capri and Olivia returned to their position at the wall where they stood yesterday. Again they observed with focus as the pupils from the Primary School boarded the bus. A teacher informed us that they were going swimming and Leo responded, “Wow.” Once the last person climbed on board the bus door closed and they waved excitedly to them. They remained at their position and waited for the next bus denly the door opened, and the next

The Nest (1R)

Indoors we read puppet books. Teacher Fiona bought out her animal puppets and invited the children to name the animals. They were immediately able to recognise the sheep and lion, whereas the moose was an unfamiliar animal to them. Before they started to read the book, they discussed the sounds certain animals make such as the sheep and lion. Each child was invited to make the roaring sound of the lion, which helped them to develop their confidence in contributing to a large group setting. Some children made quiet roaring sounds, whereas others made a loud roaring sound. After we sang the song, we then practised our songs for the show, with enthusiasm and laughter.

Our End of Year Celebrations

This week we celebrated our year together with a party on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. On arrival at school, the children were excited to see our playroom all decorated with balloons, tinsel and a picnic blanket on the floor. Before the families arrived, the children spent time watching the slide show and were eager to see photographs of themselves and their peers on the screen. When families began to arrive, they sat with their children and enjoyed a morning tea, including scones with jam and orange juice.

Once everyone was settled, we asked the families to sit around the circle and sing along with the children: ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’. We followed with more songs that the children have been singing throughout our year together. ‘Row row your boat’ was a class favourite, with all the families joining in to hold the parachute together and row the boat. There were lots of laughs and much excitement.

It was so lovely to see all our children dancing and sharing with their loved ones. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the words spoken by teacher Kiri and Fiona. It’s been an absolute privilege and honour to teach your children in the Nest and we will miss their smiles and hugs. We wish you all the best for their next chapter. However, we do still have a few weeks left before we say goodbye for the holidays.

Fledglings (1E)

By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus Time to Celebrate

What a week! The Fledglings were very busy preparing to welcome their families in our classroom to celebrate the successful year we had. Between decorations, songs and dance moves, the children were excited to have our Year End Celebration.

As teachers, we wanted the children to understand what was involved in the celebration, which is a hard job to present to young ages. However, if they are a part of the process, everything falls into place and makes more sense to them all.

Teacher Jane invited the children to use water paints to colour cupcake cases to make flowers for our Secret Garden party. Jane engaged in beautiful conversations with the children, talking about colours, their family favourite colours, the flower’s smell and more.

The big day finally arrived. First, the families were invited to create crowns and fairies in the Atelier table, using an array of craft resources. The children were thrilled to see how creative their family could be! Once finished, we invited everyone to join us in the circle. The children sang and danced their favourite songs, sharing with their families the experiences they participated in throughout the year in the Fledglings.

The celebration this week was a beautiful way to conclude a fantastic year we had in the Fledglings, and we are very proud of our little ones for displaying so much enjoyment in our school environment.

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity. Children feel safe, secure, and

supported. EYLF, 2009 Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. Children

Fledglings (1E)

By

REDDAM

Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Marina Moliboga and Nadia Breus

By Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser and Viviane Zieatter

Investigating our world through STEM

How do plants drink water?

The children are always interested in watering the garden and they will tell you that the plants need the water to grow but how does this really happen? To introduce the children to the world of osmosis and transpiration we did a plant experiment that is fun and exciting for the children to observe this process.

By following this simple science experiment, of colouring the water, the children were able to see for themselves how plants suck water and nutrients out of the soil and surrounding moisture to feed. The water and its nutrients are then sent through the plants “vein” system out into the petals and leaves. The results are nothing less than magical as you change a white based flower or vegetable into any colour you like.

To follow this up we then went on to a bubble blowing experience. Blowing bubbles teaches children to coordinate limb movements, oral motor skills, and breathing to generate the bubbles. The deep breathing required to blow bubbles is great for relaxation and stress relief and also the particular type of breathing used to blow bubbles pursed lip breathing increases pressure on the airways, which helps keep them open. Bubble painting helps with fine motor skills of not only children's hands but coordination between hands and mouth to create bubbles. Blowing out (and not in) on command helps with respiratory strength and awareness. Researchers found a clear link between a toddler's ability to control their breathing and carry out complex mouth movements with the ability to develop language skills, and that bubble blowing is an activity that speeds this development.

The children popped the bubbles onto paper to make their own bubble art! Blowing bubbles naturally engages toddlers in experimentation and play with purpose, allowing the fun and excitement to guide their curiosity and learning.

EYLF Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking. e.g. “Provide children with access to a range of technologies.” (p.44)

EYLF Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity... e.g. explore and “express wonder and interest in their environments” (p.34)

By

Daniella Gosty, Sarah Noone, Romy Kaiser and Viviane Zieatter

Stage 3

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

“The Earth has music for those who listen.” George Santayana

This term at Stage 4, we have been focusing on looking after our environment. Through weeks of learning, we were amazed with some of our children’s knowledge on sustainability and the enthusiasm of being the “Green Warrior” at home and school settings, here is the long list of responsibilities of our amazing heroes:

Look after the environment and make sure our room is tidy. Make sure all rubbish is in the right bins each day.

Turn the lights and air conditioner off before we leave the room. Water our plants each day and ensure they get enough sun. Ensure we are not wasting paper or water.

Make sure the pigeon, birds and insects in the garden are safe. Assist others when it is needed in terms of looking after our environment.

Our children are able to build understanding and respect for our environment. Being the “Green Warrior” will provide our children with the responsibilities that will guide them in ensuring that we continue to provide a sustainable future and continue to extend their understanding about our responsibility to care for the environment. Teaching children to care for the environment is a learning experience that is an important part of growing up. It gives them skills in respect, empathy, patience, responsibility, and teaches them about consequences. But it also teaches them valuable lessons about sustainability and how we want to leave the world for future generations. Showing children how to recycle properly is like passing the baton to them for a cleaner and brighter future.

To teach our children how to take responsibility of this green world, we have built a little green box with different insect pots to show them the planting process. We read a book which is called ‘How Do Plants Grow’ to discuss the sequencing of planting. Then we talked about how important our trees, flowers, grass, and plants are to our environment. The insects also play a significant role in nature as well, so it is important that we look after them. Our “Green Warriors” are encouraged to take care of our plants with sun, water and lots of love.

Each week, we invite two children to show and tell us what they can do at home settings as the Green Warrior. Show and Tell is a wonderful way to introduce public speaking, giving them the opportunity to speak about something that they are interests in. Our children are building skills such as questioning, memory, investigation, explanation and consideration. It also encourages children to learn from their and others’ experiences.

By

REDDAM

Susan Casey, Hannah Corrigan, Emily Hunt and Echo Jia

By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis and Christina Mandalidis

Little artists

‘Every child is an artist’ so said Pablo Picasso. This highlights the importance of making art and enjoying the art of other people, which is so important to the development of the whole child.

In Term 4, the provocation in Nina’s class has been ‘We love art’.

We started the with an introduction to Wassily Kandinsky’s art by reading the story “The noisy paintbox”. The book explains in a child friendly way how throughout his life, Kandinsky experienced colours as sounds and sounds as colours. They further learnt that Kandinsky was one of the founders of Abstract Art, which means that shapes and colours alone could be art.

For their own artwork, the children painted their interpretation of Kandinsky's Squares with Concentric Circles and Alfie requested to listen to music while doing his painting.

Our next artist was Claude Monet, one of the founders of impressionism. The children listened to the story ‘The Magical Garden of Claude Monet’. Set against the romantic, world famous backdrop of Monet’s garden at Giverny, the story is accompanied by reproductions of the artist’s most celebrated paintings and a biographical note on Monet. Looking at a selection of pictures of Monet’s famous painting, the children used oil pastel and water colour for their Monet inspired artwork.

The children were most fascinated by Pablo Picasso’s life, which was evident in how much they remembered:

William: It’s Picasso.

Sienna: He could draw before he could even talk.

Zoe: His drawing were better than his dad’s even though he was younger and his dad was an art teacher.

Emily: His paintings are very famous.

Frankie: He does different colours and patterns when he paints faces.

Sienna: When he was sad, he only painted in blue.

Skye: After the paintings were all the blue the paintings came back in bright colours.

The children were invited to create Picasso inspired faces. First they drew a shape on a colourful paper, cut it out and glued it on black paper. Using soft pastels, the children added facial features.

In an early childhood setting, creativity is often linked only to art, painting and drawing and so on. However, creativity is also an important part of developing children’s problem solving and innovative thinking allows children to use creativity and imagination as a way of making meaning.

Art provides young children with the opportunity to turn their feelings and thoughts into something physical. We encourage creative thinking by ensuring our children have time to explore, discover and research. Play provides children with the opportunity to problem solve, make mistakes, build connections and create within a secure environment.

To coincide with the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the Rugby League World Cup, it was only fitting that this week be focused on movements associated with rugby balls.

We started our lesson with a warm up game of ‘Rob the Nest’, where students took the rugby balls from the middle before stealing the others from the other nests around the area. The focus was on running with the ball in two hands and always having ’10 points of contact’ on the ball.

The second game called ‘Try Time’, which involved the students being able to run down the line and score a try and then celebrate once they scored. The focus was on getting the students to run with the ball out in front and move their bodies into a position to score a try, while using key terminology.

The last activity was a game called ‘Follow the leader’, where each student had a ball and they followed Yoni and copied what he was doing. They had to keep their hands on the ball and eyes up in traffic so control could always be maintained.

As we now move into the Soccer World Cup, we might venture back into the world of soccer and increase our coordination with our feet.

This week in Drama we continued with our topic ‘The Magic Carpet’ in Stage 1. We began the lesson, as always, by sitting on the parachute and singing our hello song. This week our parachute prompt question was “what’s your favourite type of weather?”

To start our adventure, the children reminded me that last week we went to see the dinosaurs. We got our carpets out of our bags and rolled them out, ready to go somewhere new. I told the children that there was a weather warning! High winds and rain could make our journey treacherous as we were flying somewhere far, far away. While we were flying, the children showed me that the winds were making their carpets wobble! We got sucked into a tornado, spinning around and around, and then it started to rain so we had to put up our umbrellas! We landed our carpets in the snowy Arctic. We discussed what animals might live there; then we decided it was a good idea to get dressed up nice and warm so we wouldn’t get cold. Vanilla said, “Don’t forget your gloves!”

Billy wanted to go ice skating, so we put on our boots and skated around, twirling and balancing, while practising our freeze positions. I decided that on the last freeze pose they would show a scared face. But what were they scared of? Polar bears, walruses and BIG penguins, taller than me.

Next, I brought in some pictures of penguins, snowflakes, woolly hats, walruses, and polar bears. I explained and demonstrated what the word ‘mime’ means, For the next activity I gave each picture an action. I then held the picture up and the children mimed they were fantastic at this.

In Stages 3 and 4 this week we began discussing who might live in a tower, and we also looked at pictures of a tower.

The children were split into two groups. One group used their bodies to create a tower and the other group acted out being the prince on their horse. When the teacher gave the command of ‘Freeze’ the children had to stop and listen to the next instruction. The children who were the tower became Rapunzel and were shocked to see the prince. The prince then became the evil mother and was instructed to look angry. They then discussed what happens next in the story as well as all the emotions in the story.

A piece of music was introduced ‘The Adventure’ by John Williams. This led the children through a number of obstacles (long grass, over a bridge, swinging from a tree over the crocodiles, hiding behind a tree as a dragon was following them) ending up in the tower with Rapunzel (one of the children dressed up) who was very sad.

Rapunzel (Teacher in Role) told the story why she was upset and that she needed to find her prince and how she missed her long hair. The next activity involved the children using their senses. Pupils took turns to be the prince. They were blindfolded and had to listen and follow where Rapunzel’s voice was coming from. The children then discussed how different the world would be if they couldn’t see.

The girls were given the role of Rapunzel, the boys the prince. They acted out the beginning of the Fairy tale using a number of key sentences and tapping sticks to portray that they were on a horse. The prince (the boys) hoping to fall for Rapunzel (the girls), but since she couldn't quite hear what he asked for, everything but her hair was tossed out of her window. The boys asked Rapunzel to throw down her hair but instead she threw down her underwear. They were a bit puzzled about this, so they said Curly locks but instead Rapunzel threw down her dirty socks. They then did the classic Rapunzel story where the prince becomes the hero.

The children found it quite funny, they discussed the rhyming words and looked at the beginning of the story ‘Falling for Rapunzel’ by Leah Wilcox that they had acted out.

Well done, everyone, on another fantastic fun week of Drama.

Another week, another celebration! This week our Stage 2 children performed for their parents I was so proud of them!

Stage 4 opened the lesson by warming up our voices singing into the microphone. Special mention to Ren who sang his scales with the microphone for the first time! With our voices warmed up we practised lining up and pretending that we were on the stage, singing through our showcase.

Stage 3 began the lesson with our microphone and warming up our voices on ‘LA’, and then singing in 3rds on ‘MA’. Using the maracas, we sang and shook along with “The Good Morning Song” and “Apples and Bananas”. Using the microphone, we used a spot to stand in front of the audience and sing “Do Re Mi” with the microphone while the class performed the actions and sang along. We encouraged everyone to get up on the stage and perform. I was so happy to see everyone give it a go this week!

Working on our musical alphabet and testing our memory with our musical notes, we used the keyboard to do some revision of both. I wrote the letters on the keys and asked them in pairs to find a letter and then play 4 crotchets. To end the lesson we played 'The Floor is Lava', as we worked on our sense of timing by following the count of the metronome. First we stepped out crotchets at 50 bpm, before increasing it to 72 bpm.

After Stage 2 had their performance, we sang some sing a longs to help settle after the big event. We drove our buses; went into the garden; danced into the zoo. We danced around the room to ‘Gummi Bear’ and played ‘Musical Statues’, freezing whenever the music stopped.

The Fledglings and The Nest also had their celebrations this week, spending some of the morning with their families.

Our Friday, the Fledglings opened the lesson with ‘The Silent Game’, testing our listening and self control and they followed various instructions. We sang through “5 Finger Family”, getting our fingers moving before warming up our voices with our counting and scales ready to sing. Using our maracas, we sang “Apples and Bananas” to help our articulation and vowel shapes; we went into the garden for “The Sunflower Song” and pretended to hop around the room as our frogs for “Gahloomph”.

We sat in a circle and made a drumming circle for “Taba Naba” as we played along with our drums and wood sticks; before ending the lesson with some free play on various percussive instruments.

In The Nest we tried to get our fine fingers moving for “5 Finger Family”, before waking up our bodies. We sang through the unmissable “Wheels on the Bus” and used our instruments to sing along with “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, “A Rum Sum Sum” and “Sleeping Bunnies”.

Using our simple rhythm animals, we encouraged them to shake in time with ‘DOG and ‘CAT’, before using our castanets in “Twinkle Twinkle”.

To end the lesson, we had some free play with the drums and wood sticks and getting our arms moving as we tried to hit them in time with the music.

Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Luca Tan who celebrate their special day this week We hope you have a fabulous day!