Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Vol 23 Issue 5 Woollahra

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Albert Einstein once said that “I get the most joy in life out of music.” For someone who did so many incredible things in his life, the statement is remarkable indeed. And it intersects perfectly with others who have suggested that “Music is the language of the heart; it makes our soul dance with joy” and “This is the beauty of the relationship we have with music; the way it can bring small doses of joy into our lives.”

Joy. And music. We can probably all relate to the connection between the two. Whether in experiencing joy as we listen to a beautiful piece of music. Or as we create our own music while humming away in a moment of contentment. Or even in the joy we feel as we listen to our children making their own music. Music and joy certainly seem inextricably linked in most of our lives – and there is plenty of both here in the ELS!

The benefits of music on so many different levels has been proven over years of research. Not only does it work on an

emotional and spiritual level, but researchers have shown that music has a powerful physiological effect too. When immersed in music, our body releases hormones such as dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins, all of which give us the feel-good, uplifting and positive reactions which we associate with music.

A 2007 paper, ‘Neuroscience of Joyful Education’ observed that “Joy and music, as with many creative forms, are intertwined. In fact, neuroimaging studies and measurement of brain chemical transmitters show that when people are engaged and motivated and feel minimal stress, information flows freely, they achieve higher levels of cognition, make connections, and experience ‘aha’ moments.”

One way of engaging with your child in a musical, joyful way is through what has been referred to as ‘attunement play’. While broadly speaking this refers to any play in which an adult and young child ‘connect’ with each other through play, music is a wonderful avenue to do just that.

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER

By letting your own inner child play along with your child’s enthusiasm and longing to connect, some very special moments can be shared. And what better way to do that than through the medium of music.

We know how children love certain songs, especially those with interactive movements. Then again, there is nothing quite like adding some percussive instruments, even if these are just objects found around the house. Role play adds another dimension to music, particularly in those songs which tell a story. Whatever the case – and whatever the choice of music – there are limitless opportunities to engage with children through the medium of music. And as we do so, we get to share in the great joy which music springs forth in our lives.

Have a great (hopefully musical) weekend!

Dee Pitcairn Principal

The Nest (1R)

Hannah Corrigan, Min Pattharasiritanarat, Chloe Grimes and Helena Zhang

This term we are focusing on a "Happy Me" as the children settle into their new school environment. Thank you for reading our motivational letter for this term.

This week we focused on a new member of our class. The Nest has introduced our class mascot or “the travelling bear” – a teddy bear named Zak Reddam.

Hello,

My name is Zak Reddam and I’m the Nest class mascot.

I am so excited to spend my weekend at home with you and enjoy being part of your family.

I am really enjoying my time at school and very much appreciate coming to your home for the weekend to visit.

Just so you know a little bit about me.

I’m a loving bear – I like gentle cuddles and kind words. I enjoy being around my friends and family and having a fun time. I would love you to take me and show me the things that make you happy.

Some of these things may be:

Reading stories

Playing games

Snuggling to sleep

Going to the park

Don’t forget to take some photos of your adventures with me.

Love, Zak.

Zak took part in our classroom routine this week and spent time getting to know the children. Introducing Zak as a mascot or the “travelling bear” in early years learning is done to promote confidence, identity and connection with home while embedding cul-

ture and respect for diversity with families.

Zak will help children’s learning and development by,

-establishing a sense of belonging and being valued

-developing an understanding of others’ lives and different cultures

-making connections between home and school.

EYLF Principle 4: Respect for Diversity

EYLF Principle 5: Learning Environments

EYLF Principle 6: Cultural Competence

Quality Area 5: Relationships with children.

5.2.1 Collaborative Learning: Children are supported to collaborate, learning from and help each other.

Quality Area 6: Partnerships with Families.

6.2.1 Transitions: Continuity of learning and transitions for each child are supported.

Fledglings (1E)

By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, Vivianne Zeaiter and Joyce Matsui

Outdoors play is an important part of the daily program throughout Reddam ELS, across all age groups. Outdoors play is a natural way for children of all ages to explore their physical capabilities in new ways without the restrictions of indoor play. It’s good for children’s health and well-being to be physically active through play.

When playing outside in the big space, Fledglings children independently and enthusiastically participate in many physical plays. They have lots of fun learning to safely manoeuvre a tricycle which help them build a stronger balance and co-ordination.

In the Fledglings, we have also been focusing on using our amazing outdoors equipment to help encourage children to be physically active, build their coordination as well as their confidence in themselves while they see what they are capable of. Children use their core stabilising muscles and balance as they crawl, jump, slide, twist, pull and climb.

We are encouraging children to take calculated risks as they decide whether they needed a support from their teacher or they can independently walk or crawl over the equipment, how to balance, how to slide and navigate the equipment in other ways too. By doing so, we can encourage children to develop confidence as they learn to try again. The Early Years Learning Framework notes that outdoor environments such as ours, which allow for risk taking, exploration and open-ended play, “promote opportunities for sustained shared thinking and collaborative learning” (2009, p.18).

Following the interest of our little Fledglings and their curious delight at creating sea. We created “Ocean table” with laminated posters of the sea and different sea creatures. The Fledglings loved moving the creatures all over and listening to Tatiana naming the creatures. We have set-up play dough and sea animals, encouraging them to observe each of the animals so we could observe what they already know about them. Common knowledge in our group is that the sharks have big teeth. Through these experiences, children were developing knowledge about the other living creatures, strengthening their creativity and language skills.

Early Years Learning Framework, V2.0, 2022:

Outcome 1.2- Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience, and sense of agency.

Outcome 2.4- Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.

Outcome 3- Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing.

Outcome 4- Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials.

Outcome 5.5- Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.

Stage 2

Petal painting

In Stage 2R this term we have been focusing on belonging. To help the children feel comfortable, confident, and secure at school we have been creating experiences which evoke these feelings. This past week we decorated petals using mixed media to promote experimentation and fun while working on a group artwork for our display.

This painting method not only creates interesting and unique lines on the paper, but it also helps children to develop their fine motor skills. The children used their hand-eye coordination as they held the feathers in a pincer grip to pinch the fine feather and learn to use gentle motions to produce lines on the paper. We used powdered paint, mixed with water to spark interest, intrigue and a sense of wonder. Exposing children to new ideas, tools and techniques expands their understanding and encourages creative development.

Children used their problem-solving skills to explore the changing colours as they used the feathers on their paper. We had conversations about primary colours and how red, blue and yellow can make so many combinations!

During the feather painting activity, Marchella said, “it’s a feather!” and Lucia noted “it’s so soft!”; Charlie W told us “I like blue” and Zoe wanted to “mix all the colours”. Through displaying children’s artwork in meaningful ways, they will feel a sense of pride and respect for their school and peers. The children can see their work combined with their peers, to create beautiful flowers which represent each child coming together to make our wonderful kookaburra class like a garden! Displaying children’s artwork is not only beautiful, but it also

encourages creativity and shows children that we love to celebrate their accomplishments and participation.

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

Stage 3

By Susan Casey, Daniella Gosty, Emily Hunt and Fiona Liddell

As the teachers have observed and listened to the children’s conversations over the previous few weeks, we have noticed that they have shown a keen interest in sensory play and dinosaurs. This week, a dinosaur land was set up using kinetic sand, dinosaurs and props to create the scene. The rationale for applying kinetic sand rather than sand from the sand pit, is because it can be moulded and remains together. The volcano in the scene provided a topic of conversation for Asher and Scott who informed everyone that when the volcano explodes, lava will be released and that it is very hot, red and orange in colour. Scott continued, “It will burn you as it’s very hot.” Gathering a handful of kinetic sand, Asher placed it at the top of the volcano and watched intently as it made its way down the side of the model volcano. He expressed, “Look the volcano has lava coming out.”

Playing with kinetic sand has numerous benefits for children, including the following: it supports fine motor skills as they manipulate and mould the sand, and it provides a sensory experience which increases sensory awareness through tactile play. Furthermore, with the dinosaurs incorporated into the play, it fosters creativity and imaginative play.

Following on from their initial interests in dinosaurs, this created an interest in volcanoes, as one was incorporated into the dinosaur world. Fiona placed images of various volcanoes on the easels and the chalkboards as a provocation, one with a cloud and one that had erupted with lava flowing downwards. Mila, Cosmo and Theodore spent time creating their own volcano. When Isabelle approached, she carefully examined the photograph and considered the pastel colours required, along with

shapes to create the volcano before placing the pastel to the paper.

As Callum arrived at school on Tuesday, he asked immediately, “Are we going to be doing the volcano experiment today?” When he heard that indeed we were, he was filled with excitement and when his friends arrived for school, he immediately informed them. As they partook in music, Theodore and Callum eagerly communicated with teacher Nick, and told him that they would be taking part in the volcano experience after his music session. Before the science experiment, the children were invited to design their own volcano using crepe paper and glue. They demonstrated a strong understanding of the need for glue to attach the crepe paper to the volcano. As they focused, they were able to discuss the representation of the red paper – it is the lava and is very hot – which furthermore demonstrated their knowledge about this topic of interest. During this experience, they were developing their sharing skills, as they had one pot of glue between two and needed to be aware of the position of the pot to ensure that everyone was able to access the glue.

Before their music session, the children and Fiona retrieved the ingredients required for the experiment, therefore they were ready to begin immediately after they returned to the class. Rafael confidently identified the vinegar, and everyone was asked if they would like to smell it. As Fiona held it and positioned it under their noses, there were various reactions of verbal and non-verbal communication. Words used to describe the scent included, “Yuck”, “Blah” and “Yummy” along with smiles, scrunched up faces and laughter.

Using an empty sports bottle, which we placed it in the centre of the tray, next we padded Kinetic sand around the base and commented, “It looks like a real volcano.” The next step was pouring water into the bottle, followed by yellow and red food colouring, vinegar and dishwashing liquid. Prior to the next stage in the process, the children were asked to name the ingredients placed in the bottle. Without hesitation, they listed them with confidence. Then Fiona encouraged them to predict what would happen when they added the bi-carbonated soda and Callum and Theodore responded, “It will go up.”

As the soda was slowly added they watched in amazement as the ingredients reacted with one another and orange foam/liquid rose to the top of the bottle, then flowed down the side and over the kinetic sand, just as lava would after erupting from the volcano. The teachers repeated the experiment at the request of the class and this time they directed Fiona with the steps and when to add the ingredients. Then, as it erupted, Fiona suggested pouring some more bicarb soda and it just left a few bubbles at the surface. Analysing the reaction, Fiona probed: “What could we do to make it continue to flow faster?”

Mila offered the suggestion of vinegar. When a small amount entered, the reaction was instant, and it quickly flowed down the sides. Next, they placed a few dinosaurs to make it a volcanic and dinosaur scene. When Vanilla saw Jane from Fledglings she told her about the experiments, as did Callum, who told Emily during our lunch time. STEM is important as it provides hands-on inquiry and lays the foundation for social and emotional intelligence, raises children’s confidence and fosters their abilities to plan and reflect.

Stage 4

By Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel,Yuliya Ginis,

This term’s Provocation in 4D is ‘Exploring celebrations and building a sense of belonging’. With a focus on literacy and building a sense of belonging for each child we have been engaging in a variety of ‘name’ provocations.

Young children are highly interested in their own name. Children’s names are the first words they understand and can identify with –so they connect print with something very meaningful – it is personal. This leads to an interest in trying to ‘copy’ it, and then writing in a more conventional way. Names are an important part of their identity and children are proud of them. Therefore, using names to teach letters and name recognition is a very powerful teaching tool.

Name recognition can happen naturally over time. Keeping names visible helps with this. This starts every morning in the classroom when children look for their name on their locker. We have name labels displayed with children’s artwork on the wall. And throughout the day the children are encouraged to write their name on their artwork.

Name Writing

We have introduced a sign in sheet for each child. This presents their name in print, followed by letters to be traced and then a blank line for the children to write their name independently. The tracing letters have a dot (starting point) and arrow (direction), to help guide the children with letter formation. The children are encouraged to sign in every day.

Who is here today?

As a group time activity, the children’s names were all placed together on a mat. When their name was called for attendance, they were asked to find their name, by recognising

it from the group of names. This activity encourages children to recognise their own name, and to begin to explore their friends’ names too.

Name Puzzle

Taking a closer look at names and the induvial letters that make up each name, the children were invited to the table to complete their own name puzzle. The letters of their name were printed, cut individually, mixed up and placed on the table in front of them. The children had to locate the correct upper-case letter of their name, as well as the remaining lowercase letters to complete their name puzzle. This experience helped to strengthen children’s visual recognition of their name, and individual letter recognition. It enhanced their sequencing skills when moving from left to right in the correct order as well as spatial awareness to paste the letters next to each other but also fit onto the paper.

Music

In Stages 3 and 4 this week we opened the lesson with “Hello My Name Is”, as we shared our favourite colours and worked on our confidence standing up in front of the class. I was so happy this week to have Jackson and Saskia stand up.

explored the many sounds the keyboard can make.

Moving our scarves to follow the pitch, we sang warm-up scales on various sound shapes before picking up our maracas for our “ABCs”. With our instrument and scarf, we tried to coordinate alternate shaking following the beat; slowly getting faster, and then challenging our coordination by adding in stomps.

Testing our listening and motor movement, we sang to "Walking Walking"; hopping, stomping, tip-toeing, jumping and walking backwards. To get our fine motor moving, we worked on isolating and wiggling our fingers to then play a pentascale on the keyboard, numbering them 1 to 5, and doing our best to play each individually.

Down in The Nest we began the lesson with "Wake Up Body", bringing attention to our hands, arms, legs and feet. Using our scarves with our simple action songs with our scarves"Wheels on the Bus", "Open Shut Them". With our maracas, we sang and shook through our sing-a-longs and tried to get as many legs moving as we could in "Bingo". Using our castanets, we clicked along to "Mary Had a Little Lamb", while trying to improve our fine motor movement. We ended the lesson with some free play and movement on the Piano Play Mat, trying to encourage walking and crawling.

In Stage 2 and The Fledglings we opened the lesson with "Wake Up Body" – paying attention to our major body parts. Using our scarves we sang through "Hokey Pokey", doing our best to use our correct right and left hands. We warmed up our voices with our simple scales and then used our maracas for our sing-alongs, helping our coordination and timing. We explored major motor movement with "Walking Walking", trying to focus on our jumps and our hops.

With our castanets, we tried to keep in time with a steady beat before singing along to "Mary Had A Little Lamb", while Stage 2 also sang "Kookaburra". To end the lesson, we had some free play on the Piano Play Mat as we

Dance and Drama

This week I thought it was important to establish what drama is as we often get asked this by some of the children. So, with the older children we discussed ‘What is acting?’, ‘What types of acting do people do?’ Movies, television, theatre. ‘What is theatre like?’ ‘How is it different from television and movies?’ ‘Do you want to be actors today?’ Actors must practise, and they play games to practise being good actors.

In the Nest, Fledglings and Stage2 The first activity we did was “the floor is”. We started a discussion about how we use our imaginations to pretend. We are going to pretend the floor isn’t the floor. The floor is... honey, ice, a giant trampoline, spiky, hot. Then we started to pretend that we weren’t ourselves. I got everyone to line up and walk from one side of the room to the other as different characters we might meet over the term, such as a doctor, an astronaut, teacher, superhero, lion and kite. We then danced to ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’ from Mary Poppins, using the ribbons and pretending they were kites. We had some wonderful shapes. Well done, Jason from Stage 2, Florence from the babies and Gina from the Fledglings. They danced wonderfully and followed direction really well.

In Stage 3 and 4 we started by playing pass the Ball: All the children stood in a circle. The children then passed a mimed ball to others quickly. When it came back to me, I changed the ball in some way: it became heavier, until it weighed a ton, or extremely light, extremely big (and light or heavy) or extremely small (and light or heavy). The ball could take on other characteristics (or adjectives) such as hot, cold, etc. The children needed to show the ball's characteristics in the way it was passed. I asked the children for some suggestions too of other ways the ball might change, to extend the activity. Valentine suggested that the ball should be hot. which was a great idea!

The importance of this game is to be aware of other actors. Good actors can work with other actors and learn to react to what they are doing.

We also did a character and freeze exercise. Everyone quietly milled about the room. When I shouted freeze, then everyone had to stop. After doing this a couple of times. I froze in position unexpectedly and did not say freeze. As soon as a child noticed that I had frozen in position they had to freeze as well. The effect of one person freezing caused everyone to freeze. Once everyone was still, the group started milling around again. The goal was to see how quickly the group could freeze in position. Once the children got the hang of it, then I had everyone close their eyes. I tapped a child on the shoulder and that child became the secret leader. Everyone opened their eyes and then started moving around the room. The secret leader froze, and everyone had to freeze. The other students then guessed who the secret leader was. If they couldn’t tell, then everyone started again and tried to figure it out.

The next activity we did was the shrinking box. Here the children pantomimed that they were in a very large box. At first, they might have thought that it was fun and become excited. The children showed that emotion. Then they might get mad and show that emotion. Then they might get sad and cry. Then the box became smaller. They found the sides of the box and then showed the same three emotions again. The box shrank a couple more times until they were on the floor. Then they had to figure out a way to escape. The children suggested ideas and then I picked an idea and they escaped with that idea.

Actors must learn to copy different characters. Do you ever copy something you see in a tv show or movie? Like Homer Simpson “Doh!” What a wonderful week of Drama. Well done everyone!

Sport

This week in ELS Sport we moved into using hula hoops as our main equipment item. The boys and girls played several games, while working as a team and individually on their balance, coordination and focus. The class was set up with spot markers with bean bags in the activity area. The spot markers were used as a home base.

We played the following games corresponding with a category for each child to progress and develop their own Physical Movement skills:

Hoop Race – Locomotor Movement

Move Crazy – Movement Concepts

Bodies of Water – Exploration of Movement Concepts

Coloured lgloos – Hand/Eye Coordination

Obstacle Course– Object Manipulation

Next week we will dive into the use of the giant parachute with the stage 3 and 4 pupils to see how teamwork and communication plays a role in team sport.

Reddam Early Learning

would like to wish a very happy birthday to Rafferty Henderson. Phoebe Wang, Joshua Dery, Mason Ruan, Hanna Jarnecic, Skye Matsui who celebrated their special day this week

We hope you have a fabulous day!