Reddam ELS St Leonards 1st December 2023
Principal’s Message by Mrs Vicki Bakes The teachers have been busy preparing the children’s portfolios for the end of the year which parents will be taking home to enjoy. Portfolios in early years education act as dynamic snapshots of a child’s growth and achievements. They compile a range of work, observations, and reflections over time, offering a holistic view of a child’s development. The process of reporting at any stage of development is a key part of the teaching and learning phase. During the year the teachers have been able to reflect and build clarity for future directions to strengthen and enhance the learning of each individual. Portfolios provide parents with a tangible journey of their child’s progress, strengths, and evolving skills. As a parent myself I know how appreciative I was to receive such a beautiful memory bank, although many years ago now! I am sure you will agree on receiving the portfolios that they are truly outstanding. “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel” - Socrates At Reddam St Leonards Early Learning we have high expectations, and we empower the children in our classes to feel valued and achieve. The importance of hearing each child’s voice and encouraging them to challenge themselves is of paramount importance and in turn creates a growth mindset. Have a super weekend and we look forward to welcoming you all at our very special End of Year Celebrations next week.
Stage 4R
The Best of 2023 by Ms Riina Andrews As the year comes to an end, we have been exploring and revisiting the best things about our year. When the children were asked about their favourite experiences, the answers that I received were varied and great reminders about what each child enjoyed the most about Stage 4R!
Hazel: ‘learning how to make friends’ Ethan: ‘Van Gogh’ Summer: ‘The Fairy Tales were what I liked the best’ Ella: ‘Underwater world’ Aneilia: ‘rollercoaster’ Morgan: ‘My Gym’ Finn: ‘I liked the dinosaurs’ Noah: ‘I liked playing playdough Gingerbread Man’ Kyson: ‘I liked the dinosaurs too’ Franco: ‘I liked learning about when I grow up’ Risa: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk was the best’ Oliver: ‘rollercoaster’ Karthik: ‘making the dinosaur bones was the best’ Sophie: ‘I loved learning about the rollercoaster and coding’ Art work During this activity we revisited the Picasso provocation. Using a Picasso face as inspiration, we drew our own version using white boards, chalk boards, chalk and white board markers. Adding to this experience, we placed picture cards on top of our drawing creations to add a 3D dimensional feel to the final masterpiece! Literacy Revisiting the Coding provocation had us recalling skills that we learnt surrounding positional language. We programmed the Bee-bots to move forward, backward, left and right. We followed the arrows and directional cards and using the robots as well to follow the path that we made. Numeracy Helping Little Red Riding Hood find her way to Grandma’s house was the final experience of the week. Using a map/path, the children had the opportunity to place small stones, following a pattern to show Little Red Riding Hood the way to go. The children then counted the number of stones that they used during the experience, while some children counted as they placed the stones on the map. Each child made sure that Little Red Riding Hood did not get lost! We had such a wonderful week as all the children had input into the program and were able to revisit the provocations of the year that they enjoyed the most! The year has passed so quickly that we cannot believe that it is nearly over. We have had the best year of learning and sharing experiences that we will remember fondly and are all very much looking forward to the end of year celebrations!
Stage 4E
Getting Ready for Christmas by Ms Emily Brazel This week Stage 4 has been getting immersed in all things Christmas! We ended our week last week by asking the children what they wanted for Christmas from Santa. This sparked conversations about presents and the importance of Christmas. The children decided it would be best to write their own Santa wish list in the coming week. This wishlist would then be sent to Santa at the end of Term 4! Throughout the week each child had the opportunity to practise their fine motor skills, pencil grip and hand coordination to create their wishlist for Santa. The children were very creative during this time, informing Santa of their ideas. Some of their present ideas included: •
A telescope
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A teddy bear
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A lego boat
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Nail stickers
This experience allowed the children to understand letter-sound relationships, concepts of print, and the ways that texts are constructed. Creating a Christmas Tree This week the children were invited to play with natural materials in or loose parts to create a Christmas tree in the tough tray. The tray was purposefully set up with a variety of objects for the children to invent, create and construct with. One of the key benefits of loose parts play is the openmindedness and ability to be student-directed. They provide so many opportunities for construction and reconstruction, invention and reinvention. They encourage a range of play types and can match the child’s level of development. What will you miss most about School?
Throughout the week we asked the children what their favourite memories of Reddam was. Some of these included: •
“I will miss my friends” Peta
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“I will miss my teachers” Annabelle B
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“I will miss seeing my friends every day” Ashton
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“I will miss the food” Caelie
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“I will miss learning new things” Spruha
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“I will miss everything” Lucas
Stage 4D
Merry Christmas by Ms Sarah Ross “Santa was coming! 'Twas bigger than big! No one loves Christmas more than Pig.” - Aaron Blabey, Pig the Elf. Talk of upcoming end of year celebrations has inspired interest in Christmas festivities in the Stage 4D classroom this week! We began our playful investigation into Christmas with a story called ‘Pig the Elf’ that follows the journey of a very greedy pug getting ready for Christmas. Following the story the children discussed what it meant to be greedy and shared their interest in making their own Christmas wish lists to Santa. This learning experience was supported in independent play and with support of Miss Nat and myself as we provided the children with materials and tools to create and some pictures of toys alongside the toy’s name. The children demonstrated their ability to transfer their knowledge from one context to another by independently writing out their wishes in the text format of a list as they had viewed in the Pig the Elf story. With the support of a teacher the children addressed their wish lists to Santa and signed their names at the bottom. “Dear Santa for Christmas I would like roller blades, robot, Panda teddy bear, and LEGO. Love from Henry.” “Dear Santa for Christmas I would like books, paint, crayons and marbles. Love, Alex.” “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a doll, scooter, pogo stick, dress and roller blades. Love, Sarah.” “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a games console, crayons, paint, and marbles. Love from, Junso.” “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a teddy bear, robot and soldiers. Love from, Marcus.”
“Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a robot, jigsaw, pogo stick, crayons, rollerblades, and books. Love from, Gisele. Merry Christmas.” “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like peanut butter, a scooter, and plastic bricks. Love from, Owen.” “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like soldiers, marbles, a superhero, and radio controlled vehicles. Love from George.” We look forward to continuing the celebrations next week with all our families at our end of year celebration and graduation ceremony!
Stage 3/4
Expressing Me by Ms Emily Messina Our year has come to an end, and this was our final week of provocation! This week we focussed on sculpting and engineering. The children really loved this topic as it allowed them to explore through manipulation and free flow creativity. Throughout this term the children have been exposed to play dough and other various manipulative play. However this week the children are exploring sculpting with clay, this is a new medium for the children and brings its own challenges. The children were encouraged to sit at the table and use the clay to sculpt with freedom, creating their own masterpiece with creative flow and imaginative freedom. The children were asked to observe the and began deciding on which tool they wanted to use. As the children explored they quickly realised that it was a lot harder than play dough. "It's really hard" - John “How am I going to move it?” – Felix Miss Emily guided the children to use water on their fingers to assist in sculpting and manipulating the clay. It was amazing to see the children quickly adapt to their new medium and enjoy their exploration and creative independence. Throughout this experience the children further develop their fine motor skills through finger and palm movement. Through squeezing, patting and pounding movements, the children further developed hand-eye coordination skills. For group time the children were broken down into smaller groups and given a task to engineer and build a home suited for a family. The children were given various amounts of family members and cars, then using that information was encouraged to first discuss their ideas and formulate their plan. Then was ready for constructing! The children were given wooden blocks to put together and build their homes. Once finished the children then placed their family members and vehicles inside. This
experience assisted the children in further developing their sense of wonder and exploration. Throughout the discussions and movements, the children could build on their language and communication skills as well as their motor and coordination.
Stage 3E
Seasons by Ms Carolina Machado This week's provocation addressed "Seasons" focusing on Spring and Summer. The children explored more about the seasons by observing the photos of trees and discussing what type of clothes are appropriate for each season. The children contributed to the mind map as Claudia said "during winter, we put jackets on and drink hot chocolate to keep you warm" and Harry said "during summer, we go to the beach!" as Alexander completed saying "brown, yellow, and red are autumn colours". Sumire shared her thoughts about winter "I like to drink coffee!". Artwork - Spring The children engaged in a group activity reproducing flowers in different sizes and colours. They firstly observed photos of flowers and then started their own piece of art using a range
of materials such as watercolours and textas. They could recreate anything relatable to Spring, including the Sun, trees, leaves and flowers. Numeracy table - Winter The children engaged in a numeracy activity making snowflakes using cotton tips. As inspiration, examples were provided but the children preferred to make their own shape and design of snowflakes to reproduce the winter season. Literacy table - SummerThe children explored how thunderstorms are formed during Summer. Using water colour beads as water, cotton balls as clouds and pipe cleaners as lightning, the noise of the beads on the transparent containers would reproduce the sound of a thunder. Sensory table - Rain cloudsOur science experiment of the week was the rainclouds. Using shaving cream, colouring food and painting, the children discussed how the water cycle happens and watched the rain inside a jar. The jar was filled with water, the top filled with shaving cream and the painting works as rain drops, coming down slowly into the water. Christmas Concert - Next Wednesday!As the Christmas Concert date approaches, I kindly ask you to follow the instructions sent by email. The children who don't attend school on Wednesdays need to be here 30 min prior the concert starts. All families have must received the concert tickets and you are provided two. Additional guests can stand at the back to watch the concert. Stage 3E is looking forward to it!
Stage 2/3 & 3R
Me and My Friends by Ms Gabriela Guimarães This week we embarked on an enchanting journey of exploration and connection. The children interactions and friendships are a canvas painted with spontaneity, innocence, and a quest for understanding.
At this age, the playground is their kingdom, where friendships sprout like wildflowers. At the beginning of the year we saw parallel play dominate as they engaged in activities alongside peers, rather than with them. Yet, gradually, the boundaries dissolved, and collaborative play emerged. Shared interests became the glue, whether it's a fascination with building blocks or an imaginary adventure in a cardboard box spaceship. As we observe the children all the teachers became witnesses of the remarkable evolution of social skills in the stage 2/3 and 3R class. They navigate conflicts with the finesse of negotiators, learning the art of compromise and turn-taking. From asserting preferences for toys to expressing emotions, their budding communication skills weave the fabric of their friendships. The friendships the children have formed along the year are often uncomplicated, free from the nuances and complexities that adulthood brings. They see past differences and embrace each other's uniqueness with a pure heart. We see the children joining one another in play without a second thought, their criterion for friendship often is as simple as a shared smile or laughter. The teachers play a pivotal role in nurturing these relationships. Teachers become guides, fostering an environment where empathy, kindness, and inclusivity flourish. At Reddam we are always reinforcing our Grace and Courtsey program. Through gentle guidance, children learn the significance of sharing, empathy, and considering others’ feelings—a foundation for healthy friendships.
Stage 2E
It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas by Ms Madeleine Grant “How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” - Dr Seuss Can you believe we have reached the final weeks of the year! Over this week the children have been busy practicing their concert songs and preparing for our end of year celebrations. We have been reflecting on the year that has been, looking through the children’s portfolios and artworks over the past four terms, returning to some of our favourite activities, and looking back at the photos of the little children that began this year in Stage 2E and grew into the big boys and big girls they are today! We went back over our provocations; our journey through the alphabet from A to Z with different activities for each letter, investigating the natural world and the wonderful creatures that live within its varied landscapes, an exploration of fairytales and folklore from around the world, and our final unit reflecting on belonging, being and becoming. End of Year Concert Next week will be very busy as each class puts on their end of year concerts! A reminder that our performance is on Tuesday 5th December at 3:30 pm. Please keep checking your emails for further reminders as we get closer to the day!
Stage 2R
Celebrating Christmas by Ms Malini Joseph This week, the Christmas celebration activities continued to engage and captivate the children in Stage 2R. Ms. Malini orchestrated an array of activities that extended last week's successful ventures while introducing new, stimulating experiences. These activities focused on fostering creativity, fine motor skills, sensory exploration, and a deeper understanding of Christmas traditions.
Christmas Light Table The popular Christmas light table activity continued from last week, evolving with the addition of green coloured sand. Children enthusiastically engaged in creating Christmas-themed art using the sand, showcasing their imaginative skills by drawing Christmas trees, stars, jewels, and snowflakes. The interest in Christmas ornaments was further expanded by creating Christmas balls, igniting excitement and creativity among the children. Christmas Baubles Ornament Making Children were encouraged to personalize Christmas baubles by inserting their photos and decorating them using an assortment of colourful materials. This activity not only honed their fine motor skills but also allowed them to exercise their creative instincts, choosing materials that best represented their unique ideas for decoration. Story Time and Cookie Making The reading of Christmas storybooks inspired an impromptu session of crafting cookies using playdough, followed by structured and planned activities centred around cookie making. The children actively participated in this process. While the initial intention was to create gingerbread cookies, the experience of preparing plain cookies proved to be equally enjoyable. This activity not only facilitated their understanding of measurements and ingredient mixing but also encouraged teamwork among the children. They joyfully savoured their homemade cookies, embracing the festive spirit of Christmas. Sensory Bin Treasure Hunt The sensory bin activity aimed to enhance the children's sensory play and cognitive skills. Hidden coloured beads, candy canes, toy treats and stars prompted an engaging treasure hunt, encouraging children to use their investigative and counting abilities, honing their attention to detail while having fun in the process. Art Atelier and Santa's Workshop In the art atelier, children expressed their thoughts about Christmas through painting and drawing, using a variety of colours to create vibrant representations. Additionally, the Santa's Workshop activity fostered a sense of generosity and empathy, as children joyfully packed gifts for their peers and other children worldwide, especially for those exhibiting love and kindness towards others. Overall, this week was an enriching and fulfilling experience for Stage 2R, providing a diverse range of high-quality activities. These activities not only entertained but also facilitated skill acquisition through immersive and enjoyable play experiences, nurturing creativity, collaboration, and a deeper understanding of the Christmas spirit. Upcoming Events Christmas Concert: The Christmas Concert is approaching swiftly and is scheduled for December 5th. Stage 2R is eagerly preparing to showcase their performance on December 5, 2023, at 3:00 PM. The caring educators of Stage 2R extend warm wishes for a delightful weekend to everyone.
Stage 1D
Celebrating Christmas by Ms Pamela Dela Cruz This week in Stage 1D, we continued to celebrate Christmas with fun and exciting activities that we prepared. Getting the children excited about the holidays is a terrific idea with these extremely entertaining Christmas sensory bins! With all of the textures and colors of these Christmas-themed activities, they had a lot of fun while developing their fine motor skills and getting into the holiday spirit. Christmas Sand Sensory Bin - For our first sensory bin experience, we turned the sand into green and everyone loved it! We chose to use the sand as a sensory bin filler since Christmas time in Australia is during summer time. Everyone had so much fun exploring and finding wooden Christmas beads and characters like “Santa”, “Gingerbread Man”, and “Mrs. Claus” that were scattered and hidden onto the sand. Rice Snowflakes Sensory Bin - In this another sensory experience, we used colourful rice and added the stars and snowflakes for the children to enjoy! During the activity, we talked about snowflakes and how they were all unique. Children find it a very calming experience as they used their hands and fingers to play with the different colors of rice. Everyone was amazed by sparkling snowflakes and they admired it as they picked it up and looked at it closely. Making Christmas Ornaments - Using clear Christmas balls we put the children’s photos inside and added some decorations like small pom-poms and different colors of confetti such as grey, white, and gold. The children had so much fun putting the following inside and their favorite part was when we inserted their Christmas photos. After we closed it up, we gave them time to play with it. They enjoyed shaking it as they watched the decorations move around. Decorating ornaments was a wonderful way to help children improved their fine motor skills which was the ability to control their fingers so they could manipulate objects. They strengthen their finger muscles and control each time they picked up, moved, or put tiny things inside the clear Christmas ball. This activity also brings out their creativity and as well as develop their imagination.
Important date to remember: 4th of December, Monday at 4:00 pm - End of the Year Concert A friendly reminder to everyone, if your little one does not come on Monday kindly please bring them to school 15 minutes before 4:00 wearing their white concert outfits. Thank you! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Stage 1E
Stick Exploration by Ms Mary Wang We talked about soil last week which all children loved to explore and observe. We continued extending children's interests in this topic by supporting children to observe which plants live in the soil. At Reddam, we fully respect children's choices and listen to their voices during daily practice.
Where Do Sticks From? We encourage children to observe what plants we have in the garden. They could see flowers and trees. Then, they looked at sticks and knew that sticks are part of tree branches. They were provided opportunities to touch different tree branches and roots of flowers to improve their sense. Moreover, we believe that it provides a positive opportunity for children to interact with nature. The Early Learning Framework (AGDE, 2022) mentioned that children need to learn and show respect to nature. In stage 1E class, we provided children with massive time to explore nature and the natural environment by engaging in this experience. Stick Art Art plays an important role in children's early development. Firstly, they can learn to express their ideas and imagination through art. When children are at an early stage, they still develop their language, so that they can express their ideas and creativity through painting, drawing and colouring. Secondly, children can have opportunities to use different materials to do painting, such as brushes, sticks, Cottom… It can improve children's fine motor skills through art experiences. We engaged children in stick painting this week. Children were encouraged to choose one tree stick and dip different paints to paint on the paper sheet, including red, blue, yellow, green and purple. Some children dipped three colours to paint on the paper sheet, while other children mixed all colours and made their rainbow colours to paint. Children loved to express their ideas through painting. Stick Colour Matching In stage 1E class children love to do activities related to colours. In order to extend the children's interest based on the provocation, Ms Mary prepared the stick colouring matching activity for the children to engage in. Matching with colours not only helps children to build visual perception but also helps them to develop thinking and problem-solving skills. In this activity, children can develop their self-skills (independent skills) through observing, thinking and observing. We showed children an example of matching sticks and colours together. Then, we encouraged children to match it independently. If they faced difficulty, we gave them hints and encouraged them to think and match with the correct colours. It is great to see that all children love to engage in stick-matching activities, most children are able to think and solve problems after getting hints from teachers. Piano Class Children engaged in various special classes this week. They love to have piano lessons where they can sing Christmas songs, including Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is coming to town. They are encouraged to listen to the melody and sing the songs with teachers together. Moreover, children develop their physical movement through dancing. Children are engaged in dancing activities during the piano lesson. They are encouraged to create their body movement, including hopping, walking, and spinning their bodies. Children love to have piano lessons.
Stage 1R
Sticks and Nature by Ms Amanda Felton “Nature is a tool to get children to experience not just the wider world, but themselves.” - Stephen Moss
Exploring our great outdoors provides opportunities for the children to explore, discover and appreciate the natural world, as well as strengthen motor skills and resilience. Our creative children, once again had lots of fun exploring and playing with the sticks in the kinetic sand. With careful manipulation they could stand the sticks up in the kinetic sand and dig with the sick to see what would happen with the sand's movement. Some of the children had fun squishing the sand through their fingers and seeing how it sticks together. Also throwing the sticks onto the ground was another fun game for the children. As they learn spatial thinking through this movement and develop a sound understanding of what happens when the object falls to the ground. As part of our intentional learning, collage artwork with sticks was encouraged by the teachers to create shapes and patterns out of the sticks . Our creative children chose a stick that they liked and placed it onto the white paper. The teachers would assist the children by putting the glue on for them. Some of the children were intrigued with this and decided to touch it, some of the children's reactions were that of confusion and wonder. A few children examined their hands afterwards and began touching their hands together. The children communicated in non verbal cues of holding out their hands to be cleaned. Well done Stage 1R, what a great effort from everyone and making learning so fun and interesting by showing curiosity and a willingness to learn.
Drama
This week, for the younger students, we did some vocal exercises. Practicing trilling up and down our vocal range, waking up our articulators by repeating common consonant sounds and saying them will various vowels to extend them. It’s important when we
perform that we speak loudly and clearly, so that the audience members all the way at the back can still hear what’s being said. With the Christmas performance coming up soon, I thought it would be beneficial to practice these. We then went through an exercise where I asked them to show me how they’d create different things with their bodies, a house, ball, circle, fork, snake, tree, car, and rocket etc. It’s a great challenge to see how they can represent other objects only using their bodies and making them find new ways to show each object. It was fun to see the variety of options we had, as well as how students were willing to help others make shapes, give guidance or offer completely different shapes altogether. To finish off the class, we played another round of the Queens footsteps, and I was happy to see that we’re improving our ability to share, our ability to listen and to be gentle with one another (and my puppet hamster.) Reshan and Ellie were very gentle with the hamster, making sure to share with friends so everyone could have a little cuddle with it. For the older children this week we again practiced our vocal warmup (for the Christmas performance) and I highlighted how important communication skills were by reading Lewis Carol’s poem “The jabberwocky.” The poem is great to showcase how we communicate and tell stories because it’s a nonsense poem, using lots of silly sounding words, even some that Carol created himself. Even if it is difficult to understand what exactly is being said, I can help tell the story by altering my tone, pitch, pace while speaking to create varied atmosphere, energy, and different voices for different characters - all this helps construct a clearer narrative that is easier for the kids to interpret. Afterwards, we did an exercise called “Mirror” in which I did a series of actions that they mimicked, increasing in difficulty and speed as we went on. I included lots of poses that made them rely on balancing, which they could only achieve if they really focused on it. As we continued the exercise, I was pleased to see lot of students figure out that they needed to focus on the activity if they wanted to achieve it. Aneilia, Tori and Hayley tuned in well - even if they struggle dot do the action, I noticed they were quiet and persistent as they followed my moves. Good job everyone!
Yoga
Yoga by Ms Giovana Brolese This week in our yoga class, we embarked on a sunny beach adventure! As the summer sun shone brightly, we imagined a trip to the beach, complete with a sparkling swimming pool. Our little yogis met various sea creatures through playful poses: the strong shark, the scuttling crabs, the graceful fish, and the joyful dolphins. Each pose brought a new challenge, helping the children understand how different movements require different strengths. Through this imaginative journey, they not only had fun surfing and dancing at a lively beach party, but also gained confidence and self-
awareness in executing diverse movements. This delightful session was a perfect blend of fun and learning, nurturing their bodies and minds!
Piano
My Gym
Mandarin