simone’s message by simone cooke, principal · children were eager to test the wood we had at...

1 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 1

Simone’s Message By Simone Cooke, Principal

Our school continues to be a busy hub of

activity and as I walk through the

classrooms each day I never fail to be

impressed by the range of Project Based

Learning taking place across each of the

stages.

Our little babies as young as one are

engrossed in exploring and investigating

their environment mixing colours,

experimenting with different art making

techniques and nurturing their natural

curiosity.

The Stage 2 children have been building

on their skills as investigators, constructing

Pirate ships, engaging in dramatic play

experiences and conducting floating

and sinking experiments.

Our Preschoolers are currently engrossed

in two major Project Based Learning

activities.

Our stage 3 children are learning the

importance of team work and working

collaboratively on “ How to care for

pets”.

They have been posing questions for

inquiry and are looking forward to having

a visit from the Department of

Education‟s “Responsible Pet Ownership“

programme over the upcoming weeks.

5TH AUGUST 2016

“Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn”

Benjamin Franklin


In Stage 4 the children are driving their

own learning, creating mind maps and

posing questions through inquiry and

research on “The Polar Region”.

They are enjoying engaging in a range of

creative activities and learning the

importance of being critical thinkers.

Working on these collaborative projects

encourages joint problem solving and

fosters co operation and sharing. These

are vitally important skills that lay the

foundations for a lifetime love of learning.

Front Gate

Could I please remind everyone to take

care when closing our front gate.

As you will have noticed the mechanism

on our gate has broken yet again.

The locksmith has advised that this is

resulting from the gate being slammed

shut and that it is vital that we exercise

care when closing it to avoid repeated

breakage.

The safety of our children is paramount

and we ask that everyone be diligent in

ensuring that both gates are always

closed carefully behind you when

entering and leaving the school.

We also ask that you do not encourage

your child to press the silver release

button or allow your child to pin in the

entry code as this compromises safety.

Thank you.

Simone’s Message Continued By Simone Cooke


Have you ever wondered why we teach

children their colours early in the years?

Why not letters and numbers? Why not

cats and dogs?

It's because colours are very noticeable

attributes of the world around us. When

you look out your window, you may not

be saying it, but your mind is noticing and

identifying the green trees, brown

rectangle buildings, square windows,

and blue sky.

Colours are ways children observe and

categorize what they see. These very

recognizable characteristics encourage

children to define and organize the

diverse world around them.

This week we are still exploring primary

colours.

The children helped the teachers with

the decoration of the door in the

Hatchlings classroom. Using clear

contact paper, they were very curious to

understand why the paper was sticking

to their hands but not making a mess!

We gave the children cellophane paper

in the primary colors. Some children

chose each piece of paper carefully and

ensured that it was all flat and stuck on

the contact paper, while others wanted

to use only specific colours.

After finishing working at the table with

Teacher Gabby they were then

attached on the window by Teacher

Hannah. It was beautiful to observe the

children being so proud of themselves

inviting their siblings, parents and friends

to show them what they have made.

Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings By Gabriela Guimaraes


Physical Education

This week Coach Spencer introduced the

new game of “ Simon Says‟ to the

children, who absolutely loved it.

At first the children were mostly watching

Coach Spencer doing the actions but

before long they were joining in and

copying him. “Simon Says” is a fun game

for physical education students, and it

can be easily turned into a fitness game

by requiring the children to perform

fitness activities when "Simon" gives an

instruction.

Another game that Coach Spencer

introduced was rolling a ball back and

forth. Rolling a ball can help develop

many skills other than motor

development. When toddlers roll a ball

back and forth they are also practicing

social skills of taking turns and sharing an

object.

Welcome

On behalf of everyone in the Nest we

would like to welcome Scarlett and Mya

and their families to the Reddam family.

Friendly Reminders

Please ensure that the children have

appropriate change of clothes in their

bags, including socks, beanies and

gum boots if possible.

Please ensure that all of your child‟s

belongs are properly labelled.

Please make remember to sign your

children in and out in the roll. It is also

important to record your estimated

pick up time on our rolls as we arrange

our staffing ratios based on this

information.

Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings By Gabriela Guimaraes


Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings Photo Gallery


As part of our “ I am an Artist”

Provocation the children this week

explored wwipe art.

This Painting technique was so fun and

easy to make and the children

really loved exploring this new painting

technique. Whilst swiping the card the

children observed how the different

colours mixed and the final result was

amazing. Their were many learning

benefits of this activity:

Self-expression with paint

Eye and hand coordination

Fine motor development

Experimenting and exploring with a

new paint tool

Sense of achievement and pride

Colour recognition

Art activities might appear to be “just

messy,” but creating art is a valuable part

of a child‟s life. Art opens up new worlds

for children and gives them a variety of

important experiences. Crayons, markers,

paint, clay and many other art materials

are the tools that can help children:

Build strength in the arms, hands and

fingers

Practice hand and finger control,

which helps improve writing skills

Practice coordination of the hands

and eyes

Explore textures, colours and tastes

Plan a creation and make decisions

about how to create it

Explore and express their feelings

Expand their creativity

Stage 1: Fledglings & Chicks By Michele Santos


Term 3 Focus

This term we are also looking at increasing

the children‟s physical skills and building

upon their gross and fine motor

movements.

We are constantly exposing them to a

range of activities which

foster movement and balance, including

dance, creative movement and physical

movement.

The children are also using their sensory

capabilities and dispositions with

increasing integration, skill and purpose to

explore and respond to their world.

The children are demonstrating

their spatial awareness and are working

at orientating themselves, negotiating

stairs, balancing on boards and generally

moving around and through their

environments confidently and safely.

Happy Birthday!

We would like to wish a very Happy

Birthday to Allegra, Aoife, Noah and

William!

Hoooooraaaaayyy!!!

Our friends had a great time celebrating

their birthday with friends.

I hope you all have an amazing weekend

with your beautiful children.

Stage 1: Fledglings & Chicks By Michele Santos


Stage 1: Fledglings & Chicks Photo Gallery


Dear Parents,

We are all very happy to have Ms Lili

back into our class after her leave. The

children were extremely excited to see

her and to hear that Lili is expecting her

first baby.

They had a lot of rather interesting

questions about the baby: What is the

baby name? Does it have hands? When

can we see the baby? Ms Lili kindly

agreed to show the children an

ultrasound photo of her baby so we can

see how it is growing.

Idris and Lachlan recently became older

brothers so they knew that the baby

grows in the mummy‟ s tummy for a quite

a long time!!! We had some very

interesting classroom conversations

about babies.

Some of children expressed their

memories of being a baby. If this interest

holds it may become our next inquiry of

investigation. It seems to have a lot of

learning potential.

Let‟s wait and see what happens!!

Pirate Provocation

The children have been very engaged

on their Pirate project, making maps,

building boats and testing their floating

abilities, children know now that paper

boats can only float for a short time but

boats built out of plastic containers can

float for much longer.

We also know that Pirates built their boats

out of wood and that it had to be

special wood that was strong and

durable, mostly red or white oak or pine.

Children were eager to test the wood we

had at school, so we tried wooden

blocks to see if they float.

We also had a turn at designing pirate

flags using fabric and fabric paints ( ours

were of course much prettier than real

pirate flags!).

Some express information through

dramatic play or through pictures. Others

work together to learn about the newest

items brought in for study. Each child is a

part of at least one investigation. Some

children participate in more than one.

Stage 2: Sparrows & Robins By Kasia Rymarczyk


From “Jack and the FlumFlum Tree” story

by Julia Donaldson we know that when

going on an adventure we need to be

well equipped because on the sea the

unknown can easily happen and that

everyday items may become useful

when for example our boat will suddenly

fill with water (porridge bowl) or when we

need to rescue a crew member from

sharks! (old skipping rope). Children use

their imagination travelling far, far away

and having countless

adventures…. Story books are wonderful

stimulating tools for children‟s creativity.

We all love reading in Stage 2 and this

project has prompted lots of

spontaneous learning experiences from

science experiments to new vocabulary

building and even history, spiking our

imaginations and encouraging dramatic

play. ( EYLF 4.1) Children develop a

range of skills and processes such as

problem solving, inquiry,

experimentation, hypothesising,

researching and investigating.

Introducing our Talking Table

Another important part of our

programme is encouraging our children

to be confident communicators who

freely express their thought, ideas and

everything that is important to them.

Last term to help children become more

confident in public speaking we

incorporated short group time

presentations into our routine.

This term we will expand upon this

important communication exercise and

incorporate it into our classroom

routine: We will be introducing a “Talking

table”…let me explain how this will

operate.

As our children are such enthusiastic

readers there has been a lot of

discussions taking place about the

picture books we are sharing and the

children are representing book

characters in their drawings and play.

We want to encourage children to make

up their own stories to use their

imagination and share their ideas freely.



The idea of “Talking Table” comes from

book that I read during my degree

course and one that inspired my practice

enormously (“Supporting Children's

Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama

and Art, Creative Conversations in the

Early Years” by Fleur Griffiths).

Children love to have something to say

to someone who cares to listen. We know

that they respond to personal interest

and to the story form. The Talking Table is

an initiative that encourages creative

conversation, the sort that arises

spontaneously when we are tuned in to

children‟s interests, enquiries, and have a

shared focus of attention around a

treasured object.

Children will have a choice to sit in one

of four chairs around a table where the

teacher will be also seated. The teacher

will be wearing a special tunic with

many pockets filled with surprises.

Children are encouraged to bring

pocket-sized treasures from home to

show. The teacher will ceremoniously

enter each of the children‟s names in a

“visitors‟ book”. Initially, we will pass our

special objects round, not necessarily

speaking, gradually over the weeks, we

will extend the scope. We will for

instance, enclose our „toys‟ in drawn lines

and make a world for them. We will have

a character (a puppet) visiting the table.

Finally, we will get to the stage when we

will make the story of what had just

happened. Our drawings and notes will

be left accessible to the children so they

will be able to retell the story to each

other and to parents at home time. Using

our imagination, we are able to create

stories from the different objects children

bring. We will create a dialogue around

the diverse materials and use string or felt

pens to make lines, enclosures, ladders

and pathways, which join our thoughts

together. Being able to express what is

important to you, and to feel listened to

and appreciated, brings gains in

confidence and a sense of well-being.

There is no right or wrong answer, so the

pressure to satisfy some standard is

removed. It is an approach that hears

the many languages of children; what

makes human sense is what counts.



Stage 2: Sparrows & Robins Photo Gallery


Hello Families,

This week has been a great week. Lots of

fun activities have been taking place

throughout the week which offer many

learning extension for the weeks ahead!

We have been encouraging the children

to look at how they take time during the

day to rest their bodies during our rest

period after lunch.

The Kookaburras agreed that it was a

good idea for everyone to have a short

period of rest, even if they didn‟t

sleep. Jeana and Audrey chose a quiet

spot and placed their pillows on the

floor. Jeana then chose a book for

herself and one for Audrey as well,

several of the other Kookaburras also

joined in with a pillow and a book. This

action shows that the children are

becoming more aware of their physical

needs and are displaying a sense of

wellbeing by increasing responsibility for

their own health (EYLF 3.2).

The children are enjoying working

collaboratively with one another and are

really building on their co-operative play

skills. This was very evident this week when

Dhrish shared his love of trains with the

group. He delighted in working with

Jeremy and Jenny, spending an

extended period of time together making

a train track and discussing which pieces

would work well together. It was a great

social experience as they worked

together on a project to achieve a joint

outcome extending their sharing with

each other.

Our Provocation on Pets is still going

strong and over the past few days we

have been looking at keeping Parrots as

pets. This was instigated by Sarah who

lloves birds and asked if we could make a

bird painting.

Sarah: “Riina, can we make do-dos?” (do

-do is Sarah‟s word for parrot)

Riina: “OK, sure let‟s go”

Jeremy: “I want to make one too”

Thomas: “Can I come?”

Jenny: Nodded her head when asked if

she would like to join us

Stage 3: Kookaburras By Riina Andrew


First we all chose the colours that we think

would be good for bird feathers. Audrey

chose yellow and the older girls decided

that we also needed blue, green and red

too. Quickly they painted their pictures

and hung them to dry. The next day, we

cut out our parrots and stuck them on

coloured paper. To finish our bird

creations, we then added some trees

and leaves by texta drawing them on our

paper. We all enjoyed making our lovely

colourful parrots to display.

The class also enjoyed our new game

“Doggie, doggie, who‟s got your

bone?”. We all sat in a circle and took

turns hiding the bone behind our backs

while the „doggie‟ had to guess who was

hiding the bone. We were all very good

at turn taking and joining in with the

group game and following rules and

instructions. We loved it so much that it

was requested that we play it again and

again and may also visit this experience

next week!

Another highlight of the week was dance

class. Our new dance teacher Tess was

great this week. We had a lovely

introductory lesson and she guided us on

an adventure through a maze to find a

variety of items that we would like to take

on a picnic. Everyone had their own

ideas of what would make good picnic

items but we all agreed that fruit and

sandwiches were the favourites.

This week we also welcomed a new

friend Emmanuel to the Kookaburras

program. We are all very glad you have

decided to join us at Reddam ELS and

want to wish you a journey full of learning

and laughter as we explore and grow

together.

Reminder

Just a kind reminder to please bring a

water bottle for your child each day

which is clearly labeled.

.

Stage 3: Kookaburras By Riina Andrew


Stage 3: Kookaburras Photo Gallery


Children are naturally curious of the

world around them and make sense of

this world through all the experiences

they encounter building onto the prior

knowledge they have already obtained.

To become a learner in the 21st century

children need to learn how to

collaborate with others and how to be

creative in their thinking. It is during

childhood where children are

developing the foundations for future

success in learning and the dispositions to

help them learn. Learning is a journey

that continues throughout life, the trick is

to always hold onto that curiosity about

the world in which you live to want to

learn more. This is why we base our

curriculum around the children's interests

through our observations and through

listening to the children in our care.

Our project work has been a lot of fun

over the past week, completing our fun

penguin artwork adding scarves, beanies

and mittens to keep the Penguins warm.

We learned new vocabulary such as

'waddle' and 'colony' as we discussed

how penguins move and what a group

of penguins is called.

We also introduced the concept of the

equator as we discussed where penguins

live and found out that most penguins

live south of the equator.

Kasia shared with us some pictures of

Australian little penguins after her visit to

Featherdale Wildlife Park and noticed

that they looked quite different from the

pictures of the Emperor Penguins on our

wall. We looked at some short

documentaries on how penguins move

and what some of the conditions are like

in Antartica.

=We pitched a tent together and

discussed how scientists may sleep in

tents as they explore Antarctica and

learned some of the language that is

associated with tents such as poles and

pegs.

Stage 4: Cockatoos By Sue Mayer


Next week we hope to look at the

science behind ice and the beautiful

crystals that can be formed by making

our own crystal gardens.

If you have a spare jar at home could

you please bring this in so that each

child can take home their own crystal

formation.

Collaboration is fundamental both for

children and adults, we always have to

collaborate with others whether it is at

home, school or work.

It is sometimes hard for children to

collaborate with others as they can't see

past the immediate present time.

Over the past week we have introduced

more games with rules such as board

and card games to foster some skills

needed to be collaborative with others

such as patience, listening and turn

taking.

The children have impressed us with their

collaborative efforts sharing space on

the whiteboard, challenging themselves

with harder puzzles and tasks and

building massive collaborative efforts

with construction where the children

worked hard together to build "Australia

Tower".

We can't wait to see what's in store for

next week.

Kind Reminder

Please bring in a labelled drink bottle

and a spare jar for our crystal making.

Thank you.

.

Stage 4: Cockatoos By Sue Mayer


Stage 4: Cockatoos Photo Gallery


The Stage 1s enjoyed a great of week of

sport where we progressed onto our new

set of fundamental skills, with the previous

exercises being used as building blocks.

Our lesson this week involved a fun game

called “Simon Says”, where the children

were encouraged to mirror movement

and poses that were aimed at

strengthening co-ordination and core

muscles.

Our next activity was the start of our

exploration into ball skills. The children

exercise involved the children sitting in a

circle rolling the basketball to each, the

children made use of body position

change in order to stop the ball as well as

roll the ball into their friends.

The Stage 2s had a fun filled week of sport

where we continued with upper limb ball

skills. We started the lesson off with our

animal movements that involved a few

new animals namely the crab walk,

elephant stomp horse gallop and flying

bird.

Our next activity continued with the

exploration into our basketball skills. We

started off with basic ball control and

movement that involved the children

learning a two hand bounce and control,

the three step process of step, bounce

and catch, and two hand overhead

throw.

The Stage 3s and Stage 4s had another

fantastic week of sport. We started the

lesson off with some warm up sprints,

followed by our animals exercises which

incorporated some new animal

movement namely the crab walk, horse

gallop, flying bird and elephant stomp.

We continued our exploration of the

upper limb skills with a focus on the

underarm throw. The three step process

of ready, aim and fire making use of the

underarm throwing technique of pulling

the arm back holding the ball followed by

a forward movement and realising the

ball.

Physical Education By Spencer Clifton


Stage 1 & 2:

We are starting Term 3 on a high note! We

are looking out for things in the sky. We

learned that the sun is a circle and it‟s

way up high in the sky. The children even

paired up to make big circles and finally,

made a BIG sun with all the children

holding hands. Through this song, children

also learned how to use their voice, i.e.

big deep voice for the BIG SUN, and baby

voice for the small sun.

We also had focused listening for sounds

of chirping birds. Children listened

specifically to the sound of the birds and

this is part of our lesson which trains

children to focus and pay attention to a

specific sounds.

Children also responded to sounds which

were high and low. They danced high

when the music was high-pitched and

danced low when the music was low-

pitched. Then they pretended to be

falling leaves and fell gently to the ground

to a song in the descending harmonic

minor key.

Stage 3 & 4:

Our Stage 3 & 4 children also explored

things they could see in the sky.

Their focused listening activity was the

chirping of a bird called a “Robin”. Then

we learned a song about Mr Robin and

this song had a special section where

children had to echo after the teacher.

They also pretended to be a kite and

learned that the wind keeps the kite in

the air. Then there is a lovely song about

the wind and once again they used the

scarves to enhance the whole

experience.

Justin then played “Twinkle, Twinkle” on

the recorder and explained that the

recorder is a “wind instrument” because

we create the “wind” by blowing into the

instrument.

The children also learned a special way of

singing a song... by humming. They could

still identify the song without the words.

They also discovered they could actually

hum any song they know!

Music By Justin Sze

simone’s message by simone cooke, principal · children were eager to test the wood we had at...

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