volume 1 issue 14 friday the 24th of may 2013 · reddam house early learning school newsletter...

Reddam House Early Learning School Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 14 Friday the 24th of May 2013

IN THIS ISSUE : Virginia’s Message Dates for your Diary Library News News From the Rooms Edible Magic Dancearama Mighty Mites

Volume 1 Issue 14 Friday the 24th of May 2013

Dear Parents Our school motto at Reddam is “We shall give back”. We want to educate our children to become conscious citizens and to raise awareness of causes that educate and inspire us. It is Cystic Fibrosis awareness week at the Early Learning School next week so………. On Monday 27th May and Friday 31st May the ELS will hold Red Mufti Crazy Hair Days! 65 Roses Day and Crazy Hair Day are the main fundraising events held annually for CFNSW, during May and June. The idea is to combine them so the children are asked to wear RED and/or Crazy Hair and to bring a gold coin donation to school.

On Monday 27th May and Friday 31st May we ask that the children come to school wearing red and/or crazy hair. An-ything goes on Crazy Hair Day: teased, coloured, gelled or twisted, wigs and scarves, ribbons, punk or just plain messy! We teachers will also be joining in the fun!! For those children that do not come to school on the day wear-ing red or with crazy hair we thought it might be fun to have some colourful pipe cleaners, ribbons or streamers, wigs from the ELS dress up box, clips etc. available so that they could have their hair done at school. So parents start getting your creative juices flowing this weekend and discuss some ideas with your children as to how they want to CRAZY up their look on Monday and Friday.

It will be loads of FUN… Don’t forget a gold coin too as all the money will go towards the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Many thanks for your support! Keeping Our Community Healthy and Well Keeping our ELS community well throughout the year and in particular the winter months requires a conscious effort on the part of children, staff and families. As part of our Grace and Courtesy programme., the children are focusing on hand washing and cough etiquette. On pages 16 and 17 on the newsletter we have detailed hand washing and cough etiquette practices. Have a wonderful weekend with your children.

Virginia Aghan Head of Early Learning


Monday 10th June School closed – Queens Birthday Friday 21st June Term 2 ends Monday 24th June Vacation Care commences Friday 12th July Vacation Care ends Monday 15th July School Closed - All staff Seminar Tuesday 16th July Term 3 Students K-12/ELS Commences

Page 1 Virginia’s Message Page 2 Dates for your Diary/Pound Cats Page 3 Exploring Light Page 4 Stage 1 Page 5 Stage 1: Photo Gallery Page 6 Stage 2a Page 7 Stage 2b Page 8 Stage 2b: Photo Gallery Page 9 Stage 3 Page 10 Stage 3: Photo Gallery Page 11 Stage 4 Page 12 Stage 4: Photo Gallery/Sport: Photo Gallery Page 13 Dancearama Page 14 Mighty Mites Page 15 Edible Magic Page 16: Hand washing Etiquette Page 17: Cough Etiquette

Contents

Caring for our Four Legged Friends

Dates for your Diary

These cats are all urgently looking for a family to love and cherish, call 9839 6161 (please quote our ID number).

Located at the Blacktown Animal Holding Facility. http://services.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/petsonline/AnimalsforSale.aspx

‘ID: #1302253’ ‘ID: #1302346’ ‘ID: #1302638’ ‘ID: #1302672’

‘ID: #1302736’ ‘ID: #1302775’ ‘ID: #1302818’ ‘ID: #1302817

http://services.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/petsonline/AnimalsforSale.aspx


Stage 4: Exploring Light


Wellbeing incorporates both physical and psychological aspects and is central to belonging, being and becoming. Without a strong sense of wellbeing, it is difficult to have a sense of belonging, to trust others and feel confident in being, and to optimistically engage in experiences that contribute to becoming. Wellbeing includes good physical health, feelings of happiness, satisfaction and successful social functioning. It influences the way children interact in their environments. A strong sense of wellbeing provides children with confidence and optimism, which maximize their learning potential. It encourages the development of children’s innate exploratory drive, a sense of agency and a desire to interact with responsive others. Wellbeing is correlated with resilience, providing children with the capacity to cope with day-to-day stress and challenges. The readiness to persevere when faced with unfamiliar and challenging learning situations creates the opportunity for success and achievement.

Children's’ wellbeing can be affected by all their experiences within and outside of their early childhood settings. To support children’s learning, it is essential that educators attend to children’s wellbeing by providing warm, trusting relationships, predictable and safe environments, affirmation and respect for all aspects of their physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, creative and spiritual being. By acknowledging each child’s cultural and social identity, and responding sensitively to their emotional states, educators build children’s confidence, sense of wellbeing and willingness to engage in learning.

Children’s developing resilience and their ability to take increasing responsibility for self-help and basic health routines promote a sense of independence and confidence. As they experience being cared for by educators and others, they become aware of the importance of living and learning interdependently with others.

BELONGING, BEING & BECOMING, The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, 2009.

Siobhan Brantes’ Story Siobhan shared her story with us this week: “I told Saskia there was a baby in my big tummy and with that, she looked at me, smiled and tried to lift up my top saying “bubba”, looking for the baby. It was so cute. Now every time she sees my tummy she points, says "bubba" and smiles.” Welcome We would like to welcome Christian Smith and Amelie Threlfall to the Thursday/ Friday group. Christian and Amelie both have siblings in Stage 3. Book of the Week Over the past few weeks the children have grown to love the book Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek. The whole class will come to a standstill and listen to each word. A must have in your collection http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143501763/where-green-sheep Song of the Week If You’re Are Happy And You Know It http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/happy.html (Leave out the last verse). Stage 1 Team, Petra Wright, Siobhan Brantes, Emma Vanos and Monika Ranjitkar

Stage 1: Children Have a Strong Sense of Wellbeing

http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/happy.html


Stage 1: Photo Gallery


As a follow on from the circle games that we have been playing last week, we have introduced a variety of musical instruments. We began talking about what each instrument is called and how the instrument can be played. The children thoroughly enjoyed having turns at playing the instruments and naming which instrument they liked best. We have banged on a selection of different drums to make a beat, shook some maracas and egg shakers, played the xylophone to make a tune and tapped with some tapping sticks. We will be introducing the children to other instruments over the next few weeks. While playing the instruments we have also been learning some new songs to accompany our music making sessions.

Song of the Week I am a fine musician, I practice every day and people come from miles around, just to hear me play. My (name of instrument e.g. drum), my drum, they love to hear my drum. Ta-tada-ta-ta, ta-tada-ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-a-a (Continue, replacing the word “drum” with other instruments).

Encouraging Self Help We have been discussing with the children the importance of using our self help skills while involved in a variety of daily tasks. The children have enthusiastically embraced “doing things themselves” such as: helping to put out the lunch boxes, putting on their own shoes, helping wipe any spills after themselves, scrapping their plates and putting all rubbish in the bin. These activities help promote and encourage inde-pendence as well as the ability to practice their skills with tasks that can assist them in daily life. “Children have a strong sense of identity (Outcome 1). Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency when supported to practice their self-help skills (EYLF, 2009).” This can also be encouraged in the home environment by allowing the children to attempt doing a selection of simple daily tasks themselves and assisting when necessary to maintain continuity with what we are working on at school. Friendly Tip Please consider the “treats” that you are giving to your child for lunch. Many children seem to want to eat the treats (packaged savoury biscuits, tiny teddies, fruit bars, etc) and not the main part of their lunch. Ask yourself the question, “Do they actually need to have these treats or would they eat more of their sandwich-es and other foods if they didn’t have the treats?” Reminder we are still finding that most children do not have any spare clothing in their bags. Children can have numerous incidents throughout the day when a change of clothes is needed, even water spills or getting their sleeves wet while hand washing (especially now that we are wearing long sleeves and practicing to pull them up). We do not have many spare clothes available and the children get upset at having to wear clothes that are not theirs. Please ensure there is at least one change of clothes in your child’s bag that includes underpants, long pants or skirt, socks and tops. Stage 2a Team, Daniella Gosty, Polina Rodov and Christina Mandalidis

Stage 2a: Let’s Make Music


Stage 2b: Elephants Galore!!

Wow! What a busy week it has been exploring Africa and going on a safari. This week saw the figurine animals and a timber structure that resembled a tree house come into the room. We had lions, zebras, crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, cheetahs and leopards (just to name a few). These are being used in many different role-playing ways. The children began mimicking animals noises, as well as matching the mummy animals to the baby animals and creating families. The animals also created a great group time experience called “What’s in the bag?” A bunch of animals were placed in a red drawstring bag and then, when everyone was sitting, the children sang: What’s in the bag? (Clap, clap) What’s in the bag? (Clap, clap) What’s in the bag? What’s in the bag? What’s in the bag? (Clap, Clap) (To the tune of Addams Family chorus)

One of the children then gets to put their hand inside the bag (without looking) and has to guess what animal is inside, then pull the animal out and show the group. A mini discussion about the animal follows, answering questions like, what sound does that animal make? What colour is it? How many legs does it have? Does it eat meat or trees?

One of our new table top activities has been a safari animal matching game. The children choose which animal they want to find by selecting a picture of said animal which is on a tile. The children then sort the cards, looking at the animals from a front view and the back view, as well as their different body parts (head and hindquarters) and the different patterns, to match the animal correctly. This encourages the children to recognise and explore the animals from all sides and challenges them to recognise patterns and use their memory, as well as being patient, as they have to wait their turn. Matching games challenge and improve thinking, logic, visual skills, mathematical skills and responsiveness.

The zebra has been our main focus this week. The children observed that the zebra had black and white stripes all over it’s body. We created our own stripy zebra patterns by using our fine motor skills to glue black stripes onto white paper.

Virginia also brought us in some very special footage she had of a zebra (from when she was in South Africa last year). The children enjoyed watching the zebra stroll around eating grass and then stop and watch a bunch of horses galloping by. A big happy birthday to Eleanor Di Pilla who turned two on Friday. Have a lovely weekend! Stage 2b Team,


Stage 2b: Photo Gallery


The children’s recent interest in nature and the seasonal changes has inspired them to get imaginative in the playground. They started out by collecting leaves and twigs and gathering them into a pile to make a campfire. Using the playground equipment as their tents, they pretended to camp together, sharing conversations and staying warm by the ‘fire’. To encourage this interest, a camp setting was created in the Stage 3 classroom. A tent was added in with cushions and sleeping bags for the children. They have also been learning how to be respectful with the tent as it is very precious. Lots of Australian animals have been introduced to the children to set the scene of being in the Australian bush. The children have been picnicking on the grass by the wooden log, sharing cake and tea with their friends whilst talking about the animals they can see such as possums, wombats, galahs, kangaroos, etc. The book Wombat Stew which hones in on a variety of Australian animals has been a favourite this week. The story revolves around a dingo that catches a wombat and decides to make a stew with it. As the story progresses many other Australian animals come along and tell the dingo to add lots of unusual ingredients to his stew including mud, feathers, flies, etc. At the end the dingo is ready to add the wombat but the other animals tell him to taste the mixture first. When he does he yells “I’m poisoned, you tricked me!” to the other animals and he runs away and the wombat is saved! The children have been enjoying this book so much that they wanted to reenact the story. As the children sit in a circle, they take turns pretending to be the various characters in the book. They have been enjoying this experience, so much so that some of the children have been taking on the Director’s role during self-selected play times and reenacting the story with their friends. Props have been provided to help to encourage the children to engage in the process of acting out the story. Telling children a familiar story or using a repetitive phrase within a story helps them feel comfortable and confident as it provides predictability and familiarity. Children anticipate the pattern and join in saying the refrain, sharing ownership in the story. For example, “Wombat Stew, wombat stew, crunchy munchy for my lunchy, wombat stew.” engages children and offers opportunities for them to recognize patterns in stories, recall repetitive phrases, and participate in the storytelling. Children acquire many other skills from acting out stories such as vocabulary and narrative understanding (the basis for comprehension). Engaging in these storytelling experiences also helps to enhance children’s dramatic and performance skills which in turn fosters self-confidence. The Stage 3 Team, Anita Martin, Jane Pledger and Melanie Elderton

Stage 3: Going Bush


Stage 3: Photo Gallery: Connecting with the Bush


Quality children’s literature is a powerful medium to teach children about the world in which they live and about themselves. It can spark children’s imagination, stimulate curiosity, promote brain development while running parallel to enhancing fundamental literacy skills as they become familiar with sounds, words and language. Last week, Stage 4 deconstructed a few of their favourite storybooks: Blossom Possum, Wombat Stew and Mr Gumpy.

In class groups, we held a microscope to the elements that create a story, breaking it down to the following fundamentals: characters, setting, problem and solution.

Characters: The people, animals or things that take part in the action. Setting: Where and when the story takes place. Problem: Something that causes trouble for the characters to overcome. Solution: How the problem is solved.

After breaking this down, the children were able to recognise these in the storybooks, for instance, in Wombat Stew:

Clara reviewing the characters: “They are the animals. They are the characters like Lighting McQueen in Cars [movie].” Mariana discussing the setting: “It’s in Australia, in the outback.” Naomi outlining the problem: “Dingo wants to cook Wombat and eat him.” Jacob noting the solution: “The animals tricked him by putting yucky spices in the stew. He ran away.”

Breaking down these story building blocks inspired the children to construct them back up again. In each group the children set about task of recreating their chosen story in a new setting with different problems.

Kandinsky: Wombat Stew Dingo, Koala, Echidna and Platypus are waiting at a space station to go to Mars. It is spooky because there are space monsters. A space monster chases and traps the characters. Echidna comes up with a plan to put mud on the ladder causing the space monster to slip, getting mud in his eyes and mouth. He splashes into the river where space sharks eat him, allowing the characters to get away.

Picasso: Wombat Stew The characters find themselves deserted on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean where they have made a house from mud and tree trunks. Wombat is good at climbing trees and is helped by Echidna to cut them down to make a boat to escape. Koala climbs up a tree to look for a good place to set sail and Emu guides everyone to the location. Once aboard, Platypus swims in front, steering them away from rocks. A helicopter sent by friends and family who noticed they were missing finally rescues the group.

Monet: Wombat Stew This story takes place in a Taronga Zoo. Lizard goes to have dinner with Dingo and discovers he is missing. Emu uses his long neck to look around, discovering Platypus has kidnapped Dingo. Koala uses his words to say “Stop” firmly, to rescue Dingo. They all get in an aeroplane and tour the world visiting different zoo in Africa, Canada, China and France.

Da Vinci: Blossom Possum Blossom Possum and By-Jingo Dingo go shopping at Abacus Platypus Toy Shop. They are looking for a 68th birthday present for Toey Joey when they discover a door that takes them through to a secret garden. They get lost in the garden and don’t know the way back. Didgeridoo Kangaroo pops up to help them. Rocky Cocky offers them all a ride as Didgeridoo Kangaroo navigates using his map to locate the toy shop.

It was brilliantly intriguing to watch the brainstorm of ideas flow about the room. Next week we will be creating group books making use of the above storylines! Stage 4 Team, Kelly Nance, Cheryl Freeman, Debbie Zerbst and Deanne Jacobs

Stage 4: The Art of Creating Stories


Stage 4: Photo Gallery

Stage 4: Photo Gallery: Sport with Tom


Stage 2 Dinosaurs The children were fascinated when I came dressed as a paleontologist with a number of bones. I

explained what a paleontologist does and they were all eager to ask more questions about dinosaurs. Listened to a variety of dinosaur sounds. Danced to dinosaur songs using scarves, ribbons and the cones as big eyes. Sang the ‘Mean Old Dinosaur’ song using actions.

I’m a mean old dinosaur, I’m a mean old dinosaur (make a mean face), Big and tall (gesture hands big and tall), Here’s my tail, here’s my claw (gesture hands behind back and make claw hands), When I get all hungry (rub your tummy), I just growl! Look out kids I’m on the prowl (tickle the kids on their tummy, it makes them laugh). (sung to the tune of ‘I’m a Little Teapot’)

Stage 3 and 4 Outer Space and Astronaut Training The children began by training as astronauts to go into space by learning the basics, including:

walking as an astronaut, controlling the rocket and watching a clip of a rocket ship launch. This led them to ask many questions.

Each child was given their own launch pad, where they had to put on their space suits, get the rocket ship ready to launch and remember which was theirs (as we played a memory game with these later in the session).

Once we had blasted off into space we visited a number of planets, each of the planets had an action associated with it, that the children made up, e.g. Mercury is hot so they decided to jump as fast as they could from one foot to the other and Earth has lots of water so they decide to do a swimming action. The flight director informed the children that news had just come in that there is a new planet in space. We visited this planet and renamed it. Some suggestions including the Wiggle planet, Gangham Style planet and Princess Planet. Again the children had to think of an action to go with this planet.

Finished with the parachute, keeping the moon rocks (balls) on the parachute for as long as possible.

For more information about Dancearama, contact Laura: 0431136177/[email protected]


Dear Parents, This week in Mighty Mites The Stage 2’s:

Went on a warm-up adventure Under the Sea! Spoke about the importance of walking their pets regularly. Developed their balancing skills and fine motor coordination through

a game of Egg and Spoon races. The Stage 3’s:

Went on a warm-up adventure Under the Sea! Spoke about soccer, another fun sport Mighty Mite loves to play that keeps him fit and healthy. Continued building their own SkelyMite Skeleton! The bones they learnt about today were the

phalanges (feet and hands). This week in Mighty Mites Stage 3 thoroughly enjoyed our motor skill game of the day, Egg and

Spoon races! Not only did we have a good laugh but we also focused on improving our balance, concentration and focus as we manoeuvred around the cones all the way to the finish line!

For more information visit www.mightymites.com.au or call us on (02) 9460 1100

http://www.mightymites.com.au/


The children and I have asked the question; “Which came first? The seed or the fruit/vegetable?” Like the proverbial egg and chicken, we will continue the conversation over the coming weeks. Our recipe this week is an ironic nod to this very topic.

Through experimentation with several versions of a handmade urban indoor garden, we are seeing the real practice of growing what you eat. Through preparing and exploring our winter garden bed outside, we are also acknowledging the 'other' necessary ingredients needed in order to create our food: sun, water, a place to call home (in this case, soil!) and TLC. Not dissimilar to what we all need in order to flourish.

This week we are connecting the dots and bringing the garden back into our kitchen. We cooked a savoury spinach herb frittata that is sure to become a favourite in many little cook's kitchens.

Happy cooking! Corby-Sue & Co. EDIBLE MAGIC GARDEN FRITTATA Preparation Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 10-12 minutes Servings: 12 mini cups Skill Level: Easy INGREDIENTS: 6 free range eggs or equivalent Orgran No-Egg replacer 120 grams of ricotta or Tofutti 100 grams of baby spinach 2 tablespoon of plain flour or gf flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 2 tablespoon of fresh marjoram, chopped 2 tablespoon of fresh dill, chopped Salt and pepper to taste 12 foil cases in cupcake tray METHOD: 1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line a 12 piece cupcake tray with cases. 2. Whisk eggs by hand for several minutes until frothy. Beat in flour and baking powder until incorpo-rated. 3. Fold in ricotta, baby spinach, fresh herbs and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. 4. Carefully spoon in egg mixture into cupcake cases until ¾ full. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes or until a light golden brown. Jiggle tray to test if egg is cooked. Mixture will be slightly springy and not move when done. 5. Serve with garden salad. ENJOY!

Edible Magic

volume 1 issue 14 friday the 24th of may 2013 · reddam house early learning school newsletter...

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