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REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1
Amy’s Message By Amy Goodlace, Principal
Dear Families
Our Grace and Courtesy Programme
At Reddam Early Learning Schools we are
constantly striving towards setting new standards
in education with a dedication to excellence
permeating every aspect of our school. We strive
towards fostering a love for learning, confidence
and a firm value system that equips our children
to embrace the opportunities of life.
Our Grace and Courtesy Programme is based on
our value system that is entrenched in all that we
do in the Early Learning School.
When taking prospective families around the
school we always spend some time speaking
about the Reddam philosophy but also our
Grace and Courtesy Programme, as we believe
that it is imperative that our families support what
we as a school community believe in.
Teaching our children the values that we believe
in, can be seen in all that we do. Sometimes this is
seen in a simple activity like lunch time when the
children set the tables with placemats they have
made, decorate the tables with flowers from the
garden, help serve each other and are
encouraged to engage in conversations.
Educators sit with the children at their level
enjoying their lunch to foster a sense of
community and mindfulness in all our
engagements with the children is at the forefront
of all conversations.
In Stage 4 our Nugget System reinforces our
values. Each child has a small container in their
class and receives golden nuggets when a
teacher wants to acknowledge positive
behaviour, for example showing kindness to a
friend.
When ten golden nuggets are received the child
is able to choose a treasure from our treasure jars.
These can be pebbles, shells or any object from
nature that is beautiful as children see everything
as beautiful and wondrous.
When speaking about values, it is imperative that
we communicate these to the children in a
manner that is easily understood. We speak of -
Respect
Kind Hearts
Good Manners
Listening Ears
Gentle Hands
Walking Feet
Quiet Voices
We encourage our families to adopt the same
“language” at home as this will become the basis
of developing the values that we as a school
community believe in.
Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend!
Kind regards
Amy
12 AUGUST 2016
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 2
The Nest “Off we go….” By Tatiana Botrel, Ma Yanran and Jane Teh
What comes up, must come down…
In the last few weeks, the children have been
exploring different vehicles going down the
hill (a little wooden board we positioned on a
slope).
The children are very curious in
understanding how gravity works, and this
week we encouraged to play with balls,
throwing them up in the air and then
watching them fall back down. We also used
the bubbles to illustrate how they go all the
way up and softly fall down.
On the art table, the children were invited to
dip little car toys into different coloured
paints and then let them roll down the hill.
The result was that the children
collaboratively created a very impressive
piece of artwork. Most of the children were
persevering to get the cars down the track,
but a few of them were determined to push
their cars up the hill, which would take more
effort.
Outcome 4: Children are confident and
involved learners - Children develop a range
of skills and processes such as problem-
so lv ing, inqui ry , exper imentat ion,
hypothesising, researching and investigating.
EYLF, 2009.
“Sharing is Caring”
The children in The Nest are growing older
each day they are also facing new
challenges within their development. They
are continually working on sharing toys, play
spaces and learning to share the attention
from the adults. We as educators are
encouraging the children to participate in
activities where they might face difficulties to
teach them how to deal with conflict
situations.
For example, on the art table, we have been
setting up for only four children to participate
at the time and therefore they need to wait
for their turn. In a different scenario, the
children have been encouraged to take
turns with the wooden trucks – as we only
have two - and whenever a child is holding
them both, they are asked to share them
with their peers, “one for you and one for
your friend.”
We can already see some of the children
spontaneously taking toys to their friends as
they see them arriving at school, and we can
also see the difference in the way the
children are trying to solve problems, with a
bit less frustrations than usual.
Outcome 2: Children are connected with
and contribute to their world Children
develop a sense of belonging to groups and
communities and an understanding of the
reciprocal rights and responsibilities
necessary or active community participation.
EYLF, 2009.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 5
Fledglings “I can brush my teeth”
In the Fledglings classroom we started the
week with a short discussion on the
importance of brushing our teeth. Just like
last week when we learned about germs on
our hands, face and bodies, it is similar to
these germs but the ones on our teeth are
called plaque or decay and we wash our
teeth to help keep our teeth healthy. We
talked about a dentist being the same as a
doctor but a dentist just cares for our teeth
and ensures that your teeth are healthy. We
need to visit our dentist regularly. It is great to
see that so many of the Fledglings already
knew about brushing their teeth and were so
enthusiastic to learn more. We listened to
some songs, which later helped us with the
process of brushing our teeth and we had a
poster displayed in the bathroom to also
remind us. We were very lucky that the
grandad‟s of two of our friends, Alice and
Poppy, are dentists. Alice‟s grandad
provided all her friends in school with a
goody bag, which included the things we
need to keep our teeth healthy. Poppy‟s
grandad also provided Poppy‟s friends with a
tube of toothpaste each. The girls were very
proud to hand their goodies out to their
friends on Thursday morning.
Continuing on from brushing our teeth and
talking about why it is so important to keep
our teeth clean and healthy, we used some
old toothbrushes to do some painting. The
children dipped a paintbrush in paint and
made beautiful designs on their page, some
children dabbing the paintbrush while others
stroked their paintbrush across the page.
Allira pretended to use the painted
toothbrush to brush her teeth acting out the
technique that she had earlier used.
We used a large scale model set of teeth,
which you may have seen as you signed your
child in and out of school, this helped us to re
-visit the method of brushing our teeth. The
Fledglings had so much fun doing this and
were very proud to show off their techniques
– practical life is also an important part of
education – this activity was Montessori
inspired as it encourages independence and
care of self.
Learning Outcome 4: Children are confident
and involved learners
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 9
Stage 2 “Where in the World? Off we go!”
During the past week the Tree Frogs have
been discussing their holiday destinations
using the world globe. The question “where
have you been and how did you get there?”
was posed to the children. The discussion
brought up the different modes of transport
used to get from one place to another.
Ottavia - On a plane to Romania, Demitra - I
went fishing on a boat, Mia - On a bus, Henry-
Go on an airplane to Fiji, Rafferty – I went to
England on two planes!, Benji – In the car and
then airplane, Elle - I went travelling in the
car, Ari – I got the bus to Nanna and Pops in
Melbourne, Hugo – Disney on ice on a train! –
I went to France, Amy – Canberra on an
airplane, Lucius – On a bus to Australia, Luke –
(pointed to the compass on the world
globe), Blake – Go on the bus and
train, Isabelle – Humpty farm by car, Mila – I
went to sea world in my car, Alexis-
Disneyland on an airplane, Charlie – train to
the country, Felix – on a big train got the sushi
off the sushi train, Sophia – I fly on the plane to
New Zealand, Vivienne – Adelaide on a
plane, Annalisa – to London by plane.
This was the inspiration for our 3D art project,
which focuses on train, planes, cars and
boats – by using paper towel rolls, paint,
paper and paddle pop sticks. How will you
get to your next holiday destination?
The Kookaburra’s
For our provocation work, we talked about
passports this past week and how we needed
one to go on a holiday if it was not in
Australia. We looked at the Australian
emblem where the children identified the
kangaroo and the emu. We talked about
how we have a photo in the passport and
that we were not allowed to smile for the
photo. Everyone showed their passport “no
smile” and we took a photo so that we can
make our own passports for our next wall
display.
The journey into the world of travel has lead
us to not only talk about the places we might
go to but also what can we do there. This is
aimed at extending the children‟s language
skills. Some of the places and things that the
children are going to see are-
Noah-New york city to see all the animals at
the zoo, Zachary -Fiji to see the whales and
the sharks, Kate- the zoo in Sydney, Hattie-
America to see the Dolphins, Vincent- China
to see the cars, Amelia- Brisbane to go
swimming
Zachary – to the Eiffel Tower, Zali- to see Elsa
from Frozen, Alexander- to the Eiffel Tower.
We finished our runway and using the paper
aeroplane we landed our aeroplanes in far
away places. A suitcase was also packed to
go on a holiday- I wonder where we are
going? There was a hat, swim suit and a
beach wrap. Could you guess what you
would be doing if it was your suitcase?
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 12
Stage 3 The Sounds of Music By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan
Over the past two weeks the Stage Three
children have walked into a beautiful set up
on the table in the atelier. There were six
glasses, all of which had different volumes
of water inside and varied in colours. There
were also two mallets next to this. The
teacher then asked the children what they
thought would occur at this table, to which
they responded
Sara: “To play”
Avi: “To make noise”
Darcey: “Not noise, music!”
The children sat at the table (two at a time)
to “play” the glasses however they wanted.
The children were asked to turn on their
listening ears and really listen to the types of
sounds the glasses were making. They
listened for high and low sounds, kept beats
and made up their own rhythms. After they
finished playing, the children got the
opportunity to speak about what they
heard.
Krew: “I liked all the sounds. The low note is
red and the high note is black. The middle
note is yellow and it’s my favourite.”
Scarlett: “I liked that it made sounds. I liked
the sound of blue and black together. I
used the mallet to hit the blue and black in
between.”
Harry Z: “I liked all the colours because I
learned about so much sounds and
instruments. The glasses made a instrument
which is cool.”
The children were then offered pencils and
paper to draw the glasses and what they
had heard.
On Tuesday, the children got a musical visit
from Katherine, Sarah‟s mum who played
the piano. The children have been listening
and singing to the song „Do Re Mi‟ from The
Sound of Music and this was one of the first
songs Katherine played. They also sang
along to „This Old Man‟ and „Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star.‟ She also played, Fur Elise, which
is a classical piece written by Beethoven
The children closed their eyes and swayed
to the sounds of the soft piano. Thank you
so much Katherine for coming in and
sharing your musical talents. The children
enjoyed it immensely. All of the children
enjoy when their parents are involved in
their school life, so if you would like to come
in and share anything associated to music
or perform, please contact your child‟s
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 13
Stage 3 The Sounds of Music By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan
On Wednesday and Friday the children had
another special musical performance by
Tim, one of the Stage Four teachers. They
travelled down to the Stage Four classroom
to see what Tim had brought in. A tank
drum, which is one of a kind! Only one
person in America makes them and they
make them from recycled gas cylinders.
The tank drum has some little holes and cuts
in it to make the different notes. One side of
the drum creates high sounds and the other
side of the drum creates low sounds. Tim
played this instrument fast and slow and soft
and loud for the Stage Three and Four
children. When the children came back to
Stage Three they each had a turn playing it,
what beautiful sounds it makes! Thank you
Tim for sharing this unique instrument with
everyone.
Book week is fast approaching and the
theme for 2016 is „Australia! Story Country.‟
The children read Aboriginal dreamtime
stories called Dunbi the Owl and Father Sky
and Mother Earth. They showcased how the
Aboriginal people tell stories and make their
pictures using dots, symbols, lines and swirls.
To link this theme to the provocation of
Sounds of Music, the children investigated
an Aboriginal instrument, called the
didgeridoo. They listened to the music it
made, got to hold it and learnt that only
males can play it. After they made some
comments…
Eve: They have shapes on it, triangles,
squares and ovals.
Alexis: It‟s got patterns on it.
Rachel: it has little holes and big holes.
Jed: The didgeridoo are very strong and
loud and big.
Then they began the process of creating a
class didgeridoo, which will be an ongoing
collaborative project done by all the Stage
Three classes.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 16
Stage 4 What’s on your doorstep? ByAnita Martin, Cheryl Freeman, Kristina Rocchi, Jane Pledger,Sandra Carberry and Tim Nichols
The children‟s enthusiasm and interest in
minibeasts has become very apparent and
their desire to learn about this topic is
immense. Following the huge excitement with
the wasps nest the children began to learn
about the different bug groups – insects,
arachnids, centipedes & millipedes,
woodlice, worms, and slugs and snails.
There were so many questions and the
classroom was a hive of activity and
conversation about the insects and the
arachnids. So we then did a comparison of
both to answer many of the questions the
children had. They discovered that insects
have six legs and three body parts (head,
thorax and abdomen) and arachnids have
eight legs and two body parts (head and
cephalothorax).
The children put on their thinking caps and
came up with a list of insects with wings and
insects that crawled. They then made a list of
arachnids.
Winged insects – Butterfly, Ladybug, Wasp,
Bee, Fly, Dragonfly, Beetle, Firefly
Six legged crawling insects – Beetle, Praying
Mantis, Grasshopper, Ladybug, Bee, Wasp,
Fly, Firefly
Eight legged Arachnids – Redback Spider,
Wolf Spider, Funnel Web, Garden Spider,
Huntsman Spider, Cave Spider, Daddy Long
Legs, and Peacock Spider.
This was followed by a documentary to learn
more about the arachnid that the children
were most interested in – The Wolf Spider.
In keeping with this interest the children have
been busy researching facts at home about
their favourite minibeasts and bringing this
information to school to share with their
friends.
At the bush the children have been searching
for bugs and have found many interesting
things. One particular interest has been in the
cocooned creatures that are stuck to large
climbing rock. These cocooned creatures
have surrounded themselves with a
beautifully woven round web to protect
them. We think they may belong to the lichen
moth as we have found many hairy
caterpillars nearby. We will investigate
further…
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 20
Music By Justin Goh
Hello everyone!
All the children continued to explore
about the things they see in the sky and
the whale which is deep in the ocean.
They listened to a bird whistle from
Malaysia and a clever boy (Luke) asked,
“Is that the sound the bird makes in your
country?” Yes! Birds from different
countries make very different sounds! We
then listened to the “laughing” sounds of
the Kookaburra from Australia (using the
Kookaburra whistle) and even had a
special visit from an Owl. The Owl song
was sung in a Minor Key and children
joined in to “who? Who? Who?” (Hoot,
hoot, hoot) These interesting sounds of
different birds were the shared
experiences at all 4 levels. The following
activities were differentiated according
to their levels:
Stage 1 & 2:
Our little children played with the bells
and pretended to be raindrops. They
then used to scarves to create their
rainbow in the sky. We explored swishing
the scarves over their heads, throwing
them in the air, swishing from side to side,
waving it up and down etc.
The children then did an amazing thing.
They made a choice of whether they
wanted the bells, shakers, or sticks.
Toddlers are not given much opportunity
to make choices. This was one of the
times they chose! Using their choice
instrument, they danced around to “This
little light of mine”.
The little ones settled down to another
relaxing oriental piece of music entitled,
“Moon Dance”.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 21
Music By Justin Goh
Stage 3:
Stage 3 children spotted a rainbow and
held up the respective colours as they
sang the song about the rainbow. They
then looked again at the whale which
lives deep in the ocean. Every child took
turns to use the Whispering Tube to
create the sound of the whale. This time,
most of the children wanted to have a try
all by themselves without Justin‟s
assistance. Some were really loud whales
indeed!
Our children made a “Ring Around a
Rocket Ship”. They stretched up high and
all “fell down”. Then all stayed on the
ground to sing Twinkle, Twinkle. It was a
peaceful ending to an exciting
exploration of things in the sky and down
in the ocean.
Stage 4:
Children at Stage 4 played a game
where they made a circle and held up
their hands to create “windows”
between each person. One child is
chosen to be the bird and he/she flies
through the windows and chooses a
friend to jump around in the centre of the
circle. The friend who was chosen
becomes the next “bird”.
Stage 4 children also recalled the I,I,I,Z
rhythm and tried playing this rhythm on
the egg shakers. They sang Kookaburra
while the played the ostinato pattern of
I,I,I,Z . It was impressive how they could
do 2 things at the same time; to sing and
to play the ostinato.
They then did something even more
amazing! We creatively made up a song
with contributions and ideas of which
kinds of food Mr Aitken Drum was made
of. They sang this to an ostinato of “In the
moon”.
*An ostinato is a musical pattern which is
repeated throughout a song without
changing.
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 22
Dancearama By Laura Hudson
Stage 3
Children will explore emotions through
mime to show the audience what they are
feeling. The children will also use their
imaginations to portray the seasons through
drama by teacher led activities including
TIR (teacher in Role)
Skills learnt this week:
Portraying emotions
Used facial expressions and their body to
create different shapes to convey different
seasons
Listen and observe the teacher
Memory recall
Mime
Using their imagination
Activities include:
Discussed the seasons
Picture postcard
The parachute was used to grow like a tree
(the children holding on and lifting it up
together) then when it came down the
children imagined the leaves were falling.
The children then took it in turns to stamp on
the leaves
Picture postcard (Winter/Summer)
The ribbons acted as kites, using the music
(let‟s go and fly a kite from Mary Poppins)
the children created shapes and worked
with the teacher to do some improvisation
Using their imagination to pretend the
wand is another object (e.g. guitar, paddle
etc. etc.)
Stage 4 Objectives:
Students will do the class from last week as
the teacher was sick
Students will create a piece of drama using
3 props and a soundscape as their stimulus.
Each child will have a role in the story. They
will discuss the status of their character as
well as use mime and improvisation
Skills learnt this week:
Creating a soundscape
Mime
Spatial awareness
Listen and responding to direction
Understand the term status
Improvisation
Activities include:
Creating a soundscape of the woods
Using their body to show 3 poses
Working together to create a 3-part story
based on 3 props
Miming the story out they made up
Act the story out using words
Discuss the difference between the 2
performances
Discuss what improvisation is
Discuss what Status is and list the status of
each character in the story
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 23
Physical Education By Spencer Clifton
The Stage 1's 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 continued in a similar
fashion to last week and involved a fun game
called Simon Says, basketball rolling and the
bucket catch with balloons. In Simon Says the
children mirrored movement and poses that
are 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 and out last activity for the
lesson made use of balloons in which the
children were encouraged to throw into the
air and try catch, with the aim of the exercise
to encourage and promote the "bucket
catch".
The Stage 2's enjoyed a week of sport where
we continued to explore the upper limb ball
skills. We started the lesson off with our animal
movements that consisted of kangaroo jump,
lion crawl, crab walk, elephant stomp and
flying bird.
Our next exercise featured last weeks fun
game Simon says, followed by an exploration
into balance and finishing off with catching.
In Simon Says the children mirrored
movement and poses that were aimed at
strengthening co-ordination and core
muscles. Our next game made use of bean
bags in which the children used to
demonstrate and improve their balancing
ability, the children performed different poses
whilst trying to keep the bean bag in place
e.g.: we would place the bean bag on our
head and rotate around in a circular motion
trying to keep the bean bag steady without it
falling off. The last activity for the lesson made
use of balloons in which the children were
encouraged to throw into the air and try
catch, with the aim of the exercise to
encourage and promote the "bucket catch".
The Stage 3's and Stage 4's enjoyed a great
week of sport. We started the lesson off with
some warm up sprints, followed by our
animals exercises incorporating some animal
movements, namely the crab walk, horse
gallop, flying bird and elephant stomp,
kangaroo jumps, frog hops and lion crawl.
We continued with our upper limb skills with a
another obstacle course. The course
incorporated a few familiar targets and some
new more advanced challenges. The course
consisted of either low laying or high standing
targets in which that children had aim and try
hit. The variability of the target heights
encouraged the children to make use of the
different throwing techniques.