amy’s message 03 february 2017 - reddam...

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1

Amy’s Message By Amy Goodlace, Principal

Dear Families and Caregivers

I would like to welcome all our returning and

new families to Reddam Early Learning

School for 2017. There has been a buzz in the

school as the children are settling into the

new routines and getting to know their new

educators and friends in their new classes.

The first few weeks are always a bit daunting

when starting a new year but with the

excellent and skilled staff that we have, I

hear a lot of giggling and delighted faces

when I walk around the school during the

day. Please read the daily Reflection

Journals, as this will give you a small insight

into your child‟s day and offer you

opportunities to have your child share what

they did while at school.

At our first staff meeting this week, we

discussed the provocations for the term and

the teachers are presently listening to

conversations and ascertaining the children‟s

interests to extend on. Motivational letters will

be sent to the families early next week.

Our accreditation that was scheduled for this

week has been postponed, but I know that it

is really about the daily practices that

happen anyway in our school and am

confident that the structures are in place to

ensure that whenever it happens, the school

will speak of the excellence that Reddam

stands for.

Alison Pollett, our Administrator, will be on

leave for two weeks and I would like to

welcome Paige Pinder that will be taking

over the reins in her absence.

I intend spending the last week at Reddam

treasuring the children and of course the

wonderful staff that I feel privileged to have

worked with over the past two years.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards

Amy

03 FEBRUARY 2017


The Nest Welcome to the Nest By Tatiana Botrel, Lois Ma

This week was a special moment in The

Nest classroom. It was time to get to

know our new children starting in 2017

and make them feel welcome and

familiar to our environment.

For most of the children this year, The Nest

is the mark of the beginning of their

school life.

It was clear that in the first few days, the

children were exploring all the corners of

our classroom, all the toys and all of The

Nest surroundings. Soon enough, the

children demonstrated confidence

exploring the same objects and places

on their own.

In this process, it is important that

children‟s personal time to adjust to

changes is respected. It was very

rewarding for us having such a smooth

first week with the children, watching

their smiles back at us during playtime.

Please take a moment to look at the

photos… They speak for themselves!

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense

of identity. Children feel safe, secure, and

supported. EYLF, 2009.


The Nest Photo Gallery


Fledglings “Belonging…” By Hannah McCooey, Olivia Binions and Jane Teh

We would like to extend a warm welcome to

each of our families in the Fledglings. It is so

great for us to get to know each other and

begin this journey, which for many of the

children is their first time in a school

environment.

Although there were some tears at drop off

over the first few days, the children have

settled in to the new classroom comfortably.

The children have been given the time and

opportunity to explore and investigate their

new environment, form relationships with their

teachers and peers while making themselves

familiar with the daily routine. We can

already see that we have some energetic

and bright personalities.

(Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong

sense of identity)

Happy New Year, we wish you a

prosperous year of the rooster!

This week we have been embracing cultural

diversity as we talked about Chinese New

Year. It is great for the children and the

teachers to explore and respect the unique

traditions that come with Chinese New Year.

We danced with the Dancing Lion and sang

the song „Chinese Dancing Lion‟. Jane

brought us in some Chinese lanterns and

some special red envelopes. These

envelopes represent luck and happiness. As

Chinese New Year occurs during Spring time

in China and Cherry Blossom is a popular

Spring time plant, we created our very own

cherry blossom tree at the Mini Atelier. The

children enjoyed scrunching up the pretty

coloured pieces of paper and sticking it with

glue to the branches.

When we were researching Chinese New

Year the children showed great excitement

when seeing the Chinese red and gold fans.

Using these colours and different materials

we created our own Chinese Fans. These will

be displayed next week in the Piazza outside

our classroom to continue the celebration.

(Learning Outcome 2: Children are

connected with and contribute to their

world).

As per our Grace and Courtesy Programme

and Reddam, we created our own

placemats at the Mini Atelier this week. This is

to promote a strong sense of identity, spatial

awareness and name/letter recognition.


Fledglings Photo gallery


Fledglings Photo Gallery


Stage 2 “Celebrations from around the World!”

We have had an amazing first few weeks in

the Stage 2 classroom with our friends

returning from holidays. Many were excited

to see each other and explore their new

class. We have also greeted our new friends

coming in to school for the first time and are

delighted to have them join our Reddam

family. We have had some tears and extra

cuddles in the mornings but this has very

quickly turned into a relaxed and happy day.

The Stage 2 team are very proud of our new

group and how much they are enjoying

themselves. We can see that this is going to

be a fun year of learning and discovering

together.

We have already started the year by

celebrating Australia Day. We did not waste

any time by getting busy creatively and the

result was our Bush Critters and Australian

Animal Creations from an assortment of

natural materials that is; pine cones, leaves,

bark and seedpods. We enjoyed the

Australian stories of “Wombat Stew” by

Marsha Vaughn and “We‟re Going on a Croc

Hunt” by Laine Mitchell. Our dress up day on

Friday 27th was lots of fun with Australian

music playing and an assortment of

costumes that included Dominic Murphy as a

cockatoo, Isla as a gumnut and Billie as a

crocodile. The teachers even dressed up.

Daniella and Karla were tree frogs, Monica

and Vanessa wore their Aussie t-shirts, Shauna

had an Aussie flag, and Min dressed for a day

in the bush with her Aussie hat.

Continuing with the celebrations, we are now

exploring Chinese New Year and creating our

own decorations to help celebrate this festive

event.

Friendly reminders- please read the daily diary

as this will give you a small insight into your

child‟s day and offer you opportunities to

have your child share what they did while at

school.

Please ensure that you put sunscreen on your

child in the mornings and consider sun smart

clothing, our sun smart policy includes

wearing hats. Please ensure your child has a

labeled hat each day. Please take your

child‟s hat home on the last day of their

attendance to be laundered.


Stage 2 Photo Gallery


Stage 3 “Introducing The Lamington Man!” By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan

Firstly, a big welcome to Stage Three! We

hope all the children have enjoyed their

first experiences.

Last week the children celebrated

Australia Day by dressing up, drawing

Australian flags and painting red, blue

and white flags. During this week the

children were introduced to the book

„The Lamington Man‟ by Kel Richards. The

book is a twist on the original fairy-tale

„The Gingerbread Man.‟ It is filled with

rhyming words, Australian animals and of

course the Lamington Man himself. This

book has fast become the favourite

amongst the Stage Three children and

teachers.

In connecting with the interest in this book

the atelier has been full of Lamington

Man activities. There has been chocolate

and coconut play dough where the

children have had the chance to create

their own Lamington Men with rollers,

cutters, googly eyes and shredded

coconut. This has enriched their senses as

they get to mould and feel the texture as

well as smell the beautiful aroma of

chocolate and coconut.

On Wednesday Tina‟s group got to

experience the taste of a lamington man.

The children took their first bite and

recorded on a graph which part of his

body they ate first. The children then took

a vote on who thought the lamington

man was yummy, the vote was

unanimous with all ten children agreeing

the lamington man was delicious! The

charts are displayed on the wall in the art

room if you would like to have a look.

Thank you for a fabulous start to the year

and the Stage Three team are thoroughly

excited to share 2017 with you all.

Reminders:

Please bring in a family photograph to be

displayed in your child‟s classroom

Please ensure your child comes to school

with their Reddam hat on ready to play

on the deck.

Ensure your child has an ice pack in their

lunch box each day

Stage Three children do not require water

bottles as there is water accessible to

them all throughout the day.


Stage 4 “Making new friends..” ByAnita Martin, Shauna Corry, Kristina Rocchi, Jane Pledger,Sandra Carberry and Tim Nichols

What an incredible beginning to our new

year in Stage 4. Most of our children have

seamlessly transitioned from Stage 3 and

we have also welcomed many new

children to our Reddam community. It has

been amazing to watch the children as

they have familiarised themselves with

their new environments and routines with

a great amount of independence and

ease. The teachers have been busy

helping the children to connect with one

another and teach them the

expectations of Stage 4.

The children are encouraged to be

aware and mindful of what they are

doing in the classrooms and our wider

Reddam environment. We place a strong

emphasis on our Reddam ELS value

system, which encourages kind hearts,

listening ears, walking feet, gentle hands,

good manners, and most importantly

respect – respect for each other, our

teachers, our equipment, our school, and

our greater community.

We welcome both our new and old

families and we look forward to getting to

know you all as your children embark on

their journey through Stage 4.


Music By Justin Goh

Hello everyone! Stage 1:

Our Stage 1 little ones listened to a

Calypso song where the words were

improvised to include Mummy and

Daddy as well as all their names. Then

they played with the bells up high and

down low. A couple of songs which were

carefully chosen with the words “high”

and “low” corresponding to the high and

low pitches. This way, children had a

“total physical response” in the sense that

in addition to the lyrics and pitch, they

also move their bells high and low

respectively.

We are also working on inculcating a

good singing voice from this early stage.

It is encouraging to see these little ones

already trying to join in by singing a few

words at the end of each phrase. Stay

tuned as we see these little ones grow

physically, emotionally, linguistically,

socially and cognitively. Stage 2:

Our Stage 2 children are discovering that

they have 5 fingers and they can control

them independently, or at least try to.

These fine motor skills are developed

through a funny rhyme we say together.

We also sang a Calypso song where their

names are substituted in the lyrics. Such

songs introduce the idea musicians call,

improvisation. They then explored the

bells and filled the room with happy

metallic sounds of ringing bells! They

stretched as high as they could when

they sang up and tapped the bells on

the ground when we sang low.

These little music students are also

developing a nice singing voice as they

learn the difference between “speaking,

shouting, whispering” and “singing”

voices. I am so pleased that many are

singing in pitch already. Listen to these


Music By Justin Goh

Stage 3:

Our children had fun drawing the big sun

in the sky as they sang a Jewish song,

“Kukoo-riku”. The scarves were used to

enhance their experience of the drawing

circles in the air. Then we creatively drew

circles with different parts of the body,

“Can you draw a circle with your nose?”

It was hilarious!

We also explored different movements by

changing the lyrics of a song and moving

accordingly. So we “walked, jumped,

skipped, stomped, crawled” and so forth.

This was especially helpful for any ESL

(English as Second Language) children

who heard the vocabulary, sang it and

did the actions in a fun song with their

friends in class.

The class ended with another creative

song where children gave suggestions of

actions to include in the song. This song

will be repeated over the next few weeks

so that their ideas can develop and they

also become more confident in

suggesting new actions.

Stage 4:

Stage 4 children focused on keeping the

beat. To do this, we used the rhythm sticks

and had lots of creative ways to play

them. We then listened to sounds around

us and discussed where these sounds

may be heard. Then we pretended we

were in a parade and “marched,

hopped, tip-toed” around the room. We

ended the Music lesson with a song that

has 2 distinct sections. In the first part of

the song, we walked around the room. In

the second section, everyone held hands

with a partner to dance around.

Musically, the first section was in simple

quadruple time and the second section

was in compound duple. Children of

course experienced the music at this

stage and don‟t worry about the musical

theory. Nonetheless, cognitively, they

were learning to understand sequence

and experiencing music in changing

meter. Research shows that such

activities also helps children in logical

thinking and mathematics


Dance and Drama By Laura Hudson

Stage 3 Objectives:

The children will work together to tell an

interactive story that will be the focus of

the lesson. Using mime, props and music

to guide them through the adventure

that will also employ a number of key

drama techniques.

Skills learnt this week:

Controlling the body

Interacting with one another

Experimenting with props

Learning key phrases including: Mime and

freeze

Activities include:

An interactive story using music and props

Keeper of keys

Reaction to key pictures in the story

(facial expressions)

Discuss Emotions

Create shapes with their body

Fly a Kite (using the ribbons)

Mime

Stage 4 Objectives:

Students will learn to seamlessly work

together, support each other, and allow

space so every member of the ensemble

has an opportunity to contribute. Students

will demonstrate the ability to use their

whole bodies to convey action and

interaction with objects.

Skills learnt this week:

Controlling the body

Experimenting with their voice

Working with a partner

Learning key phrases including:

Character, Ensemble and freeze

Activities include:

Drama games: Give and Take, Bucket

of water, Sound ball

Trust exercises

amy’s message 03 february 2017 - reddam...

Documents