simone’s message - reddam house · 2019-10-29 · this week we have been experimenting with the...

1 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | LINDFIELD NEWSLETTER 1

Simone’s Message By Mrs Simone Cooke, Principal

8TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all our families who joined us for our Father‟s Day celebrations on Wednes-

day. The children were so excited to have you join them for breakfast and share their

special gifts with you all.

Here at Reddam we have many rich and diverse cultures with many different traditions,

values and beliefs. Celebrations provide us with a concrete way to share our cultural

backgrounds, to build tolerance and understanding, celebrate cultural diversity and

build respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Throughout the year we draw upon the celebrations that hold meaning to our particu-

lar children, these include a wide array of celebrations based on our children‟s cultural

heritage, these may include Christmas, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Hannukah, Father‟s

Day, Australia Day etc. There is no doubt that children love Celebrations and traditions

and rituals are important for fostering a young child‟ s personal identity and sense of

belonging.

Celebrations teach values, offer comfort and security and create lasting memories.

Just as Sunday dinners, family game nights or family reunions hold special memories in

our lives, so too do our school celebrations. We invite each of you to share your family

traditions with us. We want to honour the rich cultural diversity of all our children here at

Reddam, embedding it into our day to day classroom practices where we can raise an

awareness in our children of other ways of being and belonging.

Enjoy the weekend with your beautiful children.


Stage 1 By Miss Lauren Separovich

This week we are celebrating the beginning of Spring. So what happens in the season of

Spring?

Trees and bushes that lost their leaves over the winter begin to grow new leaves again and al-

so flower in spring. This happens because the temperature of the air and soil starts to warm up

and the hours of daylight increase as the days get longer. Plants need light to make food to

grow and reproduce. The trees need to have flowers if they are to produce seeds or fruit. The

flowers on trees are pollinated by insects such as bees or the wind.

On the weekend I collected a variety of beautiful flowers and leaves all different shapes and

colours for the children to use to make 'sun catchers'. I spread the flowers along the table and

included some small insects for the children to play with. The children were inspired by all the

beautiful coloured flowers they could see. There were purple and red leaves, as well as leaves

with unusual shapes. The children enjoyed selecting their favourite natural materials and stick-

ing them on contact paper, we can't wait to display them in the room.

As part of our celebrating spring, I have introduced a new story to the children called "Before

Spring Comes," by Kevin Henke. Before spring comes, the trees are dark sticks, the grass is

brown, and the ground is covered in snow. But if you wait, leaves unfurl and flowers blossom,

the grass turns green, and the mounds of snow shrink and shrink. Spring brings baby birds,

sprouting seeds, rain and mud, and puddles. Kevin Henkes uses striking imagery, repetition,

and alliteration to introduce basic concepts of language and the changing of the seasons.

The illustrations show the transformation from quiet, cold winter to the joyful newborn spring.

Watch the world transform when spring comes!

Have a wonderful weekend with your loved ones, see you next week !


Stage 1


Stage 2 By Ms Jessica Whitbourn It's been such a busy term and we can't believe it's already Week 8!

Our provocation " Scientific Terrific Twos" is still in full force and welcoming the beginning of

Spring has added to our science theme seeing all the flowers appear and the leaves on the

trees start to come back.

Marbling Paper - More Than just a Cool Piece of Art

This week we have been experimenting with the concept of marbling paper with oil. It's an

activity that the children loved. They were able to create beautiful art work and we were able

to show them the science behind the fun. We used water, paint and oil and they were able to

see the oil floating at the surface with the paint and mixed the colours around to make a

marbling effect. We will continue on with this activity into next week but will added other

products such as glue and shaving cream.

Through our provocation this week we also looked at the concept of floating and sinking.

We read the book "Who Sank the Boat?" and performed a science experiment with the

children using an egg and salt water. We watched how the container with salt made the water

heavier so the egg would float, whilst the egg sank that was in the container with no salt.

Happy Fathers Day

We would like to wish all the dads a fabulous Father's Day and thank those that where able to

attend our Father‟s Day breakfast. It was a great success and the children loved spending the

morning with their dads.

Charity Fundraising

The beautiful teachers at Lindfield are always wanting to help a charity and this week focused

their attention on raising money for Breast Cancer organising a morning tea in the staff room at

break time to raise awareness and donate.

Thanks everyone for a great week see you all next week.

Leonie, Jess, Tracey, Fern, Lucia


Stage 2


Stage 2/3 By Ms Joselyn Bruzzano Inspired by the moon, the stars and the sun, this week we have been looking at the night and

day time sky. The children have been pointing to the moon as seen from our courtyard, so we

posed the question “What other things do you see in the sky?” That sparked a great deal of

interest in planets and outer space.

Expedition to the Moon and the Sun

After reading about the moon and sun during our group experiences we decided to visit the

moon and sun. We pretended to climb into a spaceship and then blasted off into the sky.

Once on the moon, we discovered that there was no atmosphere, this made it very difficult to

breath, limiting our stay. We did find however, that there was an amazing view of our planet

Earth from the moon! We then travelled close to the sun, we did not get too close however, as

we discovered that it was becoming too hot. So, we viewed it from a distance on our

spaceship and then returned to Earth. Imaginary play or pretend play can encourage children

to explore the world from different perspectives and assists in developing communication and

creativity. They may also learn to negotiate, cooperate and coordinate to keep the play

activity active.

Moon Prints and Sun Paintings

Inspired by our voyage to the moon and the sun we decided to create moon prints and sun

paintings. We used sponges for our moon prints dipped into white paint and then printed onto

paper. The imprint the sponge left on the page resembled the moon.

To create sun paintings, the children used balloons dipped into red, orange and yellow glitter

paint. They then swirled the balloons onto their page to form a sun.

Moon Sand Sensory Play and Sensory Bags/Bottles

Continuing with our investigation into the night and daytime sky, we created moon sand.

Mixing flour with baby oil the children then engaged their senses to explore the moon sand.

They created moon cakes and moon pies using moon sand. Sensory experiences stimulate

children‟s five senses, facilitating exploration using scientific processes whilst they investigate,

create and explore. Incorporating math concepts into our program we created planetary

sensory bags using plastic bags, glitter, water and space themed images. The children

searched through the bags counting suns, moons, stars and planets they found in their sensory

bags.


Stage 2/3


Stage 3 &4 By Ms Pauline Nitzsche

Thank you to those Fathers who joined us for our Father's Day breakfast. It is always a very

special time for the children having their fathers spending time at their school. We hope

that you all had a great Sunday celebrating Father's Day!

As we continue our provocation "Once Upon a Time"......we have started incorporating

puppets into our storytelling. Puppets are a great way to engage the attention and

imagination of children of all ages. When using puppets, stories come to life so that the

story become an enriched, fun-filled learning experience that is even more meaningful

for children. The puppets can sing, dance, speak in rhyme, touch, laugh, or cry. By

capturing children's attention, they strengthen listening skills and vocabulary

development. Puppets are also a valuable means for promoting oral language skills and

confidence in public speaking. The children have been using the various puppets to

have puppet shows for their friends. They have also started making their own stick

puppets, finger puppets and sock puppets.

Please remember to make sure your child has an extra set of clothing and a hat in their

school bag. As the days get warmer, the children will be using more water during their

play. The children are also only allowed to play outside if they are wearing a hat.


Stage 3 & 4


Music By Mr Justin Sze Hello everyone!

Stage 1 & 2:

The sounds of the rain and the rain-stick were revisited. After that, we played with the egg-

shakers, which also produced the sound of the rain. Children had to refrain from shaking the

instrument till the word “rain” was sung in the Turkish song, “On my way to Uskuda”. This tested

their inhibitory control and of course... created lots of fun and laughter at the same time!

After a short rest (quiet time), we quickly woke up because there was a “spider on the floor”! That

was the next song we were learning. Our classrooms are very clean, no real spiders. Then the

spider went into my book; Incy Wincy Spider by Keith Chapman & Jack Tickle. Instead of reading

the book, we sang the book together. This book presented lots of opportunities for our little

readers to participate in the story. They “read” the various sounds the animals made. Such

“onomatopoeic” activities are so important in helping children acquire reading skills eventually.

Stage 3:

Our stage 3 children are developing an appropriate response to music. When they hear the slow

music, they stalked around like a cat. When the music was fast, they scampered around like

mice. These actions expanded the vocabulary of the children. Rather than simply to say “crawl”

or “run”, we labelled the movements as “Stalked” and “scampered”. Such activities are

particularly useful for ESL students as they followed the actions of their classmates and sang the

words of the song. Another activity we did with a similar purpose was the animals “marching”

down the street. The kangaroos “hopped”, the snakes “slithered” etc.

We also listened to the sounds made by a dog. This focused listening activity helped children

identify the different sounds made by the same animal. It barked, growled and howled. Then we

learned a song about a dog, “Bow, Wow, Wow”. To make the song really meaningful for the

children, Justin got the names of their pets at home and inserted them as part of the lyrics of the

song. The children enjoyed their personalized version of this song.

Stage 4:

Children at Stage 4 are mastering our “Hickory Dickory Dock” percussion piece. We embellished

it with the triangle, resonator bars, a 2-tone woodblock and a slide whistle to add colour and

enhance the meaning in the musical piece. Wait till you hear them. It‟s impressive!

We then went on to distinguish 2 musical notes with our listening skills. To help the visual learners,

we have printed a “music score” with stars printed on them. There are stars above the line (high

notes) and stars below the line (low notes). Your child should have excitedly shown you their

music score last week. If they haven‟t, it might be still in their bag. If you have a piano or

xylophone at home, you might allow your child to practice/perform this song for you at home.

The high note is C and the lower note is A.

Our children also had time to play a musical singing game “Wolf are you there?”. In this song, the

wolf creatively comes up with activities he/she might be doing in his/her cave. At the end of the

song, the wolf comes out and chases the other children. It was so much fun!


Music


Drama By Ms Laura Hudson The Nest/ Fledglings, Stage 1 & 2

The children will go on an adventure with a genie (teacher in role) using a magic carpet, using their fine

motor skills and senses to accomplish the tasks that await them.

Skills learnt this week:

Following direction by watching and copying the teacher

Listening and responding to the teacher

Fine Motor skills

Used their sense of touch, smell and hear

Memory recall

Activities include:

Looked. felt and rubbed the magical mirror before a genie appeared

One of the children rubbed the bottle and a genie appeared with a map.

This map would lead them to a cave. A cave that would have many surprises. Along the way they came

across many obstacles and had to solve the riddles along the way

Rode on the magic carpet

The children followed the map and came to a Washing line, with pegs and socks on. The children used

their fine motor skills to take the pegs off the washing line to help the genie (Stage 1 and 2)

Before the children entered the cave they discussed what it might sound, smell and feel like.

Tapping sticks were used to create atmosphere and suspense

The genie appeared from the cave and invited everyone in. Once in the cave the genie described what it

felt like.

Picture Postcard (Stage 2)

Stage 3 & 4 Objectives:

The children will experience life under the big top. They will start with a picture that they will bring to life.

They will incorporate mime, facial expressions and memory recall and work together a do a mini show.

Skills learnt this week:

Working together

Using facial expressions to convey emotions

Listen and observe the teacher

Opposites

Drama terms (Stage 4) Thought tracking, Freeze

Mime

Balancing

Memory recall

Activities include:

Discussed the Circus and the picture the teacher brought in

The children used their body to create their own picture postcard of the „Big Top‟

Once the children had decided their character and pose each child had a turn of thought tracking (Stage

4)

Throwing and catching a juggling ball, working in partners (stage 4) doing a little routine

Balancing the spinning plates

Being strongmen and women using mime and facial expressions.

The children then had their turn at being a clown, thinking about how the clown walked, leading with their

nose, tummy, bottom etc. Doing a funny gesture and teaming up with a partner to do a duo act. Using

costumes to accentuate the drama.

The parachute was reintroduced to play a couple of games and became a merry go round. Turning the

body so that the chute is held with only one hand. Walking, hopping, jumping and skipping.


Drama


Mandarin

Last week, we read the book “Hello”. Because it was the second time for them listening to the

story, they were familiar with the plot of it. When I was reading the book, I generally spoke in

Chinese. The reaction of children showed that they understood most of the words I was using.

They even turned the pages when I had completed the sentence, suggesting they understood

where I was up to in the book.

Next week we will start on another book in the same series, called “I Want to Go to the Toilet”.

Because the story is still about three animals, a little pig, a little mouse and a little hippo, it is a

good chance for them to review the sentence “Who is this?” and the names of those three ani-

mals in Chinese.

We have been learning the colours for three weeks. Next week, we will do a review lesson. First

of all, we will review how to say “red, green, blue and yellow” in Chinese. Secondly, we will

choose the children‟s favourite colours and their parents‟ favourite colours to make a house.

The children will then use various materials to decorate their rooms with furniture or their favorite

colours.

simone’s message - reddam house · 2019-10-29 · this week we have been experimenting with the...

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