Amy’s Message 29 JULY 2016 - Reddam House · REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER . 1 . Amy’s Message. By Amy Goodlace, Principal . Dear Families, Our Motivational

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1

Amy’s Message By Amy Goodlace, Principal

Dear Families,

Our Motivational letters have been sent to

the families and we are looking forward to

seeing where the provocations will lead the

children in encouraging curiosity and

imagination. We urge all our families to be

part of your child‟s learning journey and to

participate in the provocations that the

children have chosen.

We have a few special events planned this

term. Please note the following dates with

more details to follow -

1. A Seminar on the importance of Oral

Health in young children is being hosted

by Dr Sharon Ortner: 9th Aug 2016

2. School Photos: 15th Aug - 2 Sept 2016

3. Book Week: 22-26th Aug 2016

4. Night of Lights: 25th Aug 2016

5. Fathers Day Celebrations: Week 6

At Reddam we nurture the unique

individuality, talent and self-assurance of

each child, equipping them to take on the

world with skill and self confidence. We

acknowledge that children all learn in

different ways and it is our responsibility to

ensure that we create learning opportunities

that enable children to explore their world

and communicate not only through verbal

language but also in different non-verbal

ways. The Reggio Emilia Philosophy speaks of

the Hundred Languages of Children, which

encapsulates this concept in a beautiful

poem, which I have included on the

following page.

Acknowledging children‟s individuality and

different ways of learning is seen in the

documentation displayed in the school this

week.

In the Stage 4 Piazza the children have been

creating sculptures of Australian animals

using clay as the medium. In the upstairs

Piazza the children have been using

watercolours, lead pencils and collages to

create. Please take a moment to

acknowledge your child‟s work in your travels

through the school.

Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards

Amy

29 JULY 2016



The Nest “Off we go….” By Tatiana Botrel, Ma Yanran and Jane Teh

Welcome to Term Three. As the children

arrived to school on the first day of the

term they were surprised with the new

resources and activities in The Nest

classroom.

It was wonderful and rewarding to see

the children‟s reaction to the huge train

track made out of masking tape on the

floor as well as the big steep hill to drive

little cars up and down.

The children have also enjoyed playing

with the little magnet cars, helicopters

and ambulances in the sensory box

placed at the table. The train track was

another hit with the children and they

were spending time observing how the

trains went down the bridge and in the

tunnel.

Our environment was changed to ensure

that the provocation chosen was in line

with the children‟s interests. It is with

great excitement that we announce our

new provocation for Term Three “Off we

go…”. You have received the

Motivational letter and the mind map of

possibilities. Please feel free to add any

ideas you might have that can enrich the

children‟s learning.

We would like to welcome Toby to the

Monday-Wednesday group. It has been

wonderful to get to know this little one

better each day. We also would like to

say a big congratulation to Isabel and

her family for the arrival of little Edward,

making Izzy a big sister now.


The Nest Photo Gallery


The Nest Photo Gallery


Fledglings “I can…”

Welcome back to the beginning of Term

Three. It is difficult to believe that we are

already past the first half of the 2016 school

year. We have an exciting term planned for

the children and families of the Fledglings.

Term Three allows us to continue our love for

learning, developing and understanding.

Our provocation this term is „I can…‟ which

allows the children to develop their love of

being independent young people.

The children will have the opportunity to steer

this provocation in the direction that interests

them; from hygiene, cooking, toileting,

counting and much more.

During the beginning of our first week back,

the children needed just one more object to

complete our „home‟ corner. It was a

clothesline. We decided how great it would

be to work together to create a beautiful

clothesline for our classroom.

We had two tubs, two sticks of wood and

some string. The teacher had to ask our

caretaker Bebot for some cement to put in

the tubs. Over the next few days the cement

dried and hardened. Then using one piece of

string we tied each end to the two sticks.

After our clothesline was created, we all

worked together to paint the bases. We

used all the colours we loved most to make

the clothesline look pretty. Our clothesline is

now placed in our room allowing the children

to hang up the baby dolls „clean clothes‟.

Outdoor playtime is definitely one of the most

favourite times of the day for the Fledglings.

This week the beautiful weather allowed us to

enjoy our time outdoors. The children just

love the opportunity to connect with and

embrace their outdoor environment as they

take one a range of different outdoor

activities such as bikes, the obstacle course

and playing in the sandpit.

Throughout this term we will also be

continuing on with our two specialised

classes; Sport with Spencer and Music with

Justin. We love taking part in both of these

classes and I am sure our specialised

teachers will bring us plenty of enjoyment

over the term.

Finally we would like to welcome two new

friends to our class, Amelia and Dominic. We

have every confidence that they will enjoy

their time in the Fledglings.


Fledglings Photo gallery


Fledglings Photo Gallery






Stage 2 “Where in the World? Off we go!”

Welcome to Term 3. We are very excited

about our up and coming provocation.

“Where in the World? Off we go!” You would

have all received the motivational letter and I

hope that you will be as excited as we are to

share in discovering and learning about the

world outside of Reddam. We will be asking

the question “What is a holiday?” “ Where do

you go?”, “How do you get there?” “What do

you do?. Many of the children have been on

holidays this year and there are more to

come.

During the past week we have welcomed

back some of our friends who were overseas

during the holiday period. Daniella was also

back from her holiday and the children were

very curious as to where she had been, the

curiosity and wonder was the starting point to

our next provocation.

We have begun our discussion by looking at

the world map which is displayed in our room.

We will be looking at the different places we

visited in the holidays using the world globe

throughout the next few weeks. There was a

lot of talk about aeroplanes and road trips in

cars, buses and caravans.

“You go on a big aeroplane and go to a

place that is very far away”- Tully

“The aeroplane lands on the runway after a

long trip” - Sebastian

“I went to ma and pa’s house, I fly on a little

aeroplane with Dadda”

“I drive in the car (to Byron Bay)”- Sol

“I went on 2 aeroplanes all the way to

Japan” - Noah

“You drive to your holiday house” - Addison

“I went on a plane, I saw animals (Romania”)

- Ottavia

“I got a plane”- Demitra

“Went to a city, at the airport” – Ari

“Went around Australia on a plane”- Mia.

In the Atelier both groups have been inspired

by the world map to create our first displays

for Term 3. This will be an exciting term as we

travel around the world- “Where in the world?

Off we go!”


Stage 2 Photo Gallery




Stage 3 The Sounds of Music By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan

Wow, who can believe that the year has

passed so quickly. Here we find ourselves

in Term Three already. The whole team in

Stage Three would like to welcome you all

back to what we are sure is going to be a

fun and interesting learning experience

for us all. Stage Three would like to extend

a special welcome to Sarah Buttrose, who

is joining Lizzie‟s Platypuses from Stage

Two on Monday to Wednesday and

Oscar Qu who is beginning his Reddam

experience in Susan‟s Koalas fulltime.

The specialist class rotations have

changed again this term. Monday to

Wednesday children will enjoy Dance

and Drama with Laura, as they did in Term

One. Thursday to Friday children will enjoy

sports with Spencer on a Friday. On

Thursday afternoon the children will

attend music with Justin.

This leads perfectly into Stage Three‟s new

provocation this term, The Sounds of

Music. Stage Three have been inspired to

pursue music in all its facets this term by

following the interests the children have

displayed. The provocation has begun by

introducing the children to different kinds

of musical instruments. They have paid

particular attention to the instruments that

make up the four families of the

orchestra, strings, woodwind, brass and

percussion.

The children were invited to daw their

most favourite instrument. Black paper

and a choice of white crayon or pencil

where supplied, along with an image of

the instrument.


Stage 3 The Sounds of Music By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan

The children will have the opportunity to

investigate music using the instruments

that are available in the classrooms.

Family Involvement

If you have an instrument that you wish to

share, or anything associated with the

provocation, you are welcome to let your

child bring it in.

Developing Children’s Interests

Stage Three children were immersed at

the beginning of the term in a world of

shapes. There were circle blocks, circle

stones, circle hollow wooden pieces and

even a famous circle painting. During

group time the children learnt more about

the famous painting called Colour Study,

Squares and Concentric Circles, by

Kandinsky. The children studied the

painting closely, looking at the colours,

shapes and differentiating sizes. During

the discussion Harry Zubani commented

“maybe we can try and paint them by

ourselves.” Which is exactly what they did.

These are displayed in the Piazza and the

children's classrooms, so please come

and have a look at their amazing work.








Stage 4 What’s on your doorstep? ByAnita Martin, Cheryl Freeman, Kristina Rocchi, Jane Pledger,Sandra Carberry and Tim Nichols

This week we have revisited drawing self-

portraits. At the beginning of the year the

children engaged in this experience and

it is wonderful to see their progress and

development as we head into term three.

We began this experience by reflecting

on our self-portraits in our portfolios. The

children loved looking through them and

engaging in conversation with peers

about the features of their portraits.

Following this, I introduced the idea of me

drawing my portrait. I drew a circle on a

piece of paper and asked the children if

they thought it looked like me. “No”, they

laughed! This led to me asking, “What

could I do to make it look like me?” The

children guided me through adding facial

features until I had a fairly complete face.

I asked if there was anything that it

needed to make it look like me, and they

came up with adding glasses. This

„thinking aloud through process‟ type of

demonstration is very effective in

engaging the children in an experience

when they are asked to create something

specific. Extending on this experience, the

children were eager to get working on

their self-portraits.

They sat at the table, looked at their

reflection in the mirror and created their

beautiful and unique portraits. The

children spent some time observing and

looking for detail before putting it on

paper. The mirrors reflected smiles, funny

faces, serious faces, and open mouths to

check for teeth! The children engaged in

conversation with peers throughout the

e x p e r i e n c e , e x p r e s s i n g t h e i r

knowledgeable and confident self-

identities.

Revisiting self-portrait drawings shows the

growth in fine motor control and the

ability to make specific shapes. It shows

how much more detail the children are

observing – teeth, eyelashes, eyebrows.

We can also consider the risk the child

takes in representing their new

observations on paper. It is as if the artist is

soaring with ideas, determined to share

them all. These self-portraits tell us that the

children are confident, observant and

curious.






Music By Justin Goh

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. We also explored

different ways to make a circle with our

bodies. 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. This differs from

the general ability to hear and requires

children to listen.

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. To enhance the

experience, scarves were used to help

them visualize the falling leaves. There

was lots of smiles and laughter

throughout the class.


Music By Justin Goh

Stage 3:

Our Stage 3 children also explored things

they could see in the sky. They saw the sun

and explored different ways they could

make circles with their body and how they

could partner a friend to create circles.

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. This is a very

important musical structure which is used in

both Classical and Jazz music.

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! Have fun humming with your

child. If you can, you might want to show

them how to whistle a song.

Another fun thing you might want to do with

your child this week is to look in the sky and

form different shapes that you spot in the

clouds. Have fun!

Stage 4:

By popular demand, we repeated some of

the musical games the children were longing

to play. We kept the beat with Jonny‟s

hammer. They responded to the fast and

slow music pretending to be little clocks and

big clocks. Then they practiced their singing

voices through the game “Farmer, farmer”.

The new thing they learned was the

“Crotchet Rest”. Once again, they learned it

through a fun game as they walked in the

woods. One child pretended to be a bear

(fast asleep) while the rest of the class walks

to a (ta, ta, ta, Z) pattern. At the end of the

music, the bear wakes and scares everyone!

It was lots of fun. But the learning point was

the silent beat, which is called Z or “crotchet

rest”.

We also had some fun playing with the bells

(exploring a metallic sound) and playing with

scarves (different textures). It was a fun-filled

musical learning experience for everyone!


Dancearama By Laura Hudson

Stage 3 Objectives:

Students will get a clear understanding of

what drama is. They will drive straight in and

use their imagination to go on an interactive

Australian adventure, exploring landmarks,

animals and objects. The children will also

work together to create a small piece of

mime based on the theme.

Skills learnt this week:

Using their body to express their self

Mime

Working as a team

Activities include:

Discussion about Australia

The children used their body to create

landmarks in Australia (Opera House, Harbour

Bridge, Parliament House etc. etc.)

Picture postcard of an Australian beach

Went on an adventure into the bush

Played a mime game based on Australian

animals that led into a small piece of drama

Stage 4 Objectives:

Students will watch part of a News Report

created by the teacher, based on fractured

Fairy-tale. They will work together, discussing

how they will finish the fairy-tale. Each child

will take on a role within the drama. The

teacher will guide the children using drama

techniques to finish the tale.

Skills learnt this week:

Working together

Spatial awareness

Listen and responding to direction

How to ask questions

Hot Seating some of the characters

Activities include:

Discussions

Hot Seat the characters in the News Report

Each child becoming a character

Picture Postcards

Soundscape of the woods (for Little Red

Riding Hood)


Physical Education By Spencer Clifton

The Stage 1's enjoyed a great of week of

sport. We progressed into our new and

more advanced tasks that are aimed at

challenging and encouraging the children's

development, with the previous exercises

being used as building blocks.

Our lesson this week involved a

manipulated obstacle course that made

use of crocodile hurdles, stepping stones,

cushion bridge, monkey bars and crawling

tunnel. The children made their way around

the obstacle course by running toward and

jumping/stepping over the crocodile

hurdles, making their way to the foot

placement stepping stones (are changed

and manipulated to challenge children),

through the crawling tunnel, over the

cushion bridge and climbing through the

monkey bars.

The Stage 2's 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

development of 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 3's and stage 4's 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 developing 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.



Documents

Amy’s Message 29 JULY 2016 - Reddam House · REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER . 1 . Amy’s Message. By Amy Goodlace, Principal . Dear Families, Our Motivational