Debbie’s Message - Reddam House · 2019-10-29 · We love learning about different cultural...

1 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | LINDFIELD NEWSLETTER 1

Debbie’s Message By Debbie Zerbst, Principal Inclusive Culture

One of Reddam ELS‟s goals is to include and embrace the different cultural beliefs, practices

and needs of the families and staff attending our centre, in order to create a collective sense of

belonging. A culturally inclusive setting is one where children, family and staff alike recognise,

appreciate diversity so as to enrich the overall learning experiences.

We have many different nationalities represented in our school.

At the moment families originating from Australia, Vietnam, China, Russia , India, Ireland, Japan ,

South Africa and Indonesia come to our centre. We have many families who speak English as a

second language, which creates such a rich and diverse environment for us.

To foster inclusive practice, we get the help from community leaders in our area to inform our

school and our families about all the upcoming cultural events and programs. One such event

happened last week for Jewish members of our community. It was the joyful celebration of

Purim. The Rabbi from Lindfield synagogue invited us to have a look around the Synagogue

which is situated next door to us in Treatts Ave.

There is a spirit of revelry and fun on Purim that is unparalleled on the Jewish calendar. If there

were ever a day to “let loose”, this is it! It is also customary for children (and adults, if they desire)

to dress up in costumes.

Last Thursday we invited all the children to dress up in fancy dress. It was optional but most of the

children were delighted to take part. Leonie had a collection of dress- ups for children who had

forgotten to dress up . We also asked for a gold coin donation so that we can raise a bit of

money and donate it to children in need.

17TH MARCH 2017


Debbie’s Message Continued By Debbie Zerbst

Another special celebration we learned about was St Patrick„s day. We have an Irish family

and Maria who are part of our Reddam family so we honoured them by “greening “ up our

school on Thursday and Friday. But there is so much more to St Patricks day than just wearing

green on the 17th March .

WHO WAS ST PATRICK? Everyone knows the name – but what about the man?

1. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland

2. As a boy of 14 he was captured and taken to Ireland where he spent six years in slavery

herding sheep.

3. Legend has it that he used the native shamrock as a symbol of the holy trinity when

preaching and brought the Latin alphabet to Ireland.

4. Miracles attributed to him include the driving of serpents out of Ireland. However, evidence

suggests post-glacial Ireland never had any snakes in the first place.

5. Wearing green, eating green food and even drinking green beer, is said to commemorate St

Patrick's use of the shamrock - although blue was the original colour of his vestments.

6. Popular Irish sayings on St Patrick's Day, include: May the roof above us never fall in, and May

we friends beneath it never fall out.

7. It is believed that St Patrick died on March 17 in 461AD. It is a national holiday in Ireland.

8. Dublin has a parade that attracts hundreds of thousands of people, while in Chicago the

river is dyed green for a few hours. The biggest parade is normally held in New York, while the

largest celebration in the southern hemisphere is in Sydney, Australia.

We love learning about different cultural celebrations and festivals . We hope you enjoy it as

much as we do.

Debbie

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/ireland/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/10700936/30-great-quotes-about-Ireland-and-the-Irish.html


Stage 1 By Lauren & Rujuta & Maria

Welcome back to another week in Stage 1. We are so excited to be exploring how things grow

In our garden as the theme for this week. From the moment we first take children outdoors,

allowing them to sense the fragrances, sounds and sights of the garden, we begin

communicating the value of living things. Keeping children inside where we think they will be

„safe‟ reduces their opportunities for learning about their world. Instead, they need the support

of their teachers who are prepared to share knowledge and experience, helping children

distinguish between things that are safe to pop in their mouth (herbs and edible flowers) and

things to experience in other ways (insects and rocks).

When children grow their own food, they learn about an Important principle: what sustains life

on earth. Edible gardening promotes both respect for the environment and a child‟s own

responsibility for good health. When children take part in growing fresh foods, they are more

willing to try them. So on Tuesday we planted our own herbs- mint and oregano. The children

enjoyed pouring the soil into pots to cover the herb seeds. We then enjoyed watering the herbs

and took them outside to get some sunshine (as all things need water and sunlight to grow).

We continued this on Wednesday but instead of planting herbs, we used egg cress sprouts. The

children helped sprinkle seeds into egg shells over moist paper towel, the seeds will develop

very quickly if we water them daily.

When educators introduce children to plants and gardens, they foster a respect for the

environment, helping them learn about natural materials and their own health and wellbeing.

On Thursday we celebrated St Patrick's Day. The children enjoyed decorating their own four

leaf clover, which symbolises luck in the Irish tradition. Some of our staff and friends came

dressed in green attire to help celebrate.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, we'll see you all back next week, enjoy!

From Lauren, Ella and Maria


Stage 1 How Things Grow


Stage 1 Egg Cress Sprouts


Stage 1 How Does My Garden Grow


Stage 2 By Leonie

We have had a great week this week with a successful excursion on Thursday to the Lindfield Synagogue

for Purim celebrations all the children dressed up as part of the celebration. In the lead up to the festival

we introduced dress ups into our program so for those that didn't get to go they still enjoyed the fun of

dressing up. Oh what fun we had becoming all different types of characters.

There are so many benefits to playing with Dress-Ups here are some for you to reflect on:

Dress up play fosters the imagination.

Children have vast, open imaginations. They aren't constrained by what they know about their world and

their minds can go anywhere. When children play dress up, they root their imaginative stories in reality for

a short while, giving them a chance to explore it more thoroughly. When we dress up as a fireman we are

not just dressing up but we practise helping people in our community and practising bravery.

Dress up play let's them explore themselves

By pretending to be other people, children experiment with new ideas and behaviours. They can decide

what they like and what they don't.

Dress up play strengthens relationships

Playing with dress ups is a strong lesson in empathy. By "living" the life of someone else, your child has to

put themselves in that persons shoes. How do they feel? What are their motivations? How would they

behave in certain situations?

This strengthens a broader skill: the ability to understand other people's feelings.

Dress up play establishes gender identification

As children play dress ups, they experiment with different gender identities and the behaviours of those

characters. It is quite normal for all children to experiment with different gender roles as they learn more

about themselves.

Dress up play improves communication

Dress ups force children to experiment with new language. They have to anticipate what, for example, a

ballerina would say or how a astronaut would speak. This gives them the chance to practice with words

and phrases they wouldn't normally say.

Thanks to everyone for a great week. A kind reminder that we are still looking for more pots and pans that

you might not use anymore to build our music garden. Thank you to those that have already brought in

some. We hope to start making our music garden in the coming weeks.

Leonie, Tracey, Jess, Fern


Stage 2


Stage 3


Stage 4 By Pauline

Fingerprints : IT IS STILL ALL ABOUT ME

“Our uniqueness, our individuality, and our life experience molds us into fascinating beings.“

Linda Thompson

This week the children have learnt about their fingerprints. We have noticed that the ridges on

their fingertips are in the shape of loops and spirals and that these ridges help us to grasp

objects. Without these ridges we would not be able to write or paint properly. These ridges are

also the ones that leave smudges on every object that we hold and touch.

Fingerprints are used to catch people who commit crimes, as well as for a password in high

security places. Using an ink -pad, the children took prints of each of their fingers and

thumbs. They were very excited to have made their own set of fingerprints. Each set is different

and individual.

Mr Potato Heads

The children enjoyed creating their own Mr Potato Heads using the various body parts on the

table. They were able to choose from a variety of big and small body parts, creating some

funny looking Mr Potato Heads!

Felt Board Stories

Felt pictures can be used as a great communication tool in the classroom. The felt pictures gave

the children ideas for their stories. The children were able to tell their story to the group, gaining

self -confidence as the other children listened to their story. The children are enjoy their

Mandarin, Dance, Yoga and Music specialist classes. They are now familiar with the various

teacher and happily participate in the activities!


Stage 4 Fingerprinting


Stage 4 Purim Celebration


Stage 4 Dramatic Play


Stage 4 Creative Expression


Music By Justin Sze Stage 1 & 2:

This week, we have a new theme for the children. Once again, children are discovering they have fingers

on their hands! This sounds so obvious to us but these little ones are really discovering how to control those

little fingers and we can see how they try so hard to keep their thumbs up while keeping all the other

fingers closed. Their thumbs were the “Jacks” in the box that went “pop”! We are working on the precision

to “pop” at the exact moment in the song. For Stage 1 children, learning which finger is the thumb was

the new learning experience. This week, we added a slide whistle to reinforce the concept of jumping

“up” and “down”. The other tricky thing for Stage 2 children was to stand on one foot. The song about the

frog had 2 distinct sections and the first section had actions that required them to blink their eyes while

the second got them to hop on one foot. This activity brought much laughter to the class but children

were learning to identify patterns through the song. Such skills would help in developing mathematical

thinking. I could tell your children have been practicing standing on one leg because they have

markedly improved in that skill this week!

Stage 3:

Every child imagined they were at the beach. We listened to the sound of the waves and explored a very

special musical instrument called a “wave drum”. Through the song “wiggling my toes”, we help children

develop body part awareness through song. We also wiggled our ears in the water etc. We also played

with a new instrument called the “sand blocks”. In order to play this instrument, children had to move in

alternating movement instead of a parallel movement. This is a developing skill at this stage of their

development. This instrument also contrasted with the bells and drums which are shaken or struck to

produce the musical sound. We ended the lesson with a strange dance to walk like a crab. Ask your

children to show you how it works at home!

Stage 4:

We did a new activity today which required the children to pretend to be magical dancing clocks.

Children had to pretend to sleep while the clock maker switched off the lights for the night. Then the little

clocks and big clocks took turns to get up for a dance. Finally they returned to their original positions

when the clock maker returned. He had no clue as to how much fun the clocks had throughout the

whole night! Such pretend play helped children follow directions in a fun environment. They were really

learning through play! We also learned to sing a song, “Tideo”. In this song, there were 2 sections. The first

required children to tap on sticks as they sang and the second required them to jingle their bells as they

sang. Once again, the distinct timbre of the instruments marked the differing sections clearly. Apart from

teaching musical structure, children were also developing an understanding of the concept of

sequences and patterns. This helps develop mathematical thinking. Hickory Dickory Dock was recited to

help children develop tapping a steady beat. To keep things interesting, when the word “one” was said,

a triangle was hit. When the words “up” and “down” were said, a slide whistle reinforced the meaning of

the words with an ascending and descending “glissando”. While doing this activity, children had to focus

and strike the triangle or slide on the whistle at the precise moment in the rhyme.


Music


Mandarin By Sherry Zhu

Last week, when we reviewed the story of “I Went Walking”, I used the toys of related animals

mentioned in the story. The children were interested in seeing and touching them. This lesson I

have prepared some cards of each animal.

We revisited “Hop, Hop, Jump”, a story encouraging body action. The students moved their

body parts based on the contents. Some students even could speak the action in Chinese

properly. We will continue to practise the body actions again next lesson.

Picture puzzles are a good way to encourage students to concentrate on a specific thing for a

long time. We are using the puzzles to encourage the distinction of a variety of objects which

we practice saying in Mandarin.

We also watched “Grandpa's Little Train” to further our listening and comprehension skills.

Most students are now familiar with the story and the song, so they can focus on listening to the

pronunciation of Mandarin words within the show.


Yoga By Kelly Nance Repetition is fundamental children's learning and development as neural connections in the

brain are strengthened through repetition, a one time experience is not enough for a neural

connection to form and stabilize. In addition to being vital for cognitive development, repetition

provides the practice that children (and adults!) require to master new skills, increasing

confidence and perseverance, ultimately encouraging positive self-esteem and belief in one's

abilities. Aristotle commented on the role of repetition in learning by noting that 'frequent

repetition produces a natural tendency.' It is through repetition that possibility becomes ability.

For this reason, the Reddam children will be introduced to a yoga experience and have the

opportunity to revisit the activities and yoga poses the following week.

Placing their imaginative goggles back over their heads, the children were excited and eager

to revisit the underwater poses from last week. Many smiles and laughs were had as the children

stretched and held poses to be pinchy lobsters, puffy fish, barking seals or rocking whales

swimming in the water. Quiet time for this experience comprised of holding up shells to our ears

and listening to the sounds of 'ocean.' Children quietly described hearing the sounds of "waves"

or "whales." Next week: Mini beasts in the garden!

Love and Peace, Kelly


Dance

Debbie’s Message - Reddam House · 2019-10-29 · We love learning about different cultural...

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