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
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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.
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The Nest Photo Gallery
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The Nest Photo Gallery
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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.
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Fledglings Photo gallery
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Fledglings Photo Gallery
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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.
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Stage 2 Photo Gallery
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Stage 2 Photo Gallery
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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.
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Stage 3 Photo Gallery
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Stage 3 Photo Gallery
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Stage 3 Photo Gallery
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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.
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Stage 4 Photo Gallery
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Stage 4 Photo Gallery
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Stage 4 Photo Gallery
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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
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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
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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
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