REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
Dee’s Message
19TH NOVEMBER 2021
Dear Parents and Caregivers, They say that love makes the world go round – and few of us would disagree with that sentiment. Here in the ELS love is the energy which flows through the classrooms, and it makes the interactions between people all that much more special. From the affection shown by parents and family members each morning as they drop their children at school, to the gentle, caring words and actions shown to the children by their teachers, to the very real kindness shown from one child to another, all of this is ‘love’. There is a wonderful saying that “Kids go where there is excitement. They stay where there is love.” This is our great hope here in the ELS: that the children will arrive each morning excited to be in a place where they feel affirmed and where they can explore their talents, abilities and interests.
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we hope that they feel a sense of belonging, of being part of a community that really cares. The Early Years Learning Framework mentions that “Educators who are attuned to children’s thoughts and feelings, support the development of a strong sense of wellbeing. They positively interact with the young child in their learning.” It goes on to say that “Learning outcomes are most likely to be achieved when early childhood educators work in partnership with families. Educators recognise that families are children’s first and most influential teachers.” These two groups of people – family members and teachers – play a critical role in a child’s life. It is they who provide an environment which is conducive to learning, discovery and exploration, and it is they who encourage and support the children along the journey. While the term ‘love’ might be an overused cliché in today’s world, it really
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19TH NOVEMBER 2021
is what inspires learning in the ELS each day. The term ‘professional love’ is used in pedagogy to describe this interaction between parents, teachers and children. There is a reciprocity of relationships which takes place, especially in an environment which encourages all three to work collaboratively. And, of course, the benefits are enormous, especially for the children.
Please also follow this link to access our online Uniform Shop. Have a happy weekend!
Dee Pitcairn Principal
One article makes the point that “Australian research has shown that children who experience professional love in early childhood classrooms in the form of positive connections do in fact demonstrate greater engagement with learning.” We trust that this will be the case every day here in the ELS – that the love the children feel from all in their circle translates into an adventurous spirit, unafraid of stepping out to try new things, and passionate about learning.
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The Nest (1R)
Kiri Winders, Helena Zhang and Min Pattarasiritanarat
This past week, the children engaged in lots of activities which promote fine motor skill and hand-eye coordination. In one activity, each of the children took turns to play the magnetic fish game. All the little fish were spread out across the table with little fishing rods with magnets. The children learned to hover the fishing line over the fish until it ‘hooked’. It was really great to see each child problem solve and figure this out. Especially when they caught one. There were big smiles on their faces as they excitedly showed their teachers. They couldn’t always tell us directly, but we could see their pride and sense of success and achievement. This is a really important part of learning, to experiment with trial and error until we get success. It promotes concentration, persistence, problem solving, and resilience. It is also a great social exercise as the children learn to negotiate with one another and share and rejoice together. This week we set up the main table with sand and little trays and spoons to practice our hand-eye coordination. The children just love our toy kitchen, so this activity was an extension of this where the children had the opportunity to spoon some sand and place it into the little muffin trays or ice cube containers. This took some dedicated concentration and focus. It was interesting to watch the children problem solve as they tried to fill up the containers, but sometimes by too much. “Uh Oh!” said Clare as she poured the sand till it overflowed the cup. Here the children were using their higher-level thinking to learn about volume and gravity. Sand play is wonderful as it is open-ended play, meaning there is no specific outcome just the enjoyment of experimenting and creating. Outdoors, we took out the colourful tunnel to take turns at crawling through. The children were very excited to join in the fun. Martin started to crawl through one way and then Lyla tried crawling in the opposite direction! With some guidance from their REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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The Nest (1R)
Kiri Winders, Helena Zhang and Min Pattarasiritanarat
educators, the children learned to line up at one end of the tunnel and take turns to crawl through in one direction. These are the social skills that the children learn, to be able to participate in the wider community as they grow older. EYLF Learning Outcome 2: Children are connected to and contribute to their world. EYLF Learning Outcome 2: Children are connected to and contribute to their world.
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The Nest (1R)
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, and Nadia Breus
Learning how to look after our fish Since our two new fish arrived in the Fledglings classroom, the children have been learning how to look after them properly. The first lesson started when we had to prepare their fish tank, getting the water healthy to greet our new friends. After one week, they finally arrived! We were very enthusiastic to greet the two fish at once – a yellow and an orange comet goldfish. The children spent time observing them swimming everywhere and from the beginning they realised that “yellow fish” was a fast swimmer. This week we started the “Fish Names Election”. Each teacher chose one name for each fish. We then organised a system on our documentation wall where we invited the Reddam ELS community – families and students – to participate by voting and helping us to choose one name for each fish. At Reddam we are always proud to have the families involved in our programme, but when COVID struck we had to put this on pause. This activity is just a little way to allow families to contribute towards our programme again. Children were excited to vote with their parents and siblings. We are looking forward to having the final numbers to determine the winner names! In the Atelier, the children were invited to make a “fishy” kind of painting. Using play dough fish shapes, the children dipped them in the colours of our two new pets - orange and yellow - and created a little fish tank just like the one we set up in our classroom.
At group time we took time to research interesting facts about the goldfish on the internet. Some of the facts that the children discovered were: •
They can be reactive to music
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Fledglings (1E)
By Tatiana Botrel, Jane Teh, and Nadia Breus
• • •
They can’t blink their eyes and that’s why they sleep with their eyes open Their scales determine how old they are. They are fast swimmers.
The children particularly enjoyed knowing that their new fishy friends could possibly like their favourite song “Gummy bear” and requested that we played this song for the fishies! Surprisingly, as soon as we started playing the song next to the fish tank, both fish started to swim faster, which cause a lot of reaction from our children. We then played “Twinkle, twinkle” and the fish swam slower, which made them conclude that “Gummy Bear” is also the fish favourite song! Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and 29 an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities n e ce ssary fo r active co mm uni ty participation. EYLF, 2009
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Fledglings (1E)
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Stage 2
By Daniella Gosty, Shauna Corry, Sarah Noone, Roberta Sokame and Joyce Matsui
As we see and hear each day, children’s speech and vocabulary grow with their experiences and confidence. We are inspired by the Reggio Emilio approach here at Reddam and the ‘100 ways of listening’ which the children use is recognised in our daily routine:
The child is made of one hundred… A hundred always a hundred ways of listening of marvelling of loving a hundred joys for singing and understanding a hundred worlds to discover. (Extract from the poem ‘100 Languages’ by Loris Malaguzzi) In the afternoons, the children gather as a whole stage to listen to a selected song or audio book to attract their interest. In using the audio books and songs we are giving the children a variety of voices to listen to, which shows them not only a wider depth of accents in which they are read to but also the music they hear each day.
their parent or carer comes to take them home. Although one would expect them to want to leave with their carers, the children love listening to a good story and one of the greatest advantages to listening is that children have the chance to hear speech patterns and rhythms. Listening to a story enables children to learn about voice and expression, which helps them with their own speech development. The children are also introduced to a variety of song books, carefully illustrated to portray images associated with nursery songs or very famous classics that we know and love. Some of both the children’s and teachers’ favourites include ‘Octopus’s Garden’ and ‘Love is in the Air’, along with new song books such as ‘One Love’, ’Imagine’ and ‘All you Need is Love’. Familiar song books ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ ‘No More Monkeys’’Willbee the Bumblebee’ ‘The Farmer in the Dell’, ‘We’re going on a Croc Hunt’ and ‘The Wonky Donkey’.
The children love to pick from the huge selection in the classroom such as the audio books; ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’, ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Magic Beach’ and ‘Bear Flies High’. The children sit as they are brought on a journey by the author of those stories. They have also listened to a recording of the authors’ very own voices as they share with the children how they wanted their story portrayed When it comes to helping children learn to read, experts say the role of audiobooks is twofold: to help children with the process of identifying words by modelling fluent reading and expanding their vocabulary, and to help motivate new readers by giving them a taste of how fun reading can be. The children eagerly sit and are captivated by the story – often not wanting to leave when REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 2
By Daniella Gosty, Shauna Corry, Sarah Noone, Roberta Sokame and Joyce Matsui
By singing nursery rhymes to your child, you can help them to identify sound patterns and learn through repetition. In addition to that, music also helps children to anticipate what is coming next in a poem or a song and they know how to put these patterns in a sequence. By mastering these skills, children build the base of literacy and numeracy. Music is a mood lifter. In the afternoons the children can be tired after a busy day, so to reignite their interest and stimulate their learning stories, music can often entice the children to soften their potentially tired moods. Many parents tuck their children in with a lullaby or calm them down with a song. Just as music can soothe a child, it can also lift their spirit. Just as with with adults, music and stories can improve a child’s mood and we will continue to stimulate learning and experiences through many mediums during our superb group times.
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Stage 2
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Stage 3
By Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Jason Corrigan, Sarah Garderner – Ventura and Yuliya Ginis
Creating and Building Together The Stage 3R children have been enjoying doing things together, which is the basis of our Term 4 provocation. This week they learned about community. We first read a book called ‘How to Make a Better World’ by Keilly Swift. The book opens with establishing that each person has the ability to make a change, even when the world seems out of a control. “Just remember that whoever you are, wherever you’re at, there’s a way to make a change that is the right size for you.” Next, we read the section on community. What is a community? Community happens when people gather together. In this section the children learned that we can be part of many communities, such as a school or where we live and there are a number of ways to participate in a community, such as being a good friend, volunteering, celebrating heritage, getting your voice heard and taking one small step to action. The children then recalled the lesson ‘Take 3 for the Sea’ which they learned through our sea conservation project last term. We need to keep our communities clean and safe, for the people, animals and Earth. We looked at the 3Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Christina then asked that the next day each child bring in one small recyclable item to add as we create another group project with them, whilst helping our environment by reusing. The group time finished with the children speaking about what they had learned about community. Scarlett: You pick up rubbish to clean our community
Ren: School Lauren: Work together Adam: Helping each other
Vasia: Come to each other REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 3
By Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Jason Corrigan, Sarah Garderner – Ventura and Yuliya Ginis
Noa: Help your community Ashlee: When you work together to do something Gabriel: Community where I live Lily: You need to be a good friend in the community Over the next few days, the children brought in recycling materials from home to be reused to create our 3D group reusable art project. The children sat in groups and presented to their peers what they had brought in. The children then each placed their recycled material on a reused holiday program board. Christina then used the hot glue gun to stick the items where the children had placed them. The children then progressively painted the 3D reusable creation all light colours. They requested pink, purple, blue and yellow. The children painted this on the easel and also did this in pairs or in groups. Collaboration is an important part of early childhood development. Working together helps children to discover each other’s
strengths, interests and capabilities. Instead of limiting learning to a one-way stream from a teacher or an adult to them, they can learn from each other. As a result, each child can develop a unique set of skills and knowledge in a fun and efficient way. This week, the children also worked together with construction materials, especially the coloured magnetic blocks on the light panel. The children came up in pairs and had to build something together using the blocks, as well as to make a plan and reach their common goal. It taught them kindness, to resolve conflicts, build friendships, respect others, understand how their input is essential to the successful outcome of the group, develop more positive feelings about others, develop team-spirit , work collaboratively, share ideas and take on responsibilities, learn and study each other’s emotions, foster healthy competition with others and to be confident. The more a child is around others the more the brain is stimulated, as they are constantly exploring others and everything around them.
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Stage 3
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Stage 4
By Cassandra Holmes, Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel, Kristina Rocchi and Bri Rees
Incorporating mindfulness, meditation and positive affirmations in our classroom Our introduction to mindful meditations in Cassandra’s classroom, has been a wonderful opportunity to pause in our school day and learn to be ‘present’ in the moment’. After our beautifully calm mediative moment, each child has been offered the opportunity to select a positive ‘Affirmation Card’ to help children build on self-esteem, confidence, resilience and set healthy boundaries.
Stephen: ‘I am nice.’ Edie: ‘I am nice to my friends.’ Julian: ‘I am strong.’ Freyja: ‘I am Kind’. Jude: ‘I love me.’ Harry: ‘I am smart.’
These have encouraged phrases such as: ‘I talk about my feelings.’ ‘It’s OKAY to just be me.’ ‘I am thankful for everything I have.’ ‘My body is beautiful just the way it is.’ What are positive affirmations? Affirmations are positive phrases or statements that you say to yourself to challenge unhelpful thoughts. You may choose to use them to motivate yourself, encourage positive changes or boost your self-esteem. You can train your brain to think in a more positive and beneficial way to promote wellbeing. Core belief patterns start from an early age and empowering children can equip them with lifelong strategies to positively address their mind and body daily. Affirmations teach you new and positive ways of thinking. They can help you believe in yourself, feel happy and help you to feel better when you are angry or sad. Let’s try them and see what we think? Affirmations encourage kind and happy ways of thinking – you will remember them when you need them most.
During our classroom provocation, I invited the children to make their own contribution to our Affirmation Cards. Here is what the children decided to write and draw for their very own card: Eleanor: ‘Breathe in and out.’ REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER
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Stage 4
By Cassandra Holmes, Jane Pledger, Sandra Carberry, Nina Bergel, Kristina Rocchi and Bri Rees
Chloe: ‘I am happy.’ Bailey: ‘I like to do teamwork.’ Jacob: ‘I listen.’ Savannah: ‘I am calm.’
The simple act of reading these positive and encouraging words will help our children affirm positive beliefs. This creates a fantastic foundation that will help children to internalise good values, which allows them to develop confidence and a healthy dose of self esteem. Affirmations are a powerful and holistic way of building a positive mind and happy children. It nurtures their authentic self and helps them to enjoy the magic of childhood. Saying positive phrases to themselves can also help them move through tricky situations. “I can do this!” This provocation is also very timely, as children prepare for the next exciting educational journey of Kindergarten. Creating a space for open questioning about any worries they may hold, will equip children with strategies that can help them feel positive, excited and motivated. Our creations of our positive affirmation cards are proudly on display in our Stage 4 Piazza. We welcome you to view and share this special learning experience with your child and family members to further enhance the children’s sense of achievement and ownership within our learning space.
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Stage 4
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Reddam Early Learning would like to wish a very happy birthday to Neo George Anthony Wong & Arthur McMicking who celebrate their special day this week We hope you have a fabulous day!
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