Amy’s Message 13 MAY 2016 - Reddam Housereddamhouse.com.au/PDF/2016/ELS/ELSVol16Issue13.pdf · mothers in our lives we chose to make a beautiful painting of Celeste, who ended up

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | WOOLLAHRA NEWSLETTER 1

Amy’s Message By Amy Goodlace, Principal

Dear Families,

I would like to thank all the lovely parents

and carers who took the time to join us

for our Mother‟s Day mornings this week.

The children worked very hard in

preparation, baking delicious treats for

the celebration as well as the loving,

heart-felt gifts that they presented to

their families. We hope that you enjoyed

your pamper sessions with the children!

We were so proud of all their efforts!

A special mention must also be given to

our wonderful staff who spent extra time

this week ensuring everything was

perfect for these important celebrations.

We now move our focus onto our Open

day this Sunday were we will be proudly

show casing our beautiful school to the

public. We invite our families to join us to

see what Reddam Early Learning School,

Primary and High School offers our

children and community.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Warm Regards,

Amy Goodlace

13 MAY 2016


The Nest Celeste, The Mummy Elephant By Tatiana Botrel, Mary Claire Cronin and Ma Yanran

In the book corner, Archer often requests a

teacher to read him “Babar and his family”,

by Laurent De Brunhoff. He laughs, points to

pictures and excitedly turns the pages.

Observing how much he loves this book,

other children end up joining him and it

often becomes small group time, where

the children join in together for a nice and

relaxing story time.

One day, while Teacher Shirley was reading

this book, Imogen identified in the pictures

who the mummy was, happily pointing to

Celeste (the mother elephant) and saying

out loud with a smile on her face: “Mummy,

Mummy!” and then again on the other

pages. Aanya also started pointing to the

mother figure in the book and soon all of

the other children wanted to show us they

knew who the mummy was in the pictures.

This experience showed the children„s

perception skills and how well they are

able to “read” books. It was also a great

opportunity to talk about mummies, as

Mother‟s Day was approaching. We read

the book many times and spoke to the

children about all the amazing things

mummies do for all of us.

To express our love to all the amazing

mothers in our lives we chose to make a

beautiful painting of Celeste, who ended

up being an inspiration to develop the

Mother‟s Day subject in our group.

Everyday is Mummy Day, and we wish all

families a lovely day to be spent with the

most special people in your lives.

Happy Mother‟s Day!

To celebrate this special occasion all

mummies were invited for a fun morning in

the Nest classroom. Not only did they enjoy

watching and playing with the children in

our space but they also enjoyed two

special activities. The first one was a

Pamper Station where bub & mum could

share a relaxing hand massage. The

second activity was a Drawing Station.

During the special morning, the mummies

were served a delicious treat made by the

children during the week. At the end of the

celebration, the children proudly gave their

mummies their beautiful present. We would

like to thank all families who joined their

children in the celebrations.


The Nest Photo Gallery


The Nest Photo Gallery


Fledglings Celebrating Our Mummies

In the past week, the children in the

Fledglings classroom worked really hard

to prepare a nice morning to celebrate

Mother‟s Day. Celebrating Mother‟s Day

gives us the opportunity to really show our

mummies how special they are to us.

The children read different stories and

talked about how much they love their

mummies. The Fledglings came together

and created beautiful flowers to be

displayed in their documentation wall.

This was the result of conversations the

children had with their teachers during

the week when they decided that flowers

was something that would make their

mummies happy.

After getting all the presents and cards

ready and wrapped for the special day,

the children also helped their teachers to

make Coconut Ice. This delicious treat

was served in our celebration along with

some refreshing tea infused with fruit.

During our celebration the families were

invited to participate in activities with

their children. On one table, a bowl with

soapy water was beautifully set so

children and mums exchanged relaxing

hand massages. On another table, they

created beautiful bracelets by threading

coloured beads.

At the end of the celebration, it was very

special to watch the children proudly

giving their mummies their beautiful

present.

The Fledglings would like to thank all the

families for participating in our first group

celebration. These special events are

prepared with much love to you all with

the aim of building our school family.

Outcome 2: Children are connected with

and contribute to their world. EYLF, 2009.


Fledglings Photo gallery


Fledglings Photo Gallery


Stage 2 Mummy you’re special to me

The beginning of the term has focused

on preparing for our Mother‟s Day

celebrations this week.

We read many stories about our mums

including “Mummy, you‟re special to me”

by Liane Mitchell and Kim Fleming. The

children have enjoyed listening to this

story of a Little Giraffe‟s journey as he

shares what makes his mum special to him

and to his friends. This prompted us to ask

the question about what it was that

made our mums so special. There was a

lot of chatter about how our mums read

stories and gave hugs and kisses. The

Kookaburra‟s drew a picture of their

mums and the Tree Frogs wanted to

make a flower display of tulips.

You now know why the children were

coming home with black paint on their

feet. Our presents of footprints on a bag

was lots of fun to make and we hope that

you love them as much as the children

enjoyed making them. We also gave our

mummies our fingerprint cards.

We loved preparing the morning tea

baking muffins and icing biscuits.

Our mummies are very special and we

hope that you all enjoyed your special

day.

What’s Next?

The children have continued to show an

interest in the natural world around them

and we will be starting to look more

closely this term at the mini world that

lives with us. Stay tuned as we begin our

investigations, observations and

discoveries over the coming weeks.

Specialist Classes

This term we have….

Wednesday- Sport with Spencer

Friday- Music with Justin.

The children are really enjoying these

additional classes.

Don‟t forget to read our daily diary for all

of the up to date daily experiences and

also the following pages which highlight

the specialist class programs.


Stage 2 Photo Gallery








Stage 3 Celebrating Mother’s Day By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan

Welcome back to all our families. A special

welcome in the Koala room to Rafi who is

transitioning from the Thursday and Friday

group to our Monday to Wednesday group.

Also to Livvy who has joined our Monday to

Wednesday group and Agastya who has

joined our Thursday to Friday Group. In the

Wombat room we welcome Oliver who has

increased his days to a fulltime student at

Reddam ELS. Joshua has also made the

move from being a two-day Platypus to

being a full time student in the Kangaroo‟s.

Welcome to all.

This Term on a Monday to Wednesday we

will be enjoying two specialist classes. On

Mondays we will have Sports with Spencer

and on Tuesdays we will have Music with

Justin. We will also be joined by Laura for

dance and drama on Friday mornings.

Justin introduced us to a new greeting

song. It went like this:

Hello, how you do?

It‟s nice to be with you,

It‟s great to be here together with you.

Each time we sang the song we introduced

a new action.

Justin also brought an unusual instrument for

us to see and hear. We had great fun

helping him to play it.

We also used colourful material to sing the

peek squirrel song.

“I liked it when we did Twinkle Twinkle.” Indy

“I liked it because it was fun, dancing was

the best.” Asher

“I liked the whistle.” Ella

“I just liked Incey Wincey Spider. It just was

funny.” Harriette

“I liked it when he did the whistle.” Sophie J

“I liked the music because we lay down at

the show.” Stelios

“I liked doing Incey Wincey Spider.” Livvy

“I liked the dancing.” Sophie F

“I liked the music.” Rafi

During dance and drama, the children

explored the world Wonderland with Alice,

the White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts.

“I liked being the Queen.” Freja

“I just loved being in the tunnel.” Aerin

“I liked being the King.” Harriet

“I liked going under the tunnel.” Sebastian

“I liked the dancing.” Ines

“I liked running in the tunnel.” Hugo

“Me too, I liked the tunnel.” Agastya


Stage 3 Celebrating Mother’s Day By Nina Bergel, Christina Mandalidis, Susan Casey, Elizabeth Turner and Jason Corrigan

This week in sport with Spencer we started the

session with some warm up sprints. We

followed these sprints with animal exercises

such as kangaroo hoops, lion crawls and

crocodile snaps. These also help to develop

coordination, stability and balance and core

strength.

Once our bodies were warmed up we played

the colour hoops game. Spencer laid out a

number of different coloured hoops. He

called out a colour and the children had to

find a hoop of that colour. This game helps to

develop spatial awareness. The children learn

to follow colour associated quest. They also

engage in dynamic movement as it‟s a stop

start game and they must change direction,

running straight and left to right. We finished

with some free play where the children

played with basketballs and explored their

new environment.

The Stage Three children had a fabulous time

exploring the female role models in their lives

in connection with Mothers Day. We also

explored diversity within the family setting.

Some families have two daddies and some

families have two mummies, some children

live with their grandparents and some

children have one mum or dad.

It is so nice that each child can explore and

investigate within their own world and have

an understanding of diversity within other

families.

Each child got to draw a picture of their

female role model and they told us what they

loved most about them.

We were very excited to get to the kitchen to

make brownies for our Mother‟s Day

celebration. We all had a turn stirring our

mixture. Asher thought it might be a good

idea if we each got to lick the spoon, but we

had a little think and concluded that we

might end up spreading our germs.

“I‟ll bring Mummy some flowers.” Asher

“I just love Mum and Mothers day.” Harriette

“We mixed the brownies.” Stelios

“They are for our Mummies because its

Mothers day.” Sophie J

“We mixed the egg.” Sophie F

“And then the chocolate.” Sophie J

“We‟re making nice things for our Mummies.”

Indy

A big thank you to all the wonderful mothers

and grandmothers who attended our Mothers

day celebration this week. The children loved

pampering you and so proudly showed off

their classrooms, presenting all their work. It

was such an enjoyable morning.








Stage 3




Stage 4 Celebrating Mother’s Day ByAnita Martin, Cheryl Freeman, Kristina Rocchi, Jane Pledger,Sandra Carberry and Tim Nichols

We appreciate our mums everyday of the year. In fact, we all have an important female in our lives, may it be a granny, nanny, aunt or even a friendly neighbour. This celebration is a valuable opportunity for also recognising the diversity within in our families at school and in the wider community. While some children have a mother and a father, others may have two mums, two dads, a single mum or dad or maybe grandparents raising them. We use this celebration as a teachable opportunity to discuss and acknowledge the many kinds of families and the many caring adults who are in our children‟s lives. The children had a very busy week in preparation for Mother‟s Day. They all drew

and created pictures of their mum or important person in their life. Each child enjoyed sharing many wonderful qualities about their mum(s) or special person. The children were also busy baking some lovely delicious treats which were shared during the mother‟s day morning tea. For a

special surprise the children treated their mummies or chosen person to a lovely and

relaxing hand massage and beaded bracelet which was made with love on the day. Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity 1.3 - Children develop knowledge and confident self-identities Learning Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. 2.1 - Having a positive sense of identity and experiencing respectful, responsive relationships, strengthens children‟s interest

and skills in being and becoming active contributors to their world. 2.2 - Children respond to diversity with respect. Learning Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing 1.1 - Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing. Learning Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators 5.1 - Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.








Dancearama By Laura Hudson

Stage 3 Objectives:

Children will work together to create a time

machine using their body as well as their

voice to be transported to different

countries.

Skills learnt this week:

Creating a soundscape using their voice.

Look at how people in different countries

greet one another. Worked as a team,

developing the story, each child having

their input

Key Arts Vocabulary: Poem, character,

personal space, imagination, voice, body,

freeze, soundscape and teacher in role

Activities include:

Teacher in Role (TIR)

A poem was introduced explaining who the

teacher was and where she wanted to go

(Stage 3 & 4)

Discuss the poem and what a time

machine is/show them pictures (Stage 3&4)

The children explored the travel machine,

and created a Soundscape

Each child used their body to create the

shape of the time machine and as a group

they decided what movements to use so

the machine could take them to a special

place.

The time machine transported the children

to a number of countries including England

where they visited the Queen, drank tea,

tried to make the Queen‟s soldiers laugh

and did some wonderful country dancing;

Antarctica - the children used there bodies

and facial expressions to show how cold it

was, using the parachute to create waves,

going underneath the water as an animal,

imitating specific creature movements and

sat in an igloo and cooked fish


Dancearama By Laura Hudson

Stage 4 Objectives:

Students will visit a make believe land and

meet a number of characters related to the

Alice in Wonderland Story. The children will

use their imagination, voice and listening skills

to help the main character in the story,

developing the drama along the way.

Skills learnt this week:

Mime

Using with their voice

Facial Expressions

Work in pairs and Individually

Experimenting with Rhyming words

Activities include:

Teacher in role as the white rabbit exploring

the concept of being “late”

The children used their imagination to go

down the rabbit hole (tunnel) before arriving

at the tea party

Played charades with cards to focus on MIME.

Each card was coloured, Red = Action,

Green = Object Blur = Animal. The children

used their body and facial expressions to

show what was on the card

Rhyming words – At the Mad Hatters Tea Party

there is always a play on the word star and

then a rhyming sentence that comes next.

Words were placed in a hat in the middle of

the table (at the tea party) and they had to

use the word they had picked to finish the

sentence and make up a new one (e.g. they

picked the word Cat, Twinkle Twinkle Little

Cat, why are you hiding in the Mad Hatter‟s

Hat)

I Spy the Cheshire cat – a number of pictures

where placed around the room and the

children had to find them

Discussed what Status means

The Queen of Hearts says game (Played like

Simon Say‟s) – One of the children dressed up

as the Queen of hearts, as soon as they put

the costume on they became powerful and

instructed the others to do what they said

otherwise she would become very mad

(ordered them to jump up and down, spin

around, balance on one leg etc.) Some of

the children had a turn at being the Queen


Physical Education By Spencer Clifton

Stage 2 had another great week of sport.

We started the lesson off with some warm

up sprints, followed by our core

strengthening exercises that included

three new animal movements namely the

duck, donkey and worm. These

movements target key areas for the

development of the children's core

strength, stability, co-ordination as well

as stimulates their imagination.

Our next activity involved a new game

called duck, duck, goose. Which focuses

on stand up/sit down movement and

running that correlates to the

strengthening aspects, decision making,

locomotive skills and spatial awareness.

How the game works:-

The children sit in a circle, One child, who

is the tipper, walks around the outside of

the circle, touching each head, saying,

"Duck" each time. Then, after four or five

taps, saying, "Goose!" The tipper then runs

around the circle away from the Goose,

who is now chasing him or her, trying to

get around the circle and back to the

empty spot and sit down before being

caught by the Goose. The old Goose

becomes the new tipper.

Stage 3 and stage 4's had another

successful week of sport. We started off

with a warm up that expanded on last

weeks animal movements and included

three new exercises namely the donkey

kick, slithery snake and duck walk.

Our next activity was the start of our

exploration into the ball skills aspect of

fundamental movements. We started off

with static control of the soccer ball, this

involved the children standing next their

ball whilst balancing one foot on top.

Foot placement and body positioning are

key to achieving the exercise goal. The

second exercise in the activity involved

controlled dribbling, the children were

encouraged to dribble across the

exercise area with the ball performing a

close controlled kick.

Documents

Amy’s Message 13 MAY 2016 - Reddam Housereddamhouse.com.au/PDF/2016/ELS/ELSVol16Issue13.pdf · mothers in our lives we chose to make a beautiful painting of Celeste, who ended up