simone’s message - reddam house · simone’s message . by simone cooke, principal. reading to...
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1 REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER 1
Simone’s Message By Simone Cooke, Principal
Reading to Children
It is never too early to nurture a love of reading!!! By reading to your baby, toddler or pre-
schooler you are fostering a love of books and reading which they can take with them
throughout their lives. Teaching children from a young age how to hold and care for a book
sends important messages on the value you place on reading and models expectations on
how a book is to be treated. From a young age, children can be taught how to turn pages,
view illustrations and read along to favourite stories. Discourage tearing or damaging books
and provide babies with hard bound or cloth books which can endure hard play. Repetition is
extremely important when it comes to reading to children .Although you may tire from reading
the same old books children love nothing better than making predictions, repeating and re
reading familiar stories.
As Toddlers particularly love everything action based, encourage them to join in the story
by finishing a phrase or rhyme in the book. Try to read with expression and exaggeration and
encourage them to label and describe what they see in the illustrations. Books with lift up tabs
are very popular with this age as they love the cause and effect of predicting what is beneath.
Remember to ask regular questions about the story, which will help to build their vocabulary
and language development. Reading together each night not only builds good concentration
and listening skills at this age but is a lovely, calm way to end the day together.
When reading with your pre-schooler you can assist in building up their pre reading skills by
pointing out the direction of print and the fact that it runs from left to right. Discuss individual
words, letters and sounds and discuss how they are separated by spaces. As you read each
page you can teach simple decoding skills by pointing to each of the words with your finger,
using this one to one correspondence reinforces to the child that each word conveys meaning.
Encourage them to guess what a word might say by looking for clues in the illustrations and
build phonemic awareness by talking to your child about the sound that individual letters
Remember that learning the sound a letter makes is more important that learning its name!
Above all else put the laptop or iPad aside once in a while and pick up a book!!
I am attaching a list of some tried and tested favourites you may like to share with your child.
17TH MARCH 2017
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Babies
Peepo - Janet Ahlberg
Time for Bed - Mem Fox
We‟re Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen
Each Peach Pear Plum - Janet Ahlberg
My Brown Bear Barney - Elizabeth Fuller
Where‟s My Teddy? – Jex Alborough
Close Your Eyes – Kate Banks
More, More, More, Said the Baby – Vera B Williams
Gossie - Olivier Dunrea
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes – Mem Fox
Where is the Green Sheep? - Mem Fox
Toddlers
Guess How Much I Love You – Sam McBratney
The Gruffalo - Julia Donaldson
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
Where‟s Spot? – Eric Hill
Koala Lu – Mem Fox
Counting Kisses – Karen Katz
Are You my Mother? Phillip D Eastman
Who said Moo? – Harriet Zefert
Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell
Where is the Green Sheep? - Mem Fox
Preschoolers
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson‟s Dairy – Lyndsay Potts
The Paperbag Princess – Robert N Munsch
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viosrst
Possum Magic – Mem Fox
There‟s a Hippo on My Roof Eating Cake – Hazel Edwards
The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein
The Rainbow Fish – Marcus Pfister
The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams
Clive Eats Alligators – Alison Lester
Who Sank the Boat? Pamela Allen
Simone’s Message, continued By Simone Cooke
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This week we combined two of our favourite things – cars and drawing. The result was a beautiful
masterpiece and lots of fun. The children had great fun pushing, pulling, racing and moving cars around
the paper as well as picking them up to check out the pens and of course get covered in it. Luckily they
are the Crayola washable ones!! .We will definitely be doing this again.
This simple play could be extended further by encouraging the children to make patterns. I also plan to
try this outside using chunky chalks (once it stops raining!) or even with paint and paintbrushes for some
messy play. Not only was this activity quick and easy to set up it covered the 7 areas of learning and
development set out in the EYLS. The following was observed with the 12month olds and 14 month olds
Physical development: fine motor skills, passing toys from one hand to another
Personal, social and emotional development: playing alongside others, interested in what other
children do.
Literacy: early mark making, beginning to distinguish between marks that have been made.
Maths: counting cars, language of size, noticing patterns.
Understanding the world: knows cars are for pushing.
Expressive arts and design: notices mark making, experiments with colours and marks
Communication and language: learning new words (colours)
Spices Painting
Spice Painting is a fun way to make some creative art – with a sensory twist! To make the spice paint we
poured washable white paint into small bowls, then added turmeric, cardamom and cinnamon.
The more spice we added the deeper was the colour. The children were very keen to be responsible for
mixing all the varieties.
The smell from the spices was fantastic! We all really enjoyed the specific smell of each spice when
he used a particular paint. We just loved the earthy tones of the different paints!The children were
encourage to pour the spices into the paint, mix it, smell it , paint it and then when they were finished we
decided to sprinkle a bit more spice to the final product. It was great to see the different reactions when
they were asked to smell the spices . Come and check which spice your child chose to create their
artwork.
Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings By Gabriela Guimaraes
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Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings Spice Painting
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Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings Spice Painting
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Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings Outdoor Exploration
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Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings Dramatic Play
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Stage 1: The Nest & Hatchlings
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Sensory Safari
Every week the Fledglings group is exposed to activities that aim to support their creativity,
imagination and social skills. While observing how the children love both sensory and pretend/
imaginative play we decided to set up a table with wild animals, kinetic sand, pieces of wood
and sticks.
Kinetic Sand is an easily mouldable yet flowing substance. It is not just sand! It is a substance that
when squeezed becomes a solid mass that can be moulded into different forms that remains in
a shape, but with a simple touch it can flow with amazing motion. It looks like wet sand but is
fact it is completely dry!
While some children loved holding the sand, creating patterns with their fingers and wooden
sticks and creating “ a Savannah habitat ” others were not that keen to explore it. In fact it is a
new sensory activity and it might take some of the children some time to get used to its
consistency.
As we continue to explore our provocation 100 Colours the children were exposed to an activity
consisting of different materials in different colours and got to experiment with glue. They were
able to choose two colours to create beautiful rainbow colours. Once again it was great to
observe their colour preferences, the objects they want to use and how they glued. We
presented the children with a collage tray containing feathers, pom poms, and pieces of colour
paper, cellophane, sticks, pipe cleaners and straws. It seems like a simple art activity but in fact it
involves making pictures and designs by pasting different materials, textures, objects and shapes
onto a background. While choosing the collage materials the children are able to make choices
about what materials they want to use giving them a sense of autonomy. As the children select
and paste with collage materials they engage in ways which foster the imaginative and
creativity
Our Fledglings group would like to say a big Happy Birthday to James and Blake and we wish you
all an amazing weekend.
Stage 1: Fledglings By Michele Santos
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Stage 1: Fledglings Sensory Safari
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Stage 1: Fledglings Sensory and Creative Play
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Stage 1: Fledglings 100 Colours Collage
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Stage 2: Chicks, Sparrows & Robins By Kasia Rymarczyk
Dear Parents,
I hope you have had a wonderful week. We certainly did, as all the children were truly
engaged in their learning through constructive play as well as creative and hands- on
experiences, carefully planned and prepared by their teachers. This balance of planned
and spontaneous experiences enables children to improve their skills, use their curiosity,
explore their creative skills and develop life skills for the real world.
Probably the most well-known aspect of the Reggio Emilia and Reddam alike philosophy
is the belief that children use many different ways to show their understanding and
express their thoughts and creativity. A hundred different ways of thinking, of discovering,
of learning. Through drawing and sculpting, through dance and movement, through
painting and pretend play, through modelling and music, and that each one of
these Hundred Languages is valued and nurtured. These languages, or ways of
learning, are all a part of the child. Our philosophy emphasises hands-on discovery and
learning that allows the child to use all their senses and all their languages to learn.
As we follow our Minibeasts project we can clearly observe the children using all their
senses and languages to discover and process new and interesting facts and
information.
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Stage 2: Observational Drawings of Insects By Kasia
The Robins group along with several of the Stage 2s visited the drawing provocation table during
morning routine to do an observational drawing activity.
Some children were more confident than others in holding pencils and making distinguishable
marks on the blank paper. They all, however, used pencils to represent their thoughts.
Observational drawing is not about creating a flawless resemblance of a subject; just like all other
“languages”– painting, sculpting, dance, drama, music – it is another way for children to make
their thinking visible. Observational drawings can be something as simple as a provoking image in
a book. In our class, however, we used the topic of insects using 3D models as well as the
photographs representing them as a stimulus. We provided the children with ample drawing
materials that included watercolours pencils, fine tipped markers and sharpened quality coloured
pencils. We encouraged the children to draw what they saw and showed them that we value
their ideas.
Children of this age may not be able to draw an exact replica, however their expressive art
always impresses me. I was fortunate enough to observe children drawing insects in flight, insects
with many, many eyes and lots of legs. Drawings representing worms sliding in circular
movements and complicated colonies of ants marching up the hill. It was interesting
combination of what they could see and what they could imagine. It is a constant reminder that
children need opportunities to express themselves through many mediums and always have
someone willing to listen and value their ideas.
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Stage 2: Observational Drawings of Insects
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Stage 2: Cocoon Sculpturing By Kasia Rymarczyk
The Sparrows are continuing to explore the life cycle of the butterfly, carefully studying Eric Carle
style artworks in his famous “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” book. When we pre-tested the children,
most were uncertain what a “cocoon” was, so the teachers decided to use the technique of
paper mache sculpturing to explain better this complex nature wonder.
Using recycled paper, glue and balloons the children got completely lost in the process of
making their cacoons. Dipping, tearing and sticking the straps of paper was a truly enjoyable and
relaxing experience, not only for the children may I add! The children started by studying
the shapes of the cocoons and then engaged as a group in the process of making it. The
hardest part of the whole process was for the children to wait, wait and wait…until the sculpture
was dry. The main learning focus of this activity was for the children to collaborate, observe and
work as a team. They communicated, exchanged ideas and explored the concept of one
of the most incredible life cycle amongst the insects family.
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Stage 2: Cocoon Sculpturing
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Stage 2: Symmetrical Insect Painting By Kasia Rymarczyk
As part of our fun provocation "The World of Mini Beasts", we have done so many activities
related to different bugs and insects. To develop our little Chicks‟ creativity further, we decided to
do a symmetrical insect painting as an extension activity. This artwork was fabulous fun as well as
being a great opportunity to build and reinforce the children‟s fine motor skills and their basic
understanding of the concept of symmetry .
The children selected their special shiny paint bottle and squeezed it onto their folded paper.
When they had their paint just where they wanted it, they were shown how to fold the paper
again by themselves. They then used their little fingers to gently rub on top of the paper to let the
paint distribute evenly.
When they were ready they peeled back the paper to reveal their gorgeous insects inside! It
was a perfect time to point out the concept of symmetry. We looked at the beautiful insects we
had created and talked about the pattern they made and how this has been transferred to the
other side and both sides match, just like a mirror. How clever we are!!!
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Stage 2: Symmetrical Insect Painting
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Dinosaur Provocation
Everyone has been interested in dinosaurs this week so to follow on from the children‟s
interests, a dinosaur corner has been set up inside. The group have explored the
different types of dinosaurs and we have practised the pronunciation of some of the
dinosaur names which can be a bit tricky. We tried our hand at cave paintings on
black paper with white paint which looked very effective on our dinosaur board. A
suggestion was made by one of the children to „dig for dinosaur‟ bones in the sandpit
outside, which we will follow up on next week! More dinosaur fun to come for our
aspiring Archaeologists as the children explore and engage in social and learning
experiences surrounding our Prehistoric Provocation.
Welcome to Our New Friends!
We would like to give a very warm welcome to our two new students, Helen and
Lucia. They have both joined our group with great enthusiasm and we are very happy
that you have joined the Kookaburras group. We wish you many happy learning
experiences here at Reddam and look forward to growing and learning with you both!
Stage 3 - Kookaburras By Riina Andrew
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Stage 3: Kookaburras Dinosaur Exploration
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Stage 3: Kookaburras Social and Creative Play
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Stage 3: Kookaburras Hand-Eye Coordination
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This week the Flamingos continued their Indigenous artwork by looking at and discussing
different Indigenous symbols.
We used the iPad and went on the internet to find some Indigenous symbols. We came
across a page that had been put together with lots of different symbols that the
children found to be very fascinating. Each child picked a symbol that they liked and
copied it onto a piece of paper. Once they had practiced drawing their symbol, the
children then used cotton tips and paint to draw the same symbol onto a smooth white
rock. The children had a lovely time looking at each other's symbols and asking what
each one meant.
As the week went on the children began showing an interest in dinosaurs. The dramatic
play corner has ben set up with a prehistoric theme and the children are absolutely
loving it. We have discussed what the word 'Prehistoric' means and the children have
displayed their prior knowledge and understanding of this word through our class
discussions and a visual representation. We will begin focusing on the prehistoric world
over the next few weeks and see where this child led interest takes us.
Learning Outcome 4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with
people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
Stage 3 - Flamingos By Amanda McDonald
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Stage 3: Flamingos Discovering Symbols, Prints & Dinosaurs
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Stage 4 - Rosellas By Sue Mayer
Literacy and numeracy are more than just recognising letters and numbers it encompasses a much
deeper understanding. The Reggio Emilia Approach to learning that we follow here at Reddam encour-
ages children to learn at this much deeper level.
Research indicates that to understand the foundation of language you have to understand the sounds
of the alphabet, this is called phonological awareness. During our day we practice writing our names
and are starting to encourage writing of letters, words and numbers in our project work, encouraging
correct pencil grip each time a child puts pen to paper and the sounds of letters in words.
Over the past week as part of our Provocation the children in the Rosellas group have been investigat-
ing the eye and what our eyes actually do. To increase awareness of letters and letter recognition we
labelled an eye and looked at different ways that the eye can be drawn. We practiced writing our
names on the whiteboard and counted our letters to see who had the longest name. Children learn to
recognise the letters in their own name first and at this stage of development are beginning to cogni-
tively write the shapes needed for each letter. This takes practice and each child will develop at their
own rate.
Ways that you can help at home is to encourage your child to hold a pencil using the correct grip. One
way is to scrunch up a tissue and hold it with your pinky and ring finger using your middle finger to rest
the pencil on, holding the pencil between your thumb and second finger. When you are in the car you
might play games such as "I Spy", "What rhymes with...." or as you read story book talk about the book
beyond the words to encourage a greater understanding of words and their meanings.
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Stage 4: Rosellas Early Literacy
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Stage 4: Cockatoos By Bernadette Casey
Stage Four continue their investigation into the process and product of Art. Our paper mache
masks set over the weekend and the children have been able to creatively express themselves
as they design, paint and decorate.
The children showed a connection to prior learning as they implemented some of the things
they had learned about facial expression along with the purpose of masks as they engaged in
their art experience. We have seen everything from lady beetles and fairies, to ghosts, bats,
aliens, dinosaurs and even a possum be created. The really amazing part about this art explo-
ration was how independently the children worked, requiring very little teacher interaction to
complete their masks or to remain focused through the process. I am so proud of how unique
each child‟s mask is, they are a true reflection of their interests and hard work. With interest re-
maining in this area, we look forward to seeing what else we can create and learn about
masks.
This week in Group time we have placed a focus on literacy, particularly hand writing. The chil-
dren love to learn how to correctly write their letters in foundation handwriting, however, some
struggle to hold the pencil correctly and form the correct shapes. To assist the children with
this, we went back to basics. We looked at working towards using the correct pencil grip and
began to practice making hopping patterns that are used to make up the letters “mnr hpb”.
We wrote our names and then underlined the „hopping letters‟ we used guides to help us for
the „hops‟ correctly and then tried it on our own, we used our hands in the air like magic
wands to draw the letters and then used our whole bodies to make the bends that occur in
different letters. This multi sensory approach ensures that all children utilize their own personal
learning styles and these are accounted for in the Stage Four classroom. If your child is show-
ing interest in this area you can follow this up at home by encouraging the recognition of let-
ters (outside of singing the alphabet) and looking for the „hop‟ shape present in some letters.
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Stage 4: Cockatoos
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Music By Justin Sze
Stage 1 & 2:
This week, we have a new theme for the children. Once again, children are discovering they have fin-
gers 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.
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 chil-
dren 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. Chil-
dren 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 sequenc-
es and patterns. This helps develop mathematical thinking.
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Music
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Mandarin Class 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 listen-
ing to the pronunciation of Mandarin words within the show.
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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, repeti-
tion 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 repe-
tition 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 op-
portunity 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 chil-
dren 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
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Yoga