Reddam Early Learning School Newsletter Vol 22 Issue 9

REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL LINDFIELD NEWSLETTER Principal’s Message

By Christine Irwin

Dear Parents, Well, what a week. Thanks to the glorious sunshine the children and educators have been enjoying the outdoors as the photos on the following pages highlight. We have been adding to our outdoor resources and will be continuing to do so over the coming weeks to increase children’s physical development and motor skills.

Children’s fine and gross motor skills develop rapidly throughout their early years, so an imperative part of our program is our time outdoors in our beautiful playgrounds.

Children naturally enjoy active play and the opportunity to socialise with others during this time. In turn, this provides opportunities for the educators to provide experiences to develop and enhance children’s gross motor development. Having a combination of planned experiences outdoors and free play helps children develop strong bodies and develop their love of exercise and active play.

Here at Reddam Lindfield, we are fortunate to have our playgrounds connected to the indoor spaces including wide covered verandas that can be incorporated into our intentional learning times. It’s been wonderful to see our educators extending learning spaces to incorporate these areas and utilise key concepts to enhance all developmental domains.

Children enjoy and are intrinsically motivated by experiences that are enjoyable and allow them to succeed however, providing challenges and opportunities to take calculated risks where there are nearby adults to assist when needed refines not only their gross motor skills but increases their self- awareness and self-confidence.

The National Quality standard promotes that services have environments that are inclusive, promote competence, independent exploration, and learning through play (standard 3.2)

Principal’s Message

continued)

By Christine Irwin

Our Teachers at Reddam Lindfield are encouraged to reflect on the challenges and potential benefits of children taking calculated risks so they are able thoughtfully set up equipment and experiences to nurture children’s decision-making and time for assessing how they can accomplish the tasks successfully.

As Kidsafe New South Wales states - An ideal environment for developing and testing skills in safe, creative play environments. Children need opportunities to: • Develop skills in negotiating the environment (including risks); • Learn how to use equipment safely and for its designed purpose; • Develop coordination and orientation skills; • Take acceptable risks; and • Learn about the consequences (positive/negative) of risk-taking If you would like to learn more about the benefits of risky play in early childhood, please find the link to Kidsafe New South Wales below: https://www.kidsafensw.org/safety/playground-safety/challenging-play-risky/

Keep an eye on our playgrounds as we add to our natural environments in the next few weeks. Looking forward to chatting with you all soon.

Christine Irwin Principal

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Stage 1R

By Heather Gaskell

‘I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book’ J.K. Rowling

This week we have immersed ourselves into another series of delightful books, the Pig the Pug series by Aaron Blabey. These books have allowed us to provide the children with a range of learning experiences, starting with some handy maintenance of our little dog friends. The children were enthralled with the bathing of the dogs, and they enthusiastically bathed and scrubbed their little canine friends. The children also practised their prosocial behaviours by sharing and taking turns with the tools with their peers. The bubbles made it an especially fun experience for all.

During our small world play the children were fascinated with the different types of dogs, the colours and sizes. They used their initiative to manipulate the materials, and placed the dogs in their kennels. They also enjoyed role-playing as they fed the dogs their bones. We promoted prenumeracy skills with the children by counting how many bones they fed to the doggies. During the week, the weather was so nice that we took our group times outside to enjoy the crisp winter temperature together. We invited the children to sit and listen to the book Pig the Pug, which featured a pug who does not like to share and is always mean and rude to his friend. This story gave us an opportunity to converse with the children about sharing and being gentle with our friends.

One of our provocations inspired the children to participate in pretend play. This experience offered a range of veterinary care tools such as bandages, syringes, medical ointment, scalpel, scissors, face mask, tweezers and band aids. The children had all of the tools required to administer care to a sick animal. Through the learning experience the children had the opportunity to explore the veterinary care role in the world of adults. They offered medicine to sick dogs, gave them their shots, and had lots of cuddles with them too, developing their understanding of the needs of the animals.

To further the senses, the children were presented with a small world play where the dogs were having fun in the mud. The mud was made from cornstarch, water and black food colouring. The children were fascinated with the mud as it changed from a liquid to a solid when manipulated between their little fingers, enhancing their fine-motor skills and sense of touch.

Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend!

Heather, Doris and May

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Stage 1R

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Stage 1R

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Stage 1R

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Stage 1E

By Charity Acera

“You are much stronger than you think you are. Trust me.” (Superman) Our week about Superheroes gave the children an opportunity to express themselves through dramatic play, making their own cape collage artworks, sensory play, as well as using figurine toys to support their imagination and creativity. Studies have shown various benefits of superhero play among children. It presents children with opportunities to resolve conflicts and problem solve, helps children communicate their thoughts and feelings, and opens up conversations with children about everyday superpowers that we can all foster, e.g. resilience, friendship, listening skills and helping others when they are having a difficult time.

The provocation also gave the children opportunities to develop their gross-motor skills while building homes out of soft foam blocks, pretending to be superheroes during the day, and flying, running and tumbling alongside their peers. The benefits of reading books such as Super Bear, Paw Patrol Pups, and more also ignite the children’s ability to develop their own detailed narratives and storyline, may they be expressed verbally or nonverbally. Throughout the week, we discussed the safety and limitations of appropriate play. Real-life superheroes such as firefighters, the police and paramedics cannot fly and run fast as lightning, however they can help us in emergency situations and keep us safe. This helped the children realise their own capacity of strength and safety play, especially when around other peers. Also, the best learning experience is teaching children to value how small actions are also heroic in their own way and they might make a big difference to others. Everyone can be a hero when they show compassion and care for others.

It was such a delight to see our children becoming so relaxed in their learning environment. Their participation in their play as they enjoyed their own solitary play indicated that they are welladjusted children. They can dream of becoming anything they’d like to become, and we will continue to support the children in developing their confidence.

Next week’s focus will be on exploring ‘The Imaginary World of Felt’. This provocation topic will spark the children’s curiosity when exploring the world around them through their sense of touch and sight.

Wishing you a lovely weekend ahead!

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Stage 1E

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Stage 1E

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Stage 2R

By Sara Haddadi

“ To raise a nature-bonded child is to raise a rebel, a dreamer, an innovator… someone who will walk their own verdant, winding path.” (Nicolette Sowder) Wild animals are a great topic to focus on because they are a large part of the natural world. This week, 2R had the opportunity to discuss their pre-existing knowledge of wild animals, while also taking in some new information about how these creatures live. We discovered that the animals themselves build their own habitats, which are very different from ours. Wild animals have particular abilities such as flying, digging, and climbing, and must find their own food in order to survive. Additionally, 2R learnt about the animals’ differences and similarities, which encouraged their natural curiosity and nurtured their love and curiosity towards wild animals.

Zebras have fascinated us for centuries, primarily because of their intricate and distinctly patterned black and white stripes. The teachers created a zebra slime experience for our little zebra lovers as the children twisted the black and white slimes together and made a zigzag pattern. There were many entertaining stories from the children whilst they pulled and stretched the slime, at the same time strengthening their hand muscles and finemotor skills. Inspired by zebras, the art of the week invited 2R to create shaving cream zebra marbling art to represent their stripes.

Moreover, the natural small world sensory experiences introduced the children to wild animal habitats. There are numerous ways in which small world play supports children in their development. The most important one is that it invites them to be creative and imaginative, and boosts their confidence as they can experiment with different (both new and familiar) materials and build something exciting. It is also an excellent way to practise social skills as children can connect with each other, learn to take turns, listen to someone else’s ideas, and negotiate the play space.

It has been a pleasure for the teachers to support children in their growing awareness and interest in animals during Term 2, which has led them to understand the feeling of empathy, make positive classroom relationships, and enhance their social-emotional development. Children who learn to care for animals, according to ACECQA, gain knowledge about empathy, relationships, the environment and nature. It will also help to ensure that our beautiful planet and its wildlife will be preserved for future generations.

Next week, we will reflect on term two and the children will be provided with their favourite learning experiences in which they showed the most interest.

We wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Sara, Vivian, Lizzie, Jaycel and Connie.

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Stage 2E

By Mia Doan

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness” (John Muir) This week we went on a visual journey to explore Rainforest Habitats. Rainforests are defined as dense forests with high amounts of annual rainfall that are often located in tropical regions. A wide variety of animals are found in the rainforest and many have special adaptations that allow them to live in tropical conditions, however they cannot survive outside of this ecosystem.

Daily sensory, art and play-based activities were inspired by beautiful and colourful rainforests.

We invited the children to visit the different layers of the rainforest, in which we explored a diverse range of flora and fauna. Rainforest biomes offered the children opportunities to observe a variety of animals and their unique characteristics including birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects. The children were invited to engage in an open-ended experience, where they built a bird’s nest with natural grass, hay, sticks, and leaves. The children then delved into their exploration of frogs with slippery slime and water beads, which reflected frogs' eggs. With scoopers and a bowl, our clever children created imaginative play scenarios as they manipulated the water beads and frog figurines.

Through a range of picture books, our children enjoyed One Day on Our Blue Planet in the Rainforest by Ella Bailey. We listened to the story about a baby spider monkey trying to find his mother in different layers of a rainforest. Walking along with him, the children developed their understanding about why the animals live in each layer of the rainforest. Our second book was called The Great Green Rainforest by Paul Geraghty. There was a lot of noise in the forest, and after a tree mouse had an encounter with humans, it made her appreciate the sounds of her home. The children expressed their worries for the tree mouse and the other rainforest animals because they were losing their habitats due to deforestation.

To develop our children’s pre-numeracy skills, we invited the children to count rainforest animals including a range of birds, mammals and amphibians. The children counted how many of them on each card and placed the amounts of pebbles correctly to strengthen their one-to-one correspondence skills. At the art table, we created our artworks by using different sizes of leaves.

Each child chose the colours according to their preferences and it was lovely to see our young artists' confidence grow as they created their masterpieces.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Mia, Tracey, Xanthe, Shandie, Jenny, Chloe and Vianne

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Stage 2E

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Stage 3R

By Grace Nolan

“Giving young children an appreciation for art encourages exploration, self expression, logical thinking, self-esteem, imagination, and creativity. Early art experiences also teach kids to think openly, create new meaning, be more tolerant of others’ differences, and gives them the courage to take risks.” (Education.com, 2017) This short week we continue to explore and appreciate art, building upon last week's 'Art and Science' provocation. This week's artist in focus was Bundjalung illustrator and writer Bronwyn Bancroft. Using children’s books as inspiration, the children were invited to create their own Australian landscapes using ‘Shapes of Australia’ illustration. Using curved coloured paper, coloured circles, tissue paper and collage materials, the children were able to scrunch, glue and create wonderful swirling pieces of art.

The sensory table also used Bancroft’s ‘Colours of Australia’ illustration as a provocation while using purple play dough and numerous loose parts such as stones, buttons, paddle pop sticks and shells. The children used these materials liberally and open-endedly, demonstrating the wonderful use of loose parts, transient art and manipulation.

With the use of cardinal number matching cards, the children were welcomed to match typical Australian images to the corresponding cardinal numbers. The wooden cards were created by an Indigenous artist and feature traditional and typical Australian images, building upon the children’s emerging numeracy skills.

In our small groups this week we focused on writing through mark-making and drawing symbols.

Sitting at the long table, the children visited Miss Grace and drew different letters with modelled pencil grip and letter formations for the children to watch, copy and practise themselves. The children had a lot of fun testing their own alphabet knowledge and writing their own 'words'. The children then naturally moved on to draw pictures using the markers and whiteboards. This experience was followed up throughout the week with letter tracing experiences which featured outdoors against the wall, extending upon the children’s core strength, crossing their midline and enhancing their fine motor skills as they continue to master letter formations.

Another group were invited to engage in socio-dramatic role playing experiences to act out familiar social conflicts, inviting and inciting play with others and other common scenarios. The children enjoyed playing out different perspectives with guidance from their educator. This experience was offered in both explicit and informal groups.

Next week we focus on Mathematics.

Grace, Carina, Margaret and Shandie

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Stage 3R

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Stage 3E

By Natalie Horstman

“Pets are humanising. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.”

- James Cromwell This week, the children extended their learning of the animal world by focusing on Domestic Animals. Last week, we investigated the topic of ‘Mammals and Marsupials’ and explored some of our favourite Australian animals including the koala, wombat, kangaroo and platypus. Whilst exploring this topic, the children showed growing interest in common mammals that they often see within the community and at home. In order to foster the children’s interests, this week’s learning experiences aimed to promote a deeper understanding of domestic animals, specifically what they are and how best to take care of them. Domestic animals such as dogs, cats and cattle have been genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans. Domestic species are raised for food, labour, clothing, medicine, just to name a few. By understanding what is classed as domestic animals, their purpose and how to take care of them, the children begin to learn early life lessons such as taking responsibility, empathy and compassion.

Our morning meetings focused on gradually building and extending upon the children’s current knowledge and understanding of domestic animals. The teachers used questions to engage the class in discussions about what domestic animals are and identified familiar ‘pets’ that we have at home. We introduced stories including Oh Albert! by Davina Bell; At The Vet by Ann Lamb; My Cat Maisie by Pamela Allen and; My Friend Fred by Frances Watts.

Our table experiences invited the children to explore various types of domestic animals through sensory, literacy-focused, dramatic play and STEM. Our sensory experiences invited the children to explore a farm-themed sensory tray filled with lentils and cattle figurines. Our literacy-focused experiences allowed the children to configure a complicated wooden shape puzzle, developing the children’s visual discrimination skills, shape recognition, problem-solving and contributes to children’s hand-eye coordination development. During our dramatic play experiences, the children explored and engaged with a dog park themed small world. This experience allowed the children to engage in imaginative, fictional play that promotes the development of social and language skills, confidence and conflict resolutions. Our STEM experience allowed the children to experiment with magnetics, paper clips, sand and figurines. This experience contributed to the children’s fine-motor development as they were required to pull away the paper clips from the magnets. This experience also encouraged them to experiment with cause and effect as they used the magnets around the room to determine what other objects could be connected.

Next week, we will be investigating ‘Climate Change’ and how it impacts people, animals and our environment.

Enjoy your weekend!

Indi, Nat, Kai and Connie

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Stage 4R

By Veronika Roth

“The human brain is generally regarded as a complex web of adaptations built into the nervous system, even though no one knows how.” (Michael Gazzaniga) The classroom provocations this week invited the children to apply messaging, coding, logical thinking and bilateral skills, based on the connection between the brain and nervous system. A messaging sensory tray represented the elastic brain (cloud sand) with neurons (cotton wool, paper straw and pom-poms). Numeracy and shapes paired together invited the children to code and match an assigned number to a specific shape. A maze promoted logical thinking to plan and execute the movement of a small ball from one side of the box to another without it being touched. Our artwork developed the children’s fine-motor skills through cutting and bending pipe cleaners, which they then collaged onto paper in the shape of a neuron, with pom-poms representing neuron cells. The literacy table furthered the children’s emerging interest in writing more complex words within the theme of the nervous system, such as the cortex, cerebrum, and spinal cord. Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by Joann Deak explained in an age-appropriate manner the responsibilities of the human brain. We have learnt that the brain is an organ made up of cells and tissue. The brain helps us think and remember, name what we see and hear and lets our body move and feel - both touch and emotions. The brain has many parts: the prefrontal cortex (to make plans and decisions), cerebrum (the largest part, which helps to think and speak), hippocampus (stores and finds memories), cerebellum (muscle coordination), and amygdala (controls emotions).

Neurons are tiny brain cells that make electric signals to send messages to other cells in the body telling them what to do.

A group discussion invited the children to brainstorm the function of the brain and Miss Veronika posed the question, “What does your brain really do?”

"Thinking what we play." - Ryo "Sending messages." - James "Tells you what to do." Charlotte S "It sends messages to you so that you know what to do." - Angelina "It helps thinking of something what you want to make." - Jessica "Thinking." - Laura "It sends different messages every day." - Dominique "When you don't think about it you know what to do." - Jackson "The brain tells us what to do when we come to school and tells us to move." - Giselle "Your brain tells you to wave." - Charlotte C "We can send our brains to our heads or ears or eyes." - Alexander "Your brain makes your body move." - Farida "Ask me to draw." - Brendan "Think about what to do." - Martin "Think." - Ari

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During our gross-motor play, the children participated in a relay game where they became the nervous system inside the body that was sending messages into the brain (using gestures and movements without verbal language). The children looked at a picture card and used their body to act out the action to the person standing behind them, passing a message from the brain to the body. During another group time, the children actively engaged in pretending to be part of a nervous system as they sent a message on a small piece of paper down the spinal cord (in our case a long piece of cotton wool) from one friend to another. The class was divided into two groups each being one side of the brain: left and right. Miss Veronika acted as the brain, writing a message to a child and the group passed the message along on cotton wool, for example, "Martin, stand up." or "Giselle, clap your hands." Miss Veronika introduced the coding activity to the children promoting cognition through important skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. Working in pairs, each group had a fourdigit number code to solve by matching the numbers with the correct shapes.

Thank you for a wonderful week of learning!

Miss Veronika, Miss Rebecca, Mr. Rowel and Miss Yollanda 32

Stage 4R

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Stage 4E

By Lauren Hall

“The importance of bumblebees in supporting biodiversity goes far beyond their role as pollinators of wild flowers.” (Dr. Dave Goulson’s A Sting in the Tale) After exploring our oceans for the last three weeks, our provocation led the children to explore what lives on the land. We decided to start with minibeasts as they are the smallest creatures that inhabit the land, and we will eventually work our way up to larger animals on each continent. The children were curious to learn about bees, butterflies, ladybugs, frogs, snails and spiders, and how they cohabitat in our gardens.

Our first story of the week, Flip Flap Minibeasts by Axel Scheffler, introduced the children to many insects, amphibians and arachnids. As always, the children enjoyed watching the pictures change to make funny insect combinations. The Bad-Tempered Ladybug by Eric Carle taught us that these beautiful beetles help keep our plants alive by eating the tiny aphids that eat away at the leaves. We also explored the concept of analog time as we followed the ladybug’s adventure hour-by-hour. There was an increasing interest in frogs and we read Growing Frogs

by Vivan French. We learnt that frogs start out as tadpoles, hatching from their frogspawn in ponds before growing legs and hopping about. We couldn’t resist learning about butterflies, and just like bees, they also help to pollinate flowers in our gardens. Sadly, we learnt that the butterfly has a very short life span, leaving the children to appreciate these colourful creatures even more.

The subject of “bees” was by far our most interesting investigation. The Beeman by Laurie Krebs, showed us how a grandfather and his grandson kept beehives on their property. Once the hive or “shallow” was opened, a "smoker" was used to blow hot air into the hive to relax the bees and keep them asleep, whilst Grandpa checked the honeycomb frames and removed them. The frames were then spun in the "extractor" until every last drop of honey came out, before it was poured into jars. We also learnt that each bee has a different role in and outside of the hive, including the queen, drones, worker and house bees. Without the bees our fruit and vegetables cannot grow and many plant species would become extinct.

David Attenborough says that “In the last five years, the bee population has declined by a third. If bees were to disappear from the face of the Earth, humans would have just four years to live.” An important reminder that we must all help protect our bee population by planting flowers, avoiding pesticides, and providing water for them to stay hydrated.

Our table experiences included frog discovery trays with water beads representing tadpole eggs, green playdough to create garden environments, hexagonal glass tiles to create beehives, garden puzzles and mandalas to create out of insect shapes. Each day we investigated different minibeasts and their life-cycles to study how each creature goes through its unique transformation. Throughout the week, the children created their own bee and honeycomb collages, using hexagonal shapes and illustrated their own honey bees to stick on top of their hives. The Monarch Butterfly also inspired the children to explore symmetry as they printed butterfly wings and filled in the pattern with watercolours.

Next week we will continue to explore the land and the humid temperatures of tropical rainforests on and around the equator.

Lauren, Priya, Rowel and Intisar

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Stage 4E

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Playball

By Coach Lauren Guttman

We warmed up today with the “shark and the stingray” game where the “sharks and the stingrays” cross over the ocean without “boofing” each other. The children focused on their footwork skills and spatial awareness.

I brought in some hockey sticks to class today! I gave each child a hockey stick and explained the rules of using them: we ALWAYS find our own space away from our friends so we don’t hit anyone.

We hit a ball around the court with our hockey sticks remembering: no “high sticks” (anything above the knee) – this is not golf or baseball. I placed the children in pairs and we practised hitting the ball to a friend with our hockey stick. The friend trapped the ball with his/her hockey stick and hit it back. I reminded the children to hit gently if their friend is close to them and harder if their friend is further away.

Then, the children stood next to a ball holder with a hoop on the ground in front of them.

The children looked at the hoop in front of them and tried to hit the ball off the ball holder and into the hoop. This was very tricky! Then, I challenged the children to hit a rolling ball. I stood in front of the children and rolled a ball towards them and they had to hit it away.

Finally, I placed some ball holders/cones in a straight line and the children took turns to zig-zag the ball through the cones. This activity is one used in real hockey training. We might have some future hockey players in our midst!

The children had to really focus hard today to learn these new skills. Well done, everyone!

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Music

By Andy Freeborn

Xylophones, Crocodiles and Tiny Tiny Drums, oh my!

This week, I introduced a new Xylophone to everyone. This Xylophone sits comfortably on the back of a bright green crocodile, and can be played with either a mallet, or by pressing keys, similar to a keyboard. Some students approached the keys very delicately, and I was very impressed to see them move across the keys with the perfect cross finger motion. I asked each class why each tile was different in pitch from the other. Jessica, stage 4, told everyone that the smaller the tile the higher the sound, and the larger the tile the lower the sound. With each instrument I bring into class, I encourage each child to explore the instrument in their own way.

This week, some students started composing their own small pieces of music by exploring and discovering different harmony and tonal patterns. As a composer, this excites me greatly and I look forward to continuing to encourage this approach in class.

Then, I introduced all Stages to a small drum and encouraged the children to compare the sounds of the drum when playing with their fingers and with drum sticks. When I pulled out the drum for Stage 4, who had been introduced to this instrument last week, the whole class showed me how to play the drum (I had taught them last week that we play this drum with our flat fingers, rather than our full hand to create a light, crisper sound).

I continue to allow Stage 1 to explore musical instruments by laying them across the floor and encouraging them to hold the mallets, sticks or instruments the right way and engaging them by playing the instruments with them. While allowing these students to discover sounds and let their curiosities take over, I have found that the students are using the correct association and pairing of sticks and mallets, for the correct instruments.

In Stage 3 this week I gathered the attention of students by playing ‘London Bridge’ on the Crocodile Xylophone. I have learnt that Stage 3 love to spontaneously sing as a group which is most incredibly adorable. Often it is ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, but this week, though not being familiar with words, they took to singing “da da da” along with myself and the xylophone to ‘London Bridge’.

Next week we will be experimenting with a “glass harp”, which is playing a glass of water filled with varying amounts of water to change pitch.

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Drama

By Xanthe Wills

This week in drama we picked up where we left off last week with our Treasure Map. We had found some beans on the bridge but they weren’t tasty! We had chucked them over our shoulders and into the garden. Suddenly, we felt a vibration on the floor like an earthquake! This week our lesson was based on the popular story Jack and the Giant Beanstalk.

We started off our lesson by pretending to be beans in the ground. I came around and sprinkled some “water” on the children’s backs, and then encouraged them to use their bodies and grow into a giant beanstalk. We then played a movement association game (e.g. Jelly bean = wobble like jelly, broad beans = stand tall with their arms in the air, green beans = lie flat on the floor). I tried to trick the children by going faster.

Now, it was time to climb the beanstalk. The children followed me as we climbed up high, and snuck through the castle at the top. Stage 2 was so quiet, sneaking all together in one group.

When we got close to the “giant” we started to crawl. The (imaginary) giant woke up and chased us down the beanstalk!

Stage 3 and 4 acted out the story more closely with the classic fairytale. We used our imaginations and creative skills to act out the story. We climbed the beanstalk and found the castle at the top. We snuck through the castle to find the giant snoring and sleeping. We then broke off into 2 groups- one group was “Jack” and the other the “giant”. The “Jack” group snuck up to the giants. The giants had to stand and chant “Fee Fi Fo Fum! I smell the blood of little children!” Before chasing the Jacks down the beanstalk. We then swapped groups. When we got down to the bottom of the beanstalk, we chopped it down with an axe. We turned back into the beanstalk and dramatically fell to the ground as if we had been cut down.

I told the children that I found something very special up in the castle: a golden key. We looked on the map and saw that we will need the key for next week. I asked the children what the key might open. Aaron from Stage 2 said “The key will open a door!”, and James from Stage 4 thought the key might open a lock. The next picture on the map showed a forest. I asked the children what we might find in the forest. Some suggestions included tigers, monkeys, unicorns, and snakes. I have a feeling the key might open the door to a magical forest. We will have to wait and see!

Stage 1 and I continued with our work with the parachute. We then pretended to be various flying creatures. We turned into kookaburras, butterflies, bees, and a plane. Then, Stage 1 had a visit from my laughing Kookaburra puppet.

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