primary in this issue: news from the classrooms reddam · 2020-05-22 · • virtual concert hall...

Primary

@ Reddam

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I hope that this past week has been an

enjoyable and fulfilling one for all our families.

The teachers and I have thoroughly enjoyed

seeing more and more familiar faces at

school and it is evident just how much the

students are relishing the opportunity to see

their friends and teachers once again.

It is a well-known saying that “absence

makes the heart grow fonder” and this is true

not just in relationships. One only has to look

at the response to the closing of beaches or

other public spaces around Sydney to see

this playing itself out in society. When things

we had often taken for granted are

removed, suddenly we desire those things all

the more.

This has been so for our students. Virtual

classrooms are an exciting and novel way of

interacting with each other for a short time

but then they have longed to see each other

face-to-face. All the rugby and netball

games which appeared each year as a

matter of course have been missed more

than ever. The many hours of practising on a

musical instrument can find an outlet on a

video feed but that is so much emptier than

performing in front of a live audience.

This has also seen itself play out in countless

homes across the country, as children have

longingly looked out of windows at much-

loved public spaces. Parks, beaches,

mountains, and even tree-lined streets, which

once saw adventures playing themselves

out, now lie largely empty. Of course, the

wildlife is only too happy with that, as has

been seen in open spaces around the world,

where animals have emerged to reclaim

their domain.

IN THIS ISSUE:

• News from the Classrooms

• Art Gallery

• Virtual Concert Hall

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 20 Issue 14 Friday 22 May 2020

Hopefully, in the new-look future into

which we are all moving we will

appreciate our public spaces all the

more. Countless research papers have

been written which explain the benefits

of play in the outdoors for children. As

one person has said, “Children still need

a childhood with dirt, mud, puddles,

trees, sticks and tadpoles.”

We live in a city with beautiful pockets

of natural beauty amongst our homes,

golden beaches, and enticing

mountains just a short ride away.

Hopefully, as a degree of normality

returns to life in the coming weeks we

will return to these wild spaces with new

eyes and with a rejuvenated

appreciation for all that they mean to

us.

There is no doubt that our children

can’t wait to run again, unconstrained

by the garden walls around their

homes. New adventures beckon from

below the trees in our parks and castles

wait to be built on our beaches. While

our children will no doubt remember

the limitations of life during the

pandemic, may it be that they will

remember with even more intense

emotions the first swim in the sea, the

first walk in the mountains, the first run in the park.

This past week we received the fantastic news that Ruby

Levitt was placed second overall across all of the Sydney

entries (for Years K - 6) for the Harmony Day Poster

Competition. The competition drew thousands of entries,

which makes Ruby’s achievement all the more impressive.

The theme for this year’s competition was ‘Picture a world in

harmony’, which is the kind of optimistic outlook the world

certainly needs right now. Our huge congratulations to Ruby

for this wonderful accolade!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dee Pitcairn

Principal

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 19 Issue 28 Friday 27 September 2019

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 19 Issue 29 Friday 18 October 2019 Page 2

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 20 Issue 14 Friday 22 May 2020 Page 2

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 19 Issue 28 Friday 27 September 2019 Page 2



ART GALLERY

Reddam House

would like to wish a very happy birthday to

Claudia Green, Lou-Anh Lam, Amelia Platkov, Per Vertzayias, Brianna Chen, Andre Pal

Sarielle Goodwin, Stella Grocott, Patrick Bova, Mark Bradburn & Harry Meyerson

Who celebrated their special day during the school holidays

We hope you had a fabulous day!




Wow, what a wonderful week we had!

In English, this week we learnt the graphemes w and x. We are nearly at the end of our

alphabet, with only two more letters to learn. Everyone was walking around humming and

singing the fabulous ‘w’ song as we practised our handwriting, wrote wonderful sentences and

looked at different ways to work on our reading skills.

Maths this week was all about subtraction. We practised taking away using all sorts of objects,

using the ten frames and jumping on the number line. The highlight of the week was playing

ten pin bowling, where we put our newly found subtraction skills into practice. It is amazing to

see how hands-on activities and concrete games such as this can help consolidate, extend

vocabulary and provide understanding of new concepts.

KINDERGARTEN




Our classes have been immersed in finding

out and learning about Aboriginal Culture.

We had lots of fun making shelters outside

using twigs, leaves, sticks and rocks. It

proved to be much more difficult than it

looks and was a great test of teamwork

and cooperation. We learnt how to be just

like ‘Pete Persistence’ and never give up!

We also enjoyed learning about their

artwork and had a great time creating

some of our own symbolic drawings on our

cave wall in the classroom and doing some

dot printing.

Our Show and Tell topic of “An Australian

Place to visit” has taken us to some

amazing places all around Australia like

Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, Canberra and

many others. Even though travel has been

restricted, we can still dream of visiting

some of these incredible places in the

future!

KINDERGARTEN




YEAR 1

This week in English we

started learning about the

use of question marks. The

students enjoyed the

opportunity to use the words

‘why’, ‘what’, ‘when’,

‘where’ and ‘how’ when

interviewing their friends.

In Mathematics, we started

learning about time. The

students enjoyed learning

about the difference

between analogue and

digital clocks through a

variety of visual, auditory

and kinaesthetic activities.

In Science we spoke about the seasons and the changes they bring to nature and the way we

live. We searched for real leaves in our environment and explored them at length by drawing

them, measuring them and painting them.




YEAR 1

In History we continue to discuss the differences between transport now and in the past. The

students are happy they live nowadays and have comfortable cars to travel in and safe bikes

to ride.




YEAR 2

This week Year 2 continued our deep exploration

of this term’s literature study of ‘The Little

Refugee’, by Anh Do and Suzanne Do. We used

our imaginations, along with our five senses, to

write rich descriptions of the settings within this

biographical narrative. Students used their

expanding vocabularies to describe a range of

places, from the bustling streets of Vietnam to

the glistening waters of Sydney Harbour.

We continued to enrich our understanding of

Australia’s important geographical features and

created our very own 3D globes to showcase

our knowledge of the seven continents and five

oceans of the world!

In Mathematics we practised solving addition

and subtraction problems as quickly as possible

by using our knowledge of ‘ten more’ and ‘ten

less’. This is helping us become better at solving

problems mentally.

We are using nouns, proper nouns and complex

sentences to improve and enrich our writing skills,

particularly in description writing.



9 The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 20 Issue 14 Friday 22 May 2020

This week the Year 3 Mathematicians explored

length. They worked hard at estimating,

comparing and measuring different objects

around the classroom and at home using the

metric measurements of millimetres, centimetres

and metres.

In English the Year 3 teachers were astounded

by the wonderful ideas and thoughts of their

ever-maturing and intelligent students. Should

sport be compulsory? Should homework be

banned? These are just a few of the topics that

the Year 3 students enthusiastically debated

whilst working on their ability to write a

persuasive text.

They learnt the acronym HAM (hook, argument

and main reasons) and PEEL (point, expand,

example and link), to help them structure their

writing successfully. They also learned a variety

of persuasive techniques to entice their

audience into agreeing with them: rhetorical

questions, alliteration, emotive language and

the use of personal pronouns and modal words.

According to the parents some of our students

are using their persuasive skills at home too. Do

you think that their parents are convinced?

YEAR 3




How can we package it better? This is a

question that Year 4 have been asking

themselves over the last four weeks

during our Science lessons. As a result,

we have been doing some amazing

investigations on materials and their

properties. All materials, whether they

are natural or human-made, have

different properties that make them

unique from one another.

This week, Year 4 developed their

amazing collaboration skills to

investigate the effect of “impact”. Using

different types of padding, students

were able to witness, first-hand, how the

impact can protect fragile items. First,

students filled an envelope with either

paper, bubble wrap or cardboard.

Then they placed the fragile item (we

used a delicious cracker!) in the

envelope and dropped a weight on it.

If the cracker broke, the conclusion was

that the material did not provide the

best protection on impact. It was

fantastic to see what budding scientists

Year 4 students are!

During PDH lessons this week, we also

learnt about “Water Safety”. Did you

know that there are three main types of

rescues that you can do to help

somebody in water? The three types

are “Swim Rescue”, “Reach Rescue”

and “Throw Rescue”. Students had a

great time re-enacting the different

types of rescues in our role plays. Well

done, Year 4, on a fantastic week of

learning!

YEAR 4




This week the Year 5 English classes continued with narrative writing. The students have made

great progress over the term exploring new and innovative ways to create imagery. Jesse

Edelstein wrote the following in response to the following image from “The Journey” by

Francesca Sanna.

We arrive at the edge of a dark gloomy forest with monkeys swinging and snakes slithering.

We trudge towards the gate which is far too high for us to climb. Guards with great big red

beards great us with yells to go away and never return. I was scarred but cuddled mum for

safety.

This week in Year 6 English students continued to refine their persuasive writing skills. The

introduction of a persuasive essay is very important as it grabs the audience’s attention, states

the writer’s view and supports their thesis with an explanation of the techniques used within an

advertisement. Below is an introduction paragraph from Ella Kirby in response to the following

advertisement.

Ding, dong. The church bells ring as a coffin is rolled into the church. Constable Ian, this is what

can happen to someone if they drink and drive. Obviously, it is clear that you an

advertisement for the drink driving campaign and I believe my advertisement will be a perfect

choice. Firstly, I have used text and font. Furthermore, I have made use of a low camera angle

and lastly, I have used Ethos to show endorsement.

YEAR 5 & 6 ENGLISH

The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 19 Issue 28 Friday 27 September 2019


The Reddam House Primary School Newsletter Volume 20 Issue 14 Friday 22 May 2020 Page 12

YEAR 5 & 6 MATHEMATICS

This week we wrote our second lot of assessments on

exam.net. Students demonstrated their knowledge and

understanding gained largely from online learning. They can

be very proud of their capacity to gain skills and apply their

grasp of concepts.

We are well on our way to completing our revision booklets.

Students displayed excellent learning habits in finishing

assigned tasks which were marked together. They were able

to consolidate their knowledge of order of operations,

working backwards as well as practising the position-to-term

rule and term-to-term rule.

We began our new unit of work dealing with multiples,

factors and prime numbers. The divisibility rules were a hot

topic. Quick divisibility tests were carried out which helped to

determine factors of particular numbers.

This Term, our unit of work in Year 5 has been

'Animation', based on the theme: The Chase. Students

were required to plan a story idea, use a green screen

and inanimate objects to bring these characters to life

through stop motion animation. Check out what our

wonderful and creative Year 5 students have been

working hard on at home.

MEDIA ART

http://exam.net/

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SPORT

Over the course of this Term, The Reddam

House Sports Department has been regularly

uploading fitness videos to keep our students

active and healthy while at home.

If you're feeling energetic, click on the link

below and have a go at one of the online

classes. All sessions are designed to be

performed at home with no equipment.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?

list=PL3v8Af8Lm8PFZGSUYfpCQfNlJNQrhx6aR

Lastly, keep the photos coming in! We love

seeing our students and families working out

at home and over the coming weeks we may

even feature some student photos in our

upcoming videos.


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3v8Af8Lm8PFZGSUYfpCQfNlJNQrhx6aR

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3v8Af8Lm8PFZGSUYfpCQfNlJNQrhx6aR

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MUSIC

Most of Year 1 were physically back at school this week, and enjoyed being in the Music

classroom for face-to-face lessons. This week, students got their voices warmed up with an

African piece called ‘Banuwa’. Originating from Liberia in West Africa, this piece is a folk song

and it translates as ‘Don’t cry pretty girl, don’t cry’. It has a beautiful melody and can be sung

as a round.

After all of their voices were warmed up, Year 1 recapped their Orff piece ‘Bell Horses’. They

sang using the lyrics and then using solfa hand signs to show the highs and lows of the pitches.

This week, it was their performance assessment week, and so all of the Year 1s performed in

small groups of 3 or 4 for their recorded assessments.

The final part of Year 1 Music this week focused on developing those crucial xylophone skills –

playing bell horses using clear mallet technique and the correct pitches.

It was wonderful to be able to sing together and make music as a whole class again this week

and all the students look forward to a being back properly in classrooms soon.


MUSIC PERFORMANCE

Our young musicians should be commended on the manner in which they have maintained

their practice and participation in their individual and ensemble music lessons this term. Our

online ensembles have been a great success. Many students have joined our music staff each

morning to work on their ensemble repertoire and ask questions about their instruments and

their practice. Maintaining this connection and form of rehearsal will be vital as we gradually

recommence physical rehearsals in the coming weeks. Any decision about how and when

ensembles resume will be communicated directly with parents.

Our Year 5-6 Singers have enjoyed sectional rehearsals over the last few weeks, via online

Google Meet sessions. Sectional rehearsals are when all the musicians who play or sing the

same part meet alone to work on their part without hearing the other parts around them. In

the case of this choir, students are divided into soprano and alto, as all students are treble

(unbroken) voices. The group is working on some incredible repertoire, including 'We Know the

Way' from 'Moana' and several contemporary Australian compositions. Although they did not

have the chance to defend their three-time championship achievement at the Sydney

Eisteddfod this year, we are actively seeking other opportunities that may arise to allow these

students to perform for the school and wider community when it is safe to do so.

Private music teachers have taken advantage of the recent rotational schedule to have many

more face-to-face lessons on days when students are attending school, and it has been lovely

to hear the increased level of activity and passion within the Music Terrace. Music has proved

such an important pursuit during this period of isolation and remote study.




MUSIC PERFORMANCE

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####################VIRFG

It is our pleasure to share two performances with you this week, which we trust you will enjoy.

The first performer is Elise Siboulein Year 5. Elise performs the beautiful piece 'Heimr Árnadalr'

from the film 'Frozen'. In the film, this piece is heard during the coronation of Elsa. The text is Old

Norse, and translates to:

Worthy queen of greatness

the heart of gold shines

We crown you with hope, love and faith

Beautiful stoney land Home Arendelle

Follow queen (of) light

Queen (of) follow the worthy queen of greatness

Our queen worthy queen of light (of) light

Our second performer is Jeremy Kirkwood of Year 4. Jeremy has not been learning guitar for

very long, yet has already made incredible progress in his technique and note-reading. He has

the makings of a fine classical guitarist, and we are very proud of what he has achieved.

Please click on the screenshots below to enjoy these video performances. Please email Mr or

Mrs Bortolotti if you would like to be featured in one of our assemblies or newsletters, and we

can provide you with instructions on how to achieve this.

VIRTUAL CONCERT HALL


http://www.reddamhouse.com.au/PDF/2020/Primary/PrimaryNL220520/elise.html

http://www.reddamhouse.com.au/PDF/2020/Primary/PrimaryNL220520/jeremy.html

primary in this issue: news from the classrooms reddam · 2020-05-22 · • virtual concert hall...

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