Five Senses Fair!

​Room 4 had a blast learning all about our Five Senses this week! On Wednesday all of the Reed kindergarten students got to explore 20+ five senses activities in the MPR. Thank you to Laura Smith and Jen Riley for volunteering their entire morning to help with our Five Senses Fair! The students used their sense of touch while wearing a blindfold to navigate and find mystery objects. 

We even got to use our sense of hearing to play musical water bottles - this was definitely a favorite!

Amidst all of our five senses learning, we remembered the most important thing -
​we had a blast with our friends!

On Thursday we had a fabulous visit by friends from Senegal! The African Dance and Drum Troupe put on one of the most exciting assemblies I have ever seen at Reed School. They blew us away with their enthusiasm, music, and dancing. We learned that they speak over 2,000 languages in Africa and that they used to use drums as a form of communication. The entire school attended the assembly and everyone got up and danced along. I especially loved watching the children's excitement as they watched the dancers jump, move, sing, and play the drums. Definitely a successful assembly and all thanks to your PTA participation!  

​The kids' reactions to the performance were
absolutely priceless!! This darling friend could hardly contain her excitement!

If you were in Tiburon at 10:20 on Thursday (10/20), you probably heard the sirens to signal the start of our earthquake drill. Over 19 million people participated in The Great Shake Out to practice how to stay safe during an earthquake. The entire RUSD community participated in the drill and we had visitors from the Tiburon Fire Station to ensure procedures were being followed. The students did an excellent job and the staff ran through different scenarios to make sure we are as prepared as possible in the event of an emergency.  

Between the Five Senses Fair, the African Dance & Drum Troupe Assembly, and the Great Shake Out, it was definitely a CRAZY week! When we finally made it back to the classroom, we were busy getting ready for Halloween by creating more spooky sunset silhouettes, learning The Five Little Pumpkins poem, and making suggestions for Mrs. Bowe's costume. We have so many talented artists in room 4!

This week we added in a new piece to our Daily Five routine. During Daily Five, the students read books from their book boxes either to themselves, or to a friend. Now, the students can also choose to do "Word Work" during Daily Five time. Providing students with choice in which activity they complete is motivating and exciting. The word work station this week consisted of pipe cleaners and letter beads. The students worked to build as many of our sight words as they could. When Daily Five is over, the students can take a picture of their finished word work on their iPads - I caught this little one right after she cleaned up her letter beads - luckily she had already snagged a photo! :) 

Has your child been singing their sight word songs at home? We use Heidi Songs in the classroom as a way to teach sight words using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning. The kids sing and dance while they learn to read and spell their sight words. Every year I find that these songs have amazing success in helping the students learn all 50 kindergarten sight words (and then some!) Here is an example of our song for the word "the." 

It was definitely a doozy of a week with our crazy schedule, but (per usual) the kids were flexible and fabulous and we had a great week. Next week we will look forward to learning about pumpkins and spiders, gearing up for Halloween, and celebrating our first pajama day of the year! :) See ya back here next week! - Mrs. Bowe