Welcome to Ms. Tschinkel's Kindergarten!!!
Welcome to Room 210!!! This year is going to be an exciting and busy year for your child. Your child will be learning many new and exciting things. I am very happy that your child is in my class and that we will be working together to achieve the best possible education for your child.
In Reader's Workshop: Your child will learn how to become an independent reader and how to think more about the stories they are reading. They will learn how to respond to text, make connections to text and predict what they think will happen next in the text. They will also learn about the parts of a story such as setting, characters, problem and solution. They will study poetry and they will learn all about Eric Carle and the books he has written. These are just some of the topics that they will learn during Reader's Workshop. The children will also be learning how to use many reading centers within the classroom that will reinforce what the children are learning in the classroom. Please ask your child everyday what they did in school especially during Reader's Workshop. You will be amazed how much the children are learning everyday.
In Writer's Workshop: The children will be learning how to become a writer. They have already started writing stories. We have a special chair in our class called the Author's Chair where the children share their stories with their classmates. We enjoy listening to our friends share their stories. The children are also learning to be illustrators. Their pictures are beautiful and we are hanging their stories in our classroom. We are also putting some of our stories in a Writing Folder. By the end of the year you will be amazed on how well the students are writing stories.
In Math: The children will be learning many new topics. Some of the topics are: counting to 100, patterns, simple addition, greater and less than, word problems, reading a picture graph, creating a picture graph and many more concepts. The children will be engaged in many math games that will enable them to learn these skills. Please ask your child about the math games or activities they did during the school day. I am sure the children can teach you some new games that you both can enjoy playing at home. The children will also be using many learning centers in math that will help reinforce what is being taught in the classroom.
In Science: This year the children will be learning about animals, wood and paper. Our first unit is on guppies and goldfish. The children are very excited about having pets in the classroom and learning how to care for them. In some units, the students will be doing experiments and recording their findings in their science journals.
In Social Studies: We will learn about the holidays. We have already starting learning about the holidays and we have done many art projects related to them. As your child comes home with each project ask them about what they learned in class and why we made the project.
In all these subjects the children will be creating word walls so they can learn their kindergarten content vocabulary. Our reading word wall is magnetic so the children can use it when they are writing their stories. Please continue to practice the weekly word lists and the Kindergarten Sight Words.
This is just some of the topics the children will be learning in class. We are going to have such a busy year learning new and exciting material. Please continue to read the Kindergarten News that you will receive once a month. This newsletter is more specific explaining what we did each month in class and how you can reinforce what we did in class at home. The newsletter will also remind you of upcoming dates and events.
I look forward to working with you and your child this school year!!!
Carolyn Tschinkel