There is No "I" in "TEAM"!

Wow! It has been great getting to know your child and becoming acquainted with all of our new families to our classroom over the past couple of weeks!  If for some reason you were not able to attend our Parent Night, do not worry.  Feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have.

My objective for this school year is to help your student have a positive and successful 3rd grade year.   In order to make this happen, it is vital for students, parents, teachers, and administrators to work together as a TEAM.   Without a doubt, as parents, you are your child's most important teacher.   As a result, your input and support is so appreciated throughout the year.

Having good and effective parent/ teacher communication is extremely important for getting to know your child and to having a successful school year. The best way to get a hold of me is through email (Dhynek@sd25.org). I try very hard to read my e-mail at least once in the morning and once after school.

Because my number one priority during the school day is working with your child, please understand that I cannot always answer your e-mail during school hours. If you have a message that needs to get to your child before the end of the school day, be sure to direct those requests to the office first (ex.: Johnny needs to go home with Mr. Jones today; Ellie's gym shoes are in the office, etc.). The office staff will then happily direct your message to me before the end of the day.

If ever you would like me to contact you over the phone, please send me an e-mail of the various times that I can get a hold of you both before and after school. I will try my best to be able to call you within 24 hours during school week hours.

Although it's sometimes easy to do, I would greatly appreciate it if parents do not make unexpected "drop-ins" to our classroom during school hours. This rule needs to also be respected before and after school. Many times when parents do this, I may be in the middle of preparing and setting up the classroom for the school day, in the middle of a lesson with students, or on my way to a meeting or school duty. In addition, it it important to me to respect the privacy of your child. As a result, I do not feel comfortable discussing any concerns you may have about them in front of their classmates. If you have a major concern about your child, I am always more willing to schedule a before or after school appointment with you. Please feel free to contact me through e-mail to make an appointment.

I appreciate your help with open communication about your student. Here's to continuing a great 3rd grade year!

Excited About Our Edmodo Accounts!

Today, your child learned how to use a new online website called "Edmodo".  Throughout research time during Social Studies, the students log into an Edmodo account.    Once on the page, an assignment is posted for them to complete with their group to learn more about a topic.   (Usually the assignments involve reading a webpage, watching a short movie, or watching a slideshow about the subject they are researching that day).   Afterwards, the student groups post a few sentences in Edmodo about what they have read. Together as a whole group, we discuss our findings.     

Feel free to view their postings by going to:   www.Edmodo.com.    Once on the site, your child can log into their account to show you their postings!  All of your child's usernames and passwords for their online accounts have been stapled to the inside pocket of their Take Home folders.   

Welcome to Third Grade!

Hi!   Welcome to Room 212!  My name is Mrs. Hynek and I’m so excited to be your third grade teacher this school year.  It’s going to be a fun year full of lots of learning and new adventures! I certainly cannot wait to meet your smiling face and see what the year has in store for us. 

Our first day of school will start on Thursday, August 27^th.  Please note that it is a full day of school from 9:05-3:35 pm.   “Welcome to Westgate Day” will be held on Tuesday, August 25^th from 3:00-4:30 pm.   This is a time where you are welcome to visit our new classroom and can drop off your supplies. (Please note, that our new classroom is now located in the upstairs wing in Room 212). If you are not able to make it to school on that day, please don’t worry!  You can just make sure to bring all of your supplies with you on the first day of school.   If you pre-ordered a school supply box, it will be waiting for you at your desk when you arrive by the first day of school.  Also, it is not necessary to label any of your supplies with your name.  We will label your supplies and folders with special name stickers that I have for you.

You are also welcome to bring in a snack and water bottle to have during class.   Please be sure that it is a healthy snack that does not contain any type of nuts.   We also ask that your snack be easy to eat and cleanup. 

 Before school starts, feel free to check out our classroom webpage at: www.hynekclass.weebly.com.  This is the spot where we will post important information for both you and your parents about events happening in the classroom as well as special projects we’re doing in class.

I am so excited for you all to become our classroom “directors” and to be a part of this AWESOME, all star “cast” we have lined up for our classroom! This is going to be a BLOCKBUSTER year! I look forward to seeing you soon!

Dissecting Owl Pellets

The students had a blast dissecting owl pellets this week.   Through their findings, many of the students discovered that their bones belonged to voles, shrews, moles, rats, and various birds.   We would like to thank Mrs. Kuhn, Mrs. Davenport, and Mrs. Corwin for helping us out with our dissections.   Enjoy the pictures from our Science time.

Planet Walk

As a culmination to our solar system science unit, Westgate’s 3rd graders were able to  “walk across our solar system!”  This fun activity helped the students better understand the scale of our solar system and the distance between the planets.  To accomplish this goal, we walked along Dwyer to Campbell, using the number of our steps to simulate the planets’ distances from each other and from the sun.  The students will also be shared some of their planet research at each “planet stop” before returning to Westgate.  Enjoy the pictures below.  

Here's the scale we used:

One step (approximately 1 yard) = 3,600,000 miles
Westgate represents the Sun

·      From the Sun to Mercury, we needed to walk 10 paces.

·      From Mercury to Venus, we needed to walk 9 paces.

·      From Venus to Earth, we needed to walk 7 paces.

·      From Earth to Mars, we needed to walk 14 paces.

·      From Mars to the Asteroid Belt, we needed to walk 47.5 paces.

·      From the Asteroid Belt to Jupiter, we needed to walk 47.5 paces.

·      From Jupiter to Saturn, we needed to walk 112 paces.

·      From Saturn to Uranus, we needed to walk 249 paces.

·      From Uranus to Neptune, we needed to walk 281 paces.

Art Appreciation

We would like to thank Mrs. Georg for coming in last week conduct a wonderful Art Appreciation lesson focusing on the artist Georgia O'Keeffe.   Enjoy the pictures from the event.