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.

Thank You Officer Veenstra!

Today Arlington Heights Officer Veenstra came to our classroom to talk about ways they can be safe if they are approached by a stranger.   He also discussed Internet safety with our class.  Enjoy the pictures from our discussion.  We thank Officer Veenstra for stopping by our classroom today!

Solar Awards Results

Today the students had a blast walking down the red carpet attending the Solar Awards!   Our guest announcer, Mr. McHugh came in to reveal the winning planets of our persuasive speeches.  Enjoy the pictures of our winning planets.