What's going on in Mr. Solarz' Class?
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Science Fair

5/28/2015

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It would have been great to do the video before the Science Fair because it would have made me more confident of doing this but sadly I was absent that day and didn't feel well enough to do it the day before at home.
In the end my Science Fair was better because I was used to telling People about it but I was not feeling my best when I did this so I was miserable and ended up going home sick after so. So in the end I did better but I still think the science fair was hard for me because of my illnesses.
  1. Overall, I think that the Science Fair was a valuable experience because...
  2. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, but I learned from them. Here are some examples...
  3. If I were given the chance to do anything differently, I would...
1. I got to see what it was like from a different perspective. Every other year here at Westgate I was always listening to the projects not explaining them.
2. I printed out two grids and one the wrong way. I did not make my construction paper even enough and had to re-start. 
3. I would have read the directions more carefully. Even though I like the Science Fair I shouldn't of went because I didn't feel good there and ended up going home feeling miserable because I went to it. It was 2 and 1/2 hours of talking and I had had strep throat. Besides that I also think I should have took more time into explaining. 
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Oregon Trail Reflection

5/28/2015

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Picture
In This Picture I am in Front of Chimney Rock!

First Day

We crashed on top of this old man in our ship. Luckily his hand was sticking out with a sack of money and since he was no longer living, we thought the right thing to do was take the money for our self. We couldn't let the money go to waste. The rest of our first day was not the best. We had to buy some wagons and decide what animal was going to have to lug them around. I knew that there was no way we could get any type of weak animal. We decided on Oxen, (Defiantly the best choice). I remember the day were I went to get a Conestoga wagon the guy kept trying to sell it for the same price no more no less. Finally we had all are stuff but we still needed some time before taking off in our journey.

Later On

Our journey has gone through a lot of ups and downs including sicknesses, feet, pinkies, and love. Which has made a few losses in jobs. We even had to leave Iskander at the Fort for our own health. Then Alexandrina fell in love and insisted on staying with him even though he was in another wagon train. Matilda is fine and now she has a friend with a cut off pinkie his name is Kai. So after long days of trouble and now some loss of money, this has been an interesting trail so far. 
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Museum of Science and Industry 

5/27/2015

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Watery Earth Lesson 9: Finding Bodies of Water on Maps

5/25/2015

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  • What bodies of surface water did you find while examining the three maps?
  • Were there any types of surface water on the Arlington Heights map that you weren’t able to find on the Illinois map? If so, why?
  • Were there any types of surface water on the Illinois map that you couldn’t find on the United States map? If so, why?
  • What are some names of the bodies of water in Illinois and Arlington Heights? What bodies of water did you identify?
1. I mostly found lost and lots of lakes, along with some oceans, seas, and bays, and a few other bodies of water.
2. There was few because there are many different types of lakes that not all would end up on the whole Illinois map. Just like not all bodies of water in Illinois shows up on the United States.
3. Yes I found some lakes and rivers that only stay in Illinois because they end before they get on anywhere else on the map. That means that those lakes and rivers you can only find in Illinois. 
4. I found Heather Lake, Hawley Lake, and Donut Lake.  All of them are different types of lakes and different shapes and sizes.
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The Land of Legends

5/14/2015

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                The Land of Legends


I remember the day I went to the Land of Legends. It was a rainy gloomy day. I was only at the age of 8 and was bored to death. I went up to my parents to ask them what to do, but all the ever say is read. I decided to go to the basement, I could at least find something decent down there. As I went to reach for my red race car when something moved. I immediately backed up, and then just then and there I saw a small light. I took my race car out of the shelf and saw a small creature glowing.

“Oh my oh my.” Said the small glowing creature.”

“I should never have even come here.” I was puzzled at thought of this. I looked back at the creature and I had saw that it had stopped glowing.

“OK, let’s get this over with.” Said the creature.

“My name is Caesar, I am a greekian.” A greekian I thought, what is that. I take a closer look at Caesar and notice that he looks as if he is half lion, and half man.

“Hi, i’m Griffin.” I hesitated. The little man looked at me in fear and started to hide behind my little sister's doll.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. The little man kept staring at me.

“You're the great Griffin. Ya know the one that will destroy the Mythia.” I didn’t think I was some Great conqueror back then, but I knew that Caesar was counting on me.

“What exactly is the Great Griffin like?”

“He is half eagle and half lion like you are now?”

“Now enough talk it’s time to…..”

“Wait wait wait, like I am right now, I am just a regular boy!”

“Ugh just come with me!!!!!!” Caesar takes my arm and started dragging me to the cabinet. He opens it up and takes out a book. He opens the book, grabs my arm, and jumps in. I close my eyes for I saw a blinding light. As I open my eyes I see a huge castle in the distance surrounded by volcanoes and dead trees.

“That's where the Mythia lives that are destination!”

“No, no way Caesar, that place looks dark and I don’t want to conquer some creature!”

“You're the only one here that can.” I look to the sides of me to see to peaceful towns with strange looking crosses of animals and humans. Some were small, some were tall, some were skinny, and some were fat. But the one I noticed the most was a small skinny girl that looked like a mix of a border collie and a girl.

“Who is that?” I ask.

“Ah why that is Macarla, she’s about the same age as you.” I saw Macarla struggling and I wanted to go help her but I soon heard a roar. I knew I had to go help this town. So I went up the hill, through the forest of dead trees, and through the valley of volcanoes, and then stood at Mythia’s front door. I was scared to the inside out. And as the door opened I started to see a huge dragon but as it started to blow, MARSHMALLOWS! I opened my mouth to catch the marshmallows.

“You guys are afraid of this creature!”

“To admit we never really went up to the monster, we have only seen and heard it.” I had to laugh at the fact of this.

“Well then we both did the same mistake. I thought that it was a fear beast, but I thought wrong, we all every single one of us, judged a book by it’s cover.” (Back to narration.)

“Ahh I remember that day like it was yesterday. Know if you excuse me Macarla is making dinner and I am late.”


                                     The End
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Watery Earth Lesson 8: Bodies of Water, Basin.

5/5/2015

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The Phantom Tollbooth

5/1/2015

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1. What type of person is Milo?
2. Do you think Milo is a good student? Why or why not?
3. Why do you think Milo acts the way he does?
4. Is Milo someone you would like to be friends with? Why or why not?
5. Describes a time when you felt grumpy or disinterested like Milo.
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Watery Earth Lesson 7: My Water Molecules Journey

4/30/2015

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As I started as a molecule swimming in water a fast and dangerous animal swam by. I ended up caught on it's leg and was brought up to surface. Then as I was laying in the sand soaking into it another animal came by and stepped on me. The animal went to get a drink of water from the ocean and the foot/paw went in the water. I was free again in the water, yay me! But I started to move upwards with the sight of something green and as I kept going I ended up at the top of the ocean. As the green object moves away I find myself up high in the sky. I was in the middle of evaporation. As I keep going up I found four other molecules trying to make a cloud.
"Hey, hey wait for me!" I say as I run up to the molecules to join the crowd. As I approach them they all look at me and immediately smile.
"You wanna join our cloud?" Said the smallest molecule.
"Why yes I am new here and I don't want to wait around for some strangers to wanna help me become a cloud!"
"Well as long as my sis is fine with it I am fine with it." As I look around the second smallest molecule came up to me.
"Hi, if you wanna be in a cloud with us can you please do one thing for me?"
"Sure anything."
"Make Bela stop meowing!" I look around wondering who is Bela, but then I see a pretty tall molecule meowing and acting like a cat. I go up to the Bela and did what needed to be done. I joined there cloud. Bela instantly stopped meowing and all the molecule start smiling. We now had done condensation I felt I needed to know these molecules.
"What are your names?"
"Why I am Nessa and this is my older sis Lily."
"And I'm Janie." 
"And I am cat!" Bela states.
"Well then my name is Payton and I think this cloud is getting weak." We all look down to see that we start falling. I look around to see Bela meowing, Janie laughing, Lily Screaming, and Nessa telling jokes.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Trying to be calm!"They Yelled.
 As I land on some persons shoe to find that I just went through Precipitation. After a long long journey from finding myself in Dino pee, to being sucked up by as straw, I know find myself here back were I was 100 years ago.
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Watery Earth Lesson 6: Drops of Water on Different Surfaces

4/28/2015

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Surface

Giant Block of Cement.
Mini flowers.
Water.
Dirt.

Prediction

The water will clean the dirt of the rock.
The flowers will not absorb the water.
It will just go into the water and become one.
I predict that it will turn into mud and stick to the cup.

Actual

The rock absorbed the water and then let it out into the cup away from the rock.
The flowers did and didn't absorb the water but it soaked them and they stuck to the cup.
The water went into the water and became one just like the prediction.
The dirt went into the water and just floated.

Reflection

I was surprised that the rock absorbed water. I thought it would just clean the dirt off.
I thought that the water would just soak the plant but I had no idea it would make it stick to the cup!
I knew what was gonna happen because when ever I get water for a cup it goes from one place to another and becomes one.
I thought that the dirt would turn to mud and stick to the cup but instead it just floated in the water and turned the water all brown.

  1. Which materials surprised you the most? Why? 
  2. Which materials do you still wonder about? How do you think water will respond to that material?
1. The Giant Block of Cement and the Mini Flowers. Both were surprising with their actions. It was strange to see the Cement suck in and adsorb the water.
2. I wonder how water will respond from any unnatural materials. I also wonder what would happen when you put water on any type of animal like birds, reptiles, and other house pets.
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5th Grade Mentors Day 1

4/10/2015

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1. Describe your experience.
2. Did your student leave our room feeling good about themselves?
3. What will you do different next time with Mrs. Arce's class?    


1/2.Me and Abby had such a good time drawing, playing, and sharing about each other. We got to draw with paper and markers, dry erase markers and dry erase boards. I think Abby had a good time because everything we did was things she loves. We played basket ball with Alison and Preston, and Abby made some beautiful drawings.3. I think that I might let the kindergartener talk more along with asking if they wanna be friends. I hope that next time I might do a better job than this time even though Abby still had a smile on her face.
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