Would your child enjoy being part of Drone Club for 5th graders? Check out the PDF below. This was also sent in Friday's Wolverine Weekly. (The links don't work below, but should work on the Wolverine Weekly.)

If creating movies, coding, working with robots, website design, video production, or constructing your own computer is a passion for one of your children, the "Students Involved with Technology" Conference is a perfect opportunity for them to come learn with like-minded students. If your child is already pretty experienced with some aspect of technology and is ready to teach other students about it, this conference is their chance to lead a session!

The S.I.T. Conference is a student-focused conference run by students for students. Students present to their 3rd through 12th-grade peers on their passions, hear from a student keynote speaker, participate in hands-on design challenges, and even experiment with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). 

This all-day event is being hosted at Westgate Elementary School on February 10th, 2018.  Snacks, lunch and prizes are included with the $30.00 registration fee. Check out past conference highlights here.

If any students from our class register, I (Mr. Solarz) will attend the conference and will help them prepare their presentation for the event! I will also help gather materials for their presentation and will troubleshoot during their session (assuming I'm able to be with everyone at their sessions).

This event is happening soon! If your child is interested, please let me know ASAP and we'll get started preparing!

Thanks!
Paul

Thanks Mr. Fravell!!!

Although I'm planning on maintaining our "Homework-Free Classroom" to the best of my ability, we are beginning a social studies unit this week that focuses in on homework completion, note-taking, detailed written explanations, study skills and test-taking skills. Therefore, students will be getting a one-page homework assignment that will need to be completed most nights. It will go with our "We the People" unit that focuses on The Constitution and Government of the United States. They will also receive a study guide and test-taking strategies before each test. Students are encouraged to study for these five tests to see if they can develop their study skills. The tests are very challenging, but like everything else, our focus is on improvement and growth rather than perfection.

In addition, we began Literature Circles this week and students are asked to type a paragraph or two summary of their reading (alternating with their partner(s)) on a shared Google Doc. They might get to this in class, but some nights it will need to be completed at home.

Finally, students are always asked to finish anything from class as homework (blogs, Passion projects, etc.), but these have been few and students are encouraged to do as much in Homework Club as they are willing to do. I highly recommend setting aside 50-60 minutes each evening for your child to do something educational. Reading, writing, finishing up work from school, playing educational games, etc. are all good uses of this time. But I won't be enforcing this because I believe that things come up, family time is vital, and kids need time to be kids. I hope you understand!

Thanks for helping your child with any new adjustments to their evening schedules to accommodate these changes. Hope you and your child are enjoying the year so far!

Our new math program now allows students to sign in from home to access games, virtual manipulatives, and additional practice. Although I am still not assigning homework, this might be a good place to have your child visit occasionally to keep up on their math skills or to study for tests. Here's how they can sign in:

The students will visit this link (https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com) and login with their Google Username and Password. I would suggest selecting the "Remember my school" box so students do not need to select from the drop down menu each time they login:

Username: d25 NAME 4-digits @student.sd25.org           (Example: d25Paul1234@student.sd25.org)
Password: sd25 _ _ _ _             (Example: sd25abcd)

In addition, for those wanting extra skills practice at home, I recommend subscribing to IXL: www.ixl.com/ My niece uses it at home and it has helped her review skills very nicely over time.

In their videos, each student had to try to answer the following questions in relation to how the metaphor related to history:

1. Why was the blue team smaller and have fewer people?
2. Why was the red team bigger with more people?
3. Why did the white team come into the tug-of-war late?
4. Why was the blue team offered a prize if they won, but not the red team?
5. Why was one person pulled aside and told they wouldn't receive a prize?
6. Why was the white team told to cheer for the blue team?
7. Why did half of the red team have to start so far away?
8. Why did the red team have to pull the rope so far, while the blue team only had to prevent the red team from doing so?
9. In your opinion, was this a good way to learn about the BIG IDEAS in the Revolutionary War? Why or why not?

Welcome to Parent Night!!!
 
Introduction & Background
 
My philosophy of education

• My style of Teaching & Learning
  • 21st Century Skills (34 of them!)
  • Focus on Revision & Improvement rather than grades
  • Student-led classroom
  • Project-Based Learning – several projects may overlap – all done in school
• Differentiating Instruction so that everyone is learning at an appropriate level.
  • The importance of struggle & failure in a nurturing environment.
• One student can’t ruin it for the class.
• All students in this classroom can and will learn.
• Consistency in praise, consistency in consequences.

 
Absences

• Class Website – assignments listed online (“Calendar”)
• Absent-Minded Professor
• When absent, just make everything up ASAP – no grade associated, no due date
• Vacations/2-Day Rule for Requesting Homework (5th grade policy)

 
Homework

• 0-50 minutes per night – recommend a consistent time & place
• Recap Board
• Whatever you don’t finish in class – every student is different
• ePortfolio blog posts, personal interests, revising/improving skills & work, etc.
• Homework Club

 
Classwork

• Class Website – lessons listed online (“Our Weekly Schedule”)
• Math in Focus
• Words Their Way (Spelling & Word Study)

 
Miscellaneous

• Contact me via email: psolarz@sd25.org
• Healthy Snacks – fruits and veggies encouraged!
• Partnerships
• Field Trips:
  • Camp Duncan - October 2nd
  • Historical Reenactment - October 6th
  • Museum of Science & Industry - possibility
  • The Grove (Pioneer Life) - May 31st
  • South Middle School - Spring
  • Robert Crown – three separate In-School Field Trips in the spring
    • Optional Parent Night is 11/7 at Dunton (details to come)
    • 1 - Drug Awareness (all together)
    • 2 - Linda & Michael (separate boys & girls, learning about respective reproductive systems)
    • 3 - Life Begins (all together)

 
Classroom Website: paulsolarz.weebly.com

• Parent Newsletter (blog)(Subscribe to get emails every time it’s updated)
• Check calendar on website daily for homework assignments
• Quick tour of our website

 
Binder:

• Not sure how we’ll use it just yet – trying to prepare them for South when they’ll need a binder to travel with them from room to room.
• Assignment Notebook should be kept inside
• Folders should be labeled for each subject (Take Home, Math, Reading, Writing, Science, Social Studies). We don’t have a ton of papers in our class – most is online.

 
Twitter:

• @MrSolarz is our classroom account that the kids can tweet from
• @PaulSolarz is my professional account that I will re-tweet them from and I use excessively (follow at your own risk – LOTS of tweets!) ;)

 
What parents can do to help their child

• Check out the website regularly (daily if possible!).
• Create an “After School Routine” for your child that includes up to 50 minutes set aside for homework every night (even though there won’t usually be homework assignments).
• Praise all good study habits and other behaviors.
• Read with your child.
• Math facts are more important than one would think! (Multiplication & Division)
• Help your child with their work, but please don’t do it for them!

 
WHO IS THIS CHILD? (10 and 11 year olds):
 
I’M TEN and...                                                       

• Can take on anything- love a challenge                                                       
• Represents an end of an “appreciated dependency”
• Get pleasure from family activities and outings- still admire adults (parents and teachers)

 
I’M ELEVEN and…                   

• I’m an advocate and strong believer - passionate about my ideas, opinions and sense of justice                                                                                   

• Assertive- not intend to be rude, it’s a rehearsal for showing independence                       

• Devoted to peers and social cliques that begin to form

 
Math in Focus
Math in Focus curriculum strives to develop conceptual understanding with the goal of content mastery.  Concepts are taught moving through a sequence of concrete to pictorial to abstract. Concrete learning happens through hands-on activities with math manipulatives, such as counters, coins, number lines, or base ten blocks.  Pictorial learning uses pictures, drawings, or other forms that illustrate the concept with something more than abstract numbers.  Finally, abstract learning requires students to use numerals, strategies, and problem solving methods to solve problems. Math in Focus supports the goals of the Illinois Learning Standards for Mathematics.  It is a research-based program that focuses on classroom learning, discussion and practice.  It strives to balance conceptual understanding, visual learning, and problem solving. Students will have access to math manipulatives, student workbooks, student textbooks and online resources.
 
Words Their Way
Word study involves focused attention to words and word elements, with the goal of helping children become excellent readers and writers.  Word study is defined as an instructional process that involves the learner in an investigation of words” (Fountas & Pinnell 1998).  “While important, phonics, spelling, word analysis, and grammar usage strategies are not the end goal of literacy education.  Their importance lies in their contribution to reading and writing continuous text.  The more students can solve words, derive the meaning of words, spell words, and parse language syntax rapidly, fluently, and unconsciously the more likely they are to read and write with competence and ease” (Fountas & Pinnell 2017). 

The schools in the district are in a competition: School vs. School.

Who can get the most keyboarding minutes done over the summer? I hope your child will want to participate in this fun challenge! Here are the details: https://www.smore.com/qw7jr

Each child will be receiving their sign on and password in their report card envelopes tomorrow! Please keep an eye out for it! Thanks and have a great summer!

(If we don't talk before then, thank you all for a WONDERFUL school year! I will really miss this group of kids!!!)

In social studies, we just finished a unit on The U.S. Constitution and our government. After learning the basics in mostly traditional ways, I had my students apply their knowledge in a unique way. We "colonized" Mars, created our own country on the planet, and wrote our own constitution, preamble, and Bill of Rights collaboratively as a whole class!

Here are the lessons from the entire unit: http://psolarz.weebly.com/colonize-mars1, but the final product seen here is from Lessons 10-12: http://paulsolarz.weebly.com/parents-newsletter/today-we-finished-writing-our-constitution-for-the-country-we-created-on-mars.

In a nutshell, I create a Google Doc and share it with everyone in class (usually through Google Classroom). I give each student a specific task, or give the entire class the same task, and ask them to post their information into the GDoc. We work together as a whole class to eliminate overlaps and ideas we don't like and only keep "the good stuff." Together, we piece together the parts we want into a finished piece.

- The Preamble was a class period or two.
- The Articles of the Constitution were a few periods.
- The Bill of Rights was a period.

Each year, we have to determine what type of government we want to be based on our research online and class discussion. This is a really fun talk! We decided to be a Constitutional Monarchy this year. Last year we were a Meritocracy.

Ultimately, I think my students got a lot more out of these lessons because they did most of the thinking. They weren't just following rules, reading & answering questions, and taking tests (although this is the unit that we do some of those things). They were researching, using convergent and divergent thinking skills, thinking critically to determine importance, and synthesizing information to create something new! I value these skills far more than the content knowledge that they learned, but I'm also happy that they learned about our country's government and its history. With all subjects, I like to make sure that students aren't just learning content, but also building important skills that they can transfer to new situations!

Additional Information available in "Learn Like a Pirate.



"Here are screen shots of our document that was written collaboratively by all the students in class:

Just a few quick notes:

• On Wednesday and Friday of this week we will be MAP Testing. Wed. at 9:10 is Reading and Fri. at 9:10 is Math.
• Fountas & Pinnell Reading Testing will be starting any day now. I have a month to get through all of the students, but it will require me to be pulling students throughout the school day for 20-45 minutes to get an accurate score for their reading comprehension. I may have to pull some students during P.E., Music, Art, or LMC in order to find enough time to test everyone. Just a heads-up.
• On Thursday, we will be going to South Middle School from 9:15-10:40 and doing a Bus Evacuation drill immediately afterwards.
• Our second Robert Crown program will take place on May 3rd at 1:30 & is called "Lynda & Michael." This is a talk mostly about puberty.
• Our third and final Robert Crown program will be on May 23rd at 10:15 & is called "Life Begins."
• On June 2nd, we will be going on a field trip to The Grove in Glenview to support our Westward Expansion unit (we'll be learning Pioneer skills).
• Field Day in on June 5th (Rain Date is June 8th).
  
• I think that's it for now! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!
  

Here are all of the students at the climbing wall. (One made it up so quickly that I only caught him once he was already down!) :)

Today, we learned about how a bill becomes a law in our legislature & each took on roles as either special interest groups or Congressmen. Here are our discussions on whether or not Representative Smith should vote for or against a smoking ban (thinking about personal interests and the common good).

Today, students participated in a "Naval Review Board Hearing" where a ship captain's rights were put on trial. Should they continue to have nearly unlimited power? Should they be allowed to whip their crew? Should they be allowed to say whatever they want, no matter how it makes others feel?  Listen to the videos to find out!

Spoiler alert! The Naval Review Board's decision is below!

Hello Parents!

I just wanted to let you know about a few activities/events that are upcoming in our classroom. This will give you an opportunity to ask your child about what they learned or if they had any fun while doing them!

• We just finished our Revolutionary War unit where we participated in a tug-of-war that demonstrated (metaphorically) how the war was won by the Americans. I uploaded some photos onto the blog for you to check out. We also prepared extremely short skits where students acted out portions of the Declaration of Independence in order to make it more understandable for children. These videos are on the blog as well. (paulsolarz.weebly.com)
• We'll be finishing up our Elections unit by watching the Presidential Inauguration in class tomorrow. I think the students had some fun learning about the basics of presidential elections (Electoral College, Political Parties, etc.) and will now be learning about our nation's constitution and government in our newest social studies unit. By the way, this unit is our special unit where I teach, textbook strategies, note-taking strategies, test-taking strategies, and study strategies. It will look very old-fashioned, but I will be reading each chapter with the kids and helping them understand all of the concepts as we discuss them as a class. Students will have homework in this just about every other day, so if you are able to follow their progress in their "We the People" packets, that would be really appreciated. At the end of each packet, students will take a formal test. I will help them learn to study for each test and analyze their mistakes on the tests. That being said, these tests are hard and are meant to help students learn how to study. This will hopefully prepare students for their time in middle school and high school.
• A short Erin's Law lesson will be taught in class next Tuesday by our social workers. I sent a blog post out with a link to what that is if you weren't sure.
• MAP Test results will be coming home next Friday (1/27/17). I have not seen the results of these yet, but please remember that it is just a moment in time and that grades fluctuate up and down depending on dozens of factors. They are just one assessment I use when determining what is taught in the coming months.
• We have started Mystery Skype! This is pretty exciting to the kids! Mystery Skype is a 45-60 minute critical thinking challenge that a class takes part in while Skyping with another class somewhere else in the world.  Our students' goal is to guess the other school's location (country, state, city, school name) before they guess ours.  We do this by asking yes and no questions. So far, we've only practiced against me, but we should be Skyping one classroom per week for the next couple months. It's a great way to connect with students from around the world!
• The Book Fair is coming up (students are previewing books next Tuesday) - This is a great way to support our PTA and get books into your child's hands. That being said, I have WAY too many books, so please don't buy any for our classroom! Thanks in advance! :)
• We are going to the Museum of Science and Industry on February 2nd.
• Finally, the students will be participating one (or more) fun national contests starting next week. They all focus on inventing and solving problems through creative thinking. Feel free to ask your child next week about it!

Hope all is well with everyone - talk soon!

Paul A. Solarz
5th Grade Teacher
Westgate Elementary School
500 S Dwyer
Arlington Heights, IL 60005