Month: November 2024

Dear Families, November 22, 2024

One of the many highlights of this week has been Grandparents Day! Due to being sick on Friday, so I missed the wonderful occasion but I heard about the fun all had, and I enjoy seeing the pictures of love poured out for both from the grandparents to their grandchildren and their grandchildren’s love returned! It is heartwarming!

Another highlight has been when your children put on a “Reader’s Theater” on My Father’s Dragon which is the book we wrapped up this week with a test.

I look forward to seeing you on Monday or Tuesday (or the following week for those of you out of town). Please, if you haven’t done this yet, please fill out this questionnaire to prepare for the conference next week.

There is a competition in our school!!! The class with the most responses for a parents survey for our accreditation wins a class movie and popcorn!!! We want to be that class! So, please take this survey. The link is here!

A weekend with Pebbles is here at this SignUpGenius.

Blessings,

Paula A. Martin-Zender

Academics

Religion – Fourth Grade Theologians are learning about the Three Theological Virtues and the Four Cardinal Virtues and how important it is to foster our virtues so that we build a good character for God and each other.
Language – Fourth grade readers finished reading our book: My Father’s Dragon. We found the vocabulary words, and we are learning how to write responses to the literature questions. In Spelling, students reviewed units 7-11 this week. In writing, students are writing a story as if they are a salmon at each stage of its life, from egg to spawning salmon. It will be fun to read!
Math – Mathematicians are learned about the concepts of two-digits times up to three-digits. Keep practicing facts!
Science – Scientists finished the salmon unit and are working on their stories.

Social Studies – Historians are learning about the indigenous peoples of Washington and how salmon was part of their lives.

Every Wednesday – 2:00 dismissal and casual dress uniform

Monday, November 25-26 – Conferences

Wednesday, November 27-29 – Thanksgiving Break

Specialists

Art – “How Do You Feel When You Forgive?”, invited students to explore the emotions of forgiveness. Through brainstorming, they identified feelings like peace and renewal, considering colors and symbols to express these ideas. Their artwork beautifully captures the transformative power of forgiveness, sharing an inspiring message with the audience.

Spanish – We wrote sentences about Thanksgiving using the common Spanish verbs we’ve learned.

Music – This week in music we are learning about Maori culture and singing a Maori stick passing song to learn about the ¾ time signature. 

Dear Families, November 15, 2024

What a wonderful salmon-filled week! We started out on Tuesday with such an awesome field trip where we got to see salmon in their own habitat in Whatcom Creek trying to get up the stream and at the salmon hatchery! What an amazing experience.

Then on Thursday, it was our salmon dissection day (three females with eggs and one male with milt!) along with the painting them. Finally today, we got to celebrate our salmon unit with a Salmon Feast! What a delicious treat!

Thank you to all of the wonderful parent volunteers, the food donated and then, of course, to the Lane family who donated the four salmon for the dissections!

There is a competition in our school!!! The class with the most responses for a parents survey for our accreditation wins a class movie and popcorn!!! We want to be that class! So, please take this survey. The link is here!

Conferences are coming up fast! Please make sure you sign up here. Also, please fill out this questionnaire to prepare for the conference next week.

A weekend with Pebbles is here at this SignUpGenius.

Blessings,

Paula A. Martin-Zender

Academics

Religion – Fourth Grade Theologians are learning about living a life of virtue. We must practice building our character by focusing on building our faith, hope and charity.
Language – Fourth grade readers and writers finished their book reports on Seesaw. They are also reading our book: My Father’s Dragon. We found the vocabulary words, and we are learning how to write responses to the literature questions. In Spelling, students studied r controlled i and u words.
Math – Mathematicians are learned about the concepts of two-digits times up to three-digits. Keep practicing facts!
Science – Scientists continued learning about salmon

Social Studies – Historians are learning about the indigenous peoples of Washington and how salmon was part of their lives.

Every Wednesday – 2:00 dismissal and casual dress uniform

Monday, November 18 – Human Food Chain – Please bring perishable food in for that next week.

Specialists

Art – “How Do You Feel When You Forgive?”, invited students to explore the emotions of forgiveness. Through brainstorming, they identified feelings like peace and renewal, considering colors and symbols to express these ideas. Their artwork beautifully captures the transformative power of forgiveness, sharing an inspiring message with the audience.

Spanish – We read a story about an elephant and identified common Spanish words like “es” and “tiene”.

Dear Families, November 7, 2024

Your children were AMAZING in today’s Veteran’s Prayer Service! Thank you for the support for the speaking parts by practicing at home!

We were lucky enough to also celebrate Vocations Week this week by having St. Eucharista as well as two Sisters of Charity and Deacon Dale from Sacred Heart.

Our field trip is on Tuesday, November 12th. We will be leaving at 12:30 after lunch. Students are to wear their casual dress uniforms and dress warmly! (Similar to our last field trip.) We will be going rain or shine! For parents that are volunteering: I will send home a plan later today or tomorrow.

The Lane family generously obtained four full salmon for us to dissect on November 14th at 1:15. We will also be creating salmon prints. We need volunteers to do this! So, please go here to sign up for helping out at that time!

We will also be having a Salmon Feast on November 15th! We would love to have you bring something and/or just join us! It is a fabulous celebration to culminate our unit! Here is the link to sign up for that.

A weekend with Pebbles is here at this SignUpGenius.

Blessings,

Paula A. Martin-Zender

Academics

Religion – Fourth Grade Theologians practiced and conducted the Veteran’s Day Prayer Service. We also celebrated Vocations Week.
Language – Fourth grade readers and writers finished their book reports on Seesaw. They are also reading our book: My Father’s Dragon. We found the vocabulary words, and we are learning how to write responses to the literature questions. In Spelling, students studied the or, au, aught, and ought. In writing, students are writing their book report.
Math – Mathematicians worked on multi-step problem solving, reviewed chapter 3 and took its test. Finally, today, they began chapter 4 with Mrs. Scarlett who will be teaching her first unit on two-digits times two-digits. Keep practicing facts!
Science and Social Studies – We had a representative from Lummi Nation, Mr. Clarence Bob, talking about his experience of being a fisher for salmon as a young man and comparing it to today’s fishing industry. He talked about his experience in setting up the Lummi Hatchery as well as how salmon is important in their culture. Today, we learned and compared Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph.

Every Wednesday – 2:00 dismissal and casual dress uniform

Friday, November 8 – No school – Accreditation work for the teachers

Monday, November 11 – No school – Veteran’s Day

Tuesday, November 12 – Field trip to Maritime Heritage Park to look at salmon and do service work

Thursday, November 14 – Dissection of salmon and salmon prints

Friday, November 15 – Salmon Feast 11:45-12:30

Monday, November 18 – Human Food Chain – Please bring perishable food in for that next week.

Specialists

Art – Students explored human proportions by drawing a figure that demonstrated movement and balance, working to create a rhythmic composition. They applied design principles to enhance their artwork’s flow and dynamic feel.

Spanish – 4th grade and 5th grade- We learned about Día de los Muertos and played a trivia game using common Spanish verbs.

Music – This week in music class we are doing an active listening exercise and passing off recorder karate belts. 

Dear Families, November 1, 2024

Wow! There was SO much going on this week! Thank you SO much to the parents that volunteered for the field trip as well as the Halloween Party! We had SO much fun at each one of these! You were amazing at both of them!

Our class is responsible for the Veterans’ Day prayer service and their families on November 7th. Please invite anyone who is a veteran to it so we can honor them. Also, if your children are scouts, please have them wear their uniform! I sent home what they should practice. We will practice two times in the church on November 4th and 5th.

The Lane family generously obtained four full salmon for us to dissect on November 14th at 1:15. We will also be creating salmon prints. We need volunteers to do this! So, please go here to sign up for helping out at that time!

We will also be having a Salmon Feast on November 15th! We would love to have you bring something and/or just join us! It is a fabulous celebration to culminate our unit! Here is the link to sign up for that.

A weekend with Pebbles is here at this SignUpGenius.

Blessings,

Paula A. Martin-Zender

Academics

Religion – Fourth Grade Theologians are presenting their Power Points of their saint for All Saints Day, November 1st.
Language – Fourth grade readers are writing their book reports on Seesaw. They are also reading our book: My Father’s Dragon. We found the vocabulary words, and we are learning how to write responses to the literature questions. In Spelling, students studied the oi, oy and the ou, ow sounds In writing, students are writing their book report.
Math – Mathematicians are learning problem solve this week using multiplication with multi-step problems. They also learned about the Order of Operations. Keep practicing facts!
Science – Scientists were learned about the threats to salmon in class and then had our fun field trip!

Social Studies – Students will learn about how salmon are important to the Native Americans of Washington.

Every Wednesday – 2:00 dismissal and casual dress uniform

Thursday, November 7 – Veteran’s Day Prayer Service (The Fourth Graders are responsible for this!) Dress uniform

Friday, November 8 – No school – Accreditation work for the teachers

Monday, November 11 – No school – Veteran’s Day

Tuesday, November 12 – Field trip to Maritime Heritage Park to look at salmon and do service work

Thursday, November 14 – Dissection of salmon and salmon prints

Friday, November 15 – Salmon Feast 11:45-12:30

Specialists

Art – Students explored drawing bears behaving like hikers. They learned to use lines and shapes to create detailed backgrounds. Their artworks show creative interpretations of bears hiking safely, with accessories such as backpacks, maps, water bottles, and walking sticks.

Music – This week in music class we are singing Old Joe Clark, a song in two harmonic parts and learning a new rhythm notation. 

Library –We read The Runaway Pumpkin together in class.  We worked on our typing and talked about what kind of information we should share with others in terms of personal and private information.