May 1, 2026
Dear Families,
We had a fabulous Fun Run on Tuesday! Thank you to all the family volunteers! We had a blast!
Next week, we will be beginning our Family Life religion curriculum. It is a series that begins with virtues and feelings. These subjects are covered in-depth in our regular religion book, Word of Life curriculum, and in our Second Step Program. However, the human body, the stages of life, growing and maturing are not in either of those curricula. So, I will be focusing on Family Life from RCL Benziger, Lessons 5-7 in the next few weeks. The fifth grade and on is when the curriculum goes more in-depth with biology of maturing and family life. We will be alluding to maturation but there won’t be specifics. However, if you would like your child to hear these lessons from you, as the parents and you think your child is ready, then the next few weeks would be a good time to augment what we are doing in class, covering their questions that they might have. If you’re interested in reading the curriculum for fourth, you are welcome. Please email me and we can meet.
The Mt. Baker Theater has offered a scholarship for our class to see “Under the Tangle” dance/play performance. There are two available chaperone tickets. It will be on May 18. We will walk there at 11:45 and come back at 2:00. The first two people who email me will get those tickets. Everyone else can buy a ticket from the theater. MBT’s Wade Bennett King Education Series | Mount Baker Theatre The permission slips will be going home on Wednesday. Thank you for considering this!
The last book report of the year will be on a biography! Students will be dressing up like their character and telling about their lives and answering questions in character! Students will be assigned starting May 26th. There will be 6-7 people a day.
Blessings,
Paula A. Martin-Zender
Academics
Religion – Fourth Grade Theologians learned about the Beatitudes and compared them to the Ten Commandments
Language – Finished with Shiloh and took its final test. Spelling focused on Unit 29 which was learning about the suffixes -ment and -ness. For writing, we are writing the second and third paragraphs of our five-paragraph essay on our favorite pet.
Math – Fourth grade mathematicians are working on connecting fractions to decimals. We also worked with money.
Science – These scientists are learning about volcanoes. We are asking questions to dive into it next week.
Social Studies – We are learning about Washingtonians lives of today, celebrating the diversity of our state.
Specialists
Art – Fourth grade students created drawings of dogs with their heads out of car windows, focusing on the focal point. They used basic shapes to build and structure their drawings.
Spanish – We reviewed the letter ñ, focusing on how it is written within a word.
Music – This week in music we are learning to play C7 and F chords on the ukulele and practicing smooth transitions between chords, dancing the Texas folk song Billy Billy, working with partners and taking turns creating movements, and finally we are listening to music by Edvard Grieg and discussing elements such as tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, mood, and articulation.
Physical Education – This week in PE, we kicked off our gymnastics unit! Students got moving with a fun Swork It warm-up video—it’s free and easy to try at home with the whole family. We also practiced traveling across the mat, learned different types of rolls, kicks and cartwheels and explored individual balance skills.
Library – No library because of the Fun Run.
May 4-8 – Missoula Children’s Theater
May 11 – Literacy Night 6pm