Well,

December was quite the whirlwind in Hamsterdam! Most of our learning time was spent reviewing and preparing for Portfolio Day and VIP Day. The rest of the short month flew by, thanks to guest speakers and special Hanukkah activities.

In Math, we finished Unit 3, which was all about Number Stories. This imaginative group of Hamsters sure loves making up their own stories for math! We learned various strategies to solve number stories, such as parts/total, change models, and the number line and grid.

In ELA, we began diving more deeply into grammar, learning a catchy poem about Nouns, and creating silly sentences (our own Mad Libs) for VIP Day. We continued to work on digraphs, bonus letter words, and welded sounds like /all/ and /an/ and /am/. We also really focused on writing complete sentences with capital letters and punctuation. Finally, we published our stories for Portfolio Day, after revising, editing, and illustrating our final drafts. They worked so hard, and I hope you enjoyed their first fictional story, using our story elements model!

In Science, we continued to experiment with what foods Furball prefers, states of matter, and describing matter with Properties, culminating in written and verbal “Mystery Matters” for their Portfolios and VIP Day.

In Social Studies, we practiced our geography songs and made our own map of the world to use for VIP Day. They did so well, and I was so proud of them!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break, and I can’t wait for a year of learning in 2018!