Elf on the (Classroom) Shelf Part 2

Today was an exciting day for our elf; she was named. The voting was really close, but the name Winter won.  

Today, Winter also decorated the front of our room with Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun to see the students reactions to the lights.

I can't wait to see what Winter has in store for us for the rest of the week. What  is your classroom elf up to? 

Elf on the (Classroom) Shelf Part 1

After watching so many of you have fun with your elf on the shelf in your classrooms, I decided to give it a try this week. This is the last week before break, so why not have a little fun! I'm actually missing all of the holiday madness from elementary:-( Hopefully, introducing the elf will brighten my mood! Today was day one and I couldn't have been more excited, more importantly my homeroom class was excited! 

Our elf, yet to be named, snuck in through the window and wrote this message for us. I love our art teacher for doing this for me! 

Once class started students read this letter from the elf: 

The original letter came from a search on Pinterest. I just changed a few words and added the P.S.. After reading the letter students did some persuasive writing, perfect for our writing unit were doing now. They had to decided on a name for the elf, then write two reasons why we should select that name. After reading all of their reasoning I decide on six for them to vote on:  

1. Jingle 

2. Joy

3. Noel

4. Peppermint

5. Snowflake 

6. Winter 

Voting is still open as of tonight! I will announce the name tomorrow. I'm rooting for Peppermint, but Winter is in the lead. 

After our writing we discussed character traits. I had the students tell me what character traits the elf was exhibiting. They came up with traits such as, brave, athletic, creative, excited, happy and mischievous. Each trait was followed by a good reason, for example: she is happy & excited because of all the exclamation marks at the end; she is brave and athletic because she was hanging from the blinds. They had all sorts of reasons to explain their trait. It really had them thinking and discussing. I can't wait to see what they come up with tomorrow! 

Do you have an elf on the shelf in your classroom? What character traits is your elf exhibiting? I would love to hear how you're using the elf in your classroom. 

Elf on the Shelf (Classroom Edition)

FIVE days until winter break! If Friday is any indication of the next five then it's going to be a loooong five days! However, I can do this! I'm going to use a little elf to help me though. I've seen everyone's elf in the classroom adventures and have wanted to bring it to my classroom, but thought my students might be to old (6th grade). After two weeks of elf adventures with my 2 year old, I'm convinced that 5 days of Elf on the Shelf with 6th graders will be a lot of fun; not to mention help control some of the madness that takes place the week before winter break. 

I need your help! I'm trying to plan my week, but I want to know, what are your top 5 elf ideas for the classroom? What do you think would work for older grades? I have a few ideas, but thought I'd see if there were more out there. Thanks for your help. 

Here's our elf, already for some 6th grade  fun! You can follow me on Instagram @rolandteach to see what he's up to daily. 

Mel D. and Michelle are hosting a weekly ELF in the Classroom Linky Party. I'm headed over there to look for some ideas. 

Five for Friday & December Currently

It seems as if the time in between my blog post is getting longer and longer. Thankfully there's Five for Friday and Currently that keep me blogging at least once a month. 

I'm going to begin with my five for Friday! 

1. COLD-I am not a fan of cold weather, and this week the temperature  has tumbled! As I write this it is currently 10 degrees-brrrr!  We even had a dusting of snow this week, and their predicting more (with accumulations) on Sunday! I need to move somewhere warm all year round. What's the temperture like where you are? 

2. Wreath-STUCO sponsored it's second annual class wreath decorating contest. This is a lot of fun! Each classroom is provided materials (of their choice) to decorate a wreath. The wreath is given to another school in our district. The theme of the wreath this year was College and Career ready! Unlike last year, my goal was to have everyone contribute to our wreath. I did find the perfect wreath to help with this on Pinterest. It was very simple too! Here are some pictures. 

I created the wreath. 

Students provided the cards. Only about half of my students have finished their cards. 

How does this support the college a nd career ready theme? Take a look inside a few of the cards. 

This wreath turned out really well. 

3. Mesopotamia- We have finished up our Mesopotamia unit, YEAH! Here are some of the Ziggurat projects students created. 

Next up is Ancient Egypt. Students are already asking to build pyramids. If you have any neat project or lesson ideas for ancient Egypt I would love to hear about them. 

4. Blogging- I haven't blogged much, but that is because I have over 50 student blogs I'm managing. It's a lot of work managing student blogs. If you ever have a minute or two stop by and visit my class blog. Please leave a comment. There is no better motivation for student writing than a comment from someone outside of our school. 

5. Currently- it is currently December, so that means it's time to link up with Oh Boy 4th Grade for her December currently. 

Sorry if my currently is difficult to read. 

I'm loving our new Elf! Here are some pictures: 

Many teachers are using the elf in their classroom, I'm not, are you? Follow me on Instagram @rolandteach to see our elf daily:) 

I guess, I should end this incredibly long post. Until next time...visit more five for Fridays and/or December Currentlys. 

Five for Friday!

Hello, it's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. Just because I haven't linked up doesn't mean I haven't thought about it. In fact, I've introduced my students to Five for Friday. They've gotten accustomed to writing a Five for Friday on their blogs. I even wrote one with them today. So, my Five for Friday can be found here. 

I also want to ask, you to stop by and read one (or more) of my student's Five for Friday post, and leave them a comment. It would mean so much to them. Thank you in advance. 

Currently November

I am so glad October is over! It was a jam packed month. I think I only blogged once, that's just how busy it was. But it is currently November, and time to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly linky. 

Listening to the morning news is a daily routine. Currently the weather is being forecast; looks like today is going to be a great fall day with temperatures  in the upper 50's. 

I am loving that tonight is day light savings time. It's been really dark driving to work in the mornings, and it really messes up my moods in the morning. Looking forward to a brighter drive on Monday. 

I'm thinking about what my day is going to look like. I have lots of ideas as to what I want to do, but not sure which direction I will go. 

I wantta be a millionaire so freaking bad. Forget being a billionaire I just want to be a millionaire. Who doesn't? 

I'm needing a new haircut. I'm ready to do something different with my hair. Exactly what I'm not sure.  

 My yummy pin is cupcake tacos! This is one of my favorite receipes. It's so easy to fix. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/254101603945978306/

Well that's my November currently. Head over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade to see what others are currently up to. Have a great month! 

Saturday Snapshots: Celebrate Everyday

Did you know everyday is a holiday? Yes, it's true.  I use the website punchbowl to determine the daily holiday. Punchbowl provides a holiday along with a brief description of the holiday. I write the holidays for the week on the board and every now and then we celebrate one. Students also have the option of celebrating the holiday in their own way and writing about it, on Edmodo, for extra credit. Some students are really getting into it. I'm linking up a few of our holiday snapshots with Miss Nelson's Saturday Snapshots take a look. 

As a class we recently celebrated National Puncation Day, September 24.

 

I found these homemade cookies on my door handle the morning of Homemade Cookie Day, October 1. They were yummy! 

Here are some pictures posted by my students for National Taco Day. 

Today is World Teacher Day. HAPPY WORLD TEACHER DAY to you all!

Next week's holidays include: 

October 6, 2013 is

Mad Hatter Day

October 7, 2013 is

National Frappe Day 

October 8, 2013 is

National Fluffernutter Day

October 9, 2013 is

Leif Erikson Day

October 10, 2013 is

National Cake Decorating Day

October 11, 2013 is

    National Sausage Pizza Day 

October 12, 2013 is

National Gumbo Day

Which holiday will you celebrate? I'm looking forward to fixing some Gumbo, in honor of National Gumbo Day, next Saturday. 

Saturday Snapshots

Happy Saturday Everyone! Today, I'm linking up with Miss Nelson for Saturday Snapshots. I missed last week:( I was so busy, but I have lots of pictures to share this week, so let's get started. 

This picture is from last week. Each teacher runs a club that will meet 5 times throughout the year during seminar, my club is the Duct Tape Club. At our first meeting we made neckties and wallets. It was so fun! 

Pictures from this week:

National Talk Like a Pirate Day was this week. I stopped by Krispy Kreme to get a pirate doughnut and ran into Blackbeard. 

He gave me a quick lesson in talking like a pirate, and recorded a message for my students, which they loved.  

Map Skills

We've finally started map skills in Social Studies. Day one began with mapping the world on an orange, with a partner. Students did a nice job with this, I'll admit I was a little nervous about this activity, but it turned out great. Day two they worked independently to map the world on paper, this time they had to add the oceans.  

Next up are pictures from our first Student Council Spirt Day of the year.

Mustache Day

Here is our principal (first picture) and other teachers sporting mustaches for the day. 

That's me in the corner! The other photos represent student mustache swag. 

More student mustache swag. 

Here is my BTF (best teacher friend) and her son. 

This future Fashion Designer was all mustached out; headband, scarf, shirt, suspenders, rings, pen and my favorite hand sanitizer. 

It was such a fun theme. The best part was everyone could participate. For my students that didn't have any mustache paraphernalia, I was able to print some mustaches for them. They enjoyed the day just as well.  

Pizza Party

My homeroom class won a pizza party, from our Papa John's fundraiser, so we enjoyed pizza on Friday as well as mustache day. 

Recess

Our team earned enough Bus Bucks for a reward. Recess was the chosen reward. The kids were super excited! They don't normally get recess, so this was a real treat. Mustaches, pizza and recess what else could we throw in on this fun filled Friday?  

A FIRE DRILL! 

Yes, in all of the fun there was a fire drill.  I was on my plan, and decide to get a few pictures for the yearbook. 

Man what a week?! Or should I say Friday! Enjoy your weekend. Don't forget to stop by Run Miss Nelson's got the Camera, for more Saturday Snapshots. 

Five For Friday

Hello! It has been a while since my last blog post, sorry. I've been totally exhausted! Now that I have a little bit of energy, I'm taking the time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday. 

1. Sports have been super exciting in our town. After playing last night the KC Chiefs, are off to a 3-0 start! Whoop, Whoop. Our baseball team, Kansas City Royals, are trying  really hard to get into the playoffs. I can't remember the last time we had this much sports excitement around. Fun times out here in the Midwest. It's especially fun hearing my students talk sports. 

2. Mustache day is today at school! Student council is sponsoring their first spirit day of the year, and what better way to kick off the year than with mustache day! I have lots of mustache stuff around, my son is having a mustache bash in a week, however I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to wear. I better decide soon. You can check out pictures in my blog post tomorrow, or you can follow me on Instagram (Roland Teach) to see some later today. 

3. Besides today being mustache day, my class earned a pizza party. We had the most participates in our Papa John's Pizza fundraising event. We will be having Papa John's pizza this afternoon. Our team also earned a reward for their bus bucks. Students earn bus bucks for behaving well on the bus, once a team reaches 75 they earn a reward. We decided we would give the students a recess today. They don't normally get recess, and I wish I could of recoded their responses when I told them we were going to have recess today. They were super excited! 

4. We are just beginning map skills in social studies, and yesterday we mapped the world on an orange. I was a bit nervous about doing this activity, but it turned out GREAT! The kids loved it, and did a nice job, take a look: 

5. My best teaching buddy and I are co-sponsoring a Writing Club this year, and we had our first meeting this week. As an ice breaker we used the app StoryLines for Schools and created our first story, take a look: 

There you have it, My Five for Friday. Be sure to stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching to  see more. Have a great day!