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.