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.