The Elf on the Shelf in the classroom pt. 2

As the holidays approached in room 211, Jingles' mischeif continued. The first week was of course a little rough, being that Jingles lost his magic when one of my little boys touched him. Following directions is an important life skill, friends. We got back on track after using the Elf Magic Recovery Dust that Santa sent through overnight express mail to our classroom. 

My kiddos came in to find Jingles peering over the role sheet with his own little pencil and paper, crafting out a naughty and nice list. 

The next day my kiddos searched long and hard for him before they finally found Jingles hiding in a pocket chart. 

I was in a little bit of a hurry trying to snap a photo the following day but sneaky Jingles changed the date one our schedule to December 25. 

On Thursday he was front and center on our easel, holding hands with a stuffed animal from our classroom. 

On Friday of week 2, my kids came in and couldn't find him anywhere! There were some clues, though. Sparkly footprints all over the room...

So my kids searched and searched...

..until they finally found Jingles hiding back in the listening center eating a pancake one of my kids made for him the day before. And yes, this is a real, elf-sized pancake.

On Monday of the week of holiday vacation, my kids came in to find that Jingles had built his own little house in the classroom library. 

My kiddos are too sweet. They thought this must mean that he was cold. The next day, they found him watching over them from the mail center. They fed him a snack and built him a house. 

Since Jingles now had a nice warm house, he climbed into bed for the next day.

By the Thursday before the Holiday break, it appeared that Jingles was getting a little homesick. He was sitting on the North Pole on the globe.

On Friday, the last day before break, my kids came in to find that Jingles had die-cut snowflakes and spread them out ALL over the room to make a white Christmas-party for them. He sat on the bookshelf, holding one of his creations. 

Jingles has gone back to the North Pole, at least until next year. One of my girls drew his portrait, though, so we'll always remember him.

Fellow teachers (and parents), what are your Elf on the Shelf ideas for next year?

The Elf on the Shelf in the classroom

I just love the holidays. This is absolutely my favorite time of the year. Teaching third grade, there is something magical about my students at this time of year, too. Maybe its because this is one of the last years where they whole-heartedly believe in Santa. 

I've been laughing over some of the cute pins I've seen of Elf on the Shelf ideas and since the W household won't be having any kiddos for many Christmases to come, I decided to get an Elf for my class. He arrived last Monday in a freezing cold box straight from the North Pole. I wish I had taken a picture of it in the morning when I prepared it, but I totally forgot in the hurry to get everything for the day ahead ready. I wrapped the elf up with a letter from Santa in red bulletin board paper, addressed it to our class, and put a pretend stamp on. Then, I put the box in the freezer for a half an hour while I got everything else ready for the day and started morning meeting. I asked my morning parapro to take a form down to the office for me and she returned carrying the package, saying it had just been delivered. The kids were ecstatic when we opened the package and they named our elf Jingles. We sat Jingles on top of our bookshelf then went about our morning routine. 

The kids had gym in the classroom because there was a holiday concert rehearsal in the gym. Luckily, while I was making copies, we had a fire drill. I came outside and met up with my class, who were in gym. They finished up gym outside (where the game was going to happen anyway) and when everyone got back inside, our sneaky little elf had changed the date on the white board to December 25.

I found some cute freebies on teachers pay teachers and made my kids an elf journal to record Jingles' mischief. They have to complete it in their own time (snack, after morning work, etc.) and it isn't required but they all seem to be interested in doing it. 

Some of my kiddos took it upon themselves to write letters to Jingles in their spare time. 

And not wanting to open a can of worms for the next fourteen days, Jingles wrote one form letter back.

On Tuesday, sneaky Jingles was hiding on top of the projector for the smart board. At some point during the day, he fell off, which the kids loved because they though he was so intently listening to our discussion that he slipped off. Luckily Jingles was unharmed so I sat him back on the shelf. Only adults are allowed to touch Santa's scout elves, as you may remember from the book. We went about our business and then as we were cleaning up our Daily 5 centers, the unthinkable happened. Someone touched the elf. 

Most of my kiddos thought this wouldn't be a big deal but a couple of them were really stressing over it. And sure enough, when they came in in the morning, Jingles still sat right where we left him and all their letters were left unanswered. The only thing that was different, was that there was a letter from Santa. I wrote a pretty cute little poem about the situation but I'll keep in private in case I ever want to do an elf on the shelf unit on teachers pay teachers. Some of my students were really upset but I thought this was a good teachable moment about following directions. They wrote apology letters to Santa and I hurried out at lunch to mail them to the North Pole. 

Even after apologizing, nothing changed. Jingles sat still all day. He was even still sitting in the same place the next morning. But there was another letter waiting from Santa. Inside was a second letter and a package of elf magic recover dust, which I sprinkled on Jingles.

Jingles probably would have stayed still for one more day to finish teaching a lesson about following directions, but one of my students' elves was hiding in her bookbag that morning so I felt like they needed to get into some mischief together. At lunch, they made a snowflake chain but left all the scrap pieces of paper on the carpet for us to clean up. Naughty, naughty elves but boy were my third graders happy that Jingles had his magic back.

My kids made paper ornaments for our little desktop tree throughout the week. Then, on Friday, Jingles hung a gold garland to help decorate the tree. Ten more days until break - I wonder what mischief he'll get into between now and then. ;)

Let's Play Catch Up

I have a couple half-finished posts in my queue dating all the way back to what my class did to celebrate Thanksgiving, which was super cute by the way. I'll have to make it my goal to finish and post these soon. On that note, does anyone know an online program that would make it easy for me to blur my students' faces in photos to post on the blog? I have some super cute photos from our Holiday unit but I also think its important to maintain my students' privacy.

Here's a photo of our class tree, books for our book exchange, and stockings to hold you over!

I have the cutest video of them from our Holiday celebration. Toys for Tots and a faculty fundraiser combined provided enough toys so that every single student in our school had a present on the last day before the holiday break. "Santa" came to our school, carrying his sack, and ringing a bell, and strolled down the halls to wish all of our students a Happy Holiday. Then when he left, he left 700 presents in the gym to be distributed to our students.

Blurry because Santa was on the move to get back to the North Pole and prepare for Christmas Eve ;)

Or that's how it seemed for my Kindergartners. They felt so honored that Santa came to our school and brought us presents a day early. In reality, a lot of hard work went in to making that happen (I was on the wrapping committee so I can attest to this) but it was well worth it. I videoed my kids with my iPhone and their reactions were priceless. Many of my students come from lower income houses and even those that don't, almost all of them are growing up in one of the most densely populated gang communities in America. They deserve something special. We had a book exchange where students brought in wrapped books to swap and a generous parent volunteer donated extras to make sure everyone got one. There were squeals of joy when they opened their books and Toys for Tots packages (a princess floor puzzle for the girls and Hess trucks for the boys) and one little boy looked right into the camera and said "This is everything I've dreamed of." It was SO cute.

On another note, we've had some changes in administration lately. Our curriculum director resigned unexpectedly due to family illness and it was effective immediately. With that came a lot of changes. Kindergarten has been restructured and the classes have even changed slightly. This is rare for the middle of the year, but was much needed. And I have fewer migraines and spend significantly less money without the necessary afternoon coffee run. We've been allowed to incorporate some play into our curriculum like most other Kindergarten classes. We added dramatic play centers, blocks, and a movement and life skill building block to the day. On Fridays we now do free choice centers, which include paint, sand table, puppet show, etc. This is much appreciated because our kids are only 5 and 6 years old and are in school without a break from 7:30 am until 4:15 and need more play than a 20 minute recess! We also added fifteen minutes of silent reading and quiet time after recess, which we substitute for silly Dr. Jean songs on Fridays.

I still have lots of fun and crazy stories to tell from my classroom. But things have definitely calmed down a bit. I haven't been stabbed with a pencil or bitten in over a month!

Halloween Costume Parade & Quote of the Day

Oh how I wish I could post pictures of the costumes my Kindergarteners wore yesterday. Our school hosted a parade of costumes for the students. Since the community that serves our students is ummm...not the safest, our school hosted a safe Halloween event during the school day. Students in the lower school were able to change into their costumes after lunch and recess. They had a parade of costumes for the upper school, faculty, and some parents who were able to make it into school then went back to class for pumpkin painting and a Halloween party.

For privacy reasons, I will never post pictures of my actual students but I searched Google images high and low for photos of a couple of the cutest costumes from class.

Ladybug Princess

Lady skeleton

 Child pimp

I kid you not, one of my children came to school dressed as a pimp. Gold chains, hat, and all. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I asked him what his costume was to see what he would tell me and all he could do was giggle. I wish I could share the actual picture I took - hilarious!

Quote of the day - I was signing in at the office when I got to school on Monday, loaded up with Halloween goodies and freshly baked cookies. One of the other teachers told me to expect some of my students to be out all week. I asked why - apparently it is gang initiation week in our community and some of the kids will be home with their parents doing those sorts of activities. I was also told not to stay late working at school this week. Sometimes I feel like I must be pretty naiive and like I have so much to learn about the "real world."