Elf on the Shelf!

I cannot believe that it is just about time for the Elf on the Shelf to make its appearance!  Where have the past few months gone?!  ACK!  I am super excited about bringing the Elf back our, the Kinders last year loved it!  It will be strange to have to call her a new name this year.  The biggest thing I love about having the Elf around is the writing piece.  My students wrote in their Elf Journals every morning for their Before School Work (BSW).  Here is an example:

This really helped to strengthen their writing skills as well as their fine motor skills.  Our elf did a lot of silly things:

 

Will you be using an Elf on the Shelf?  What are some fun things you like to do with your elf?

 

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

A few weeks ago we read the story The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.

I found this super cute writing activity to go along with the theme of this story.  The Kinders started by coloring in their own little person like this:

 

Then they had to write a sentence about each item of clothing listed above.  For example:  "My boots are green."  Once they wrote a sentence for each, they glued them under each flap like this:

 

These took a while for us to complete and thanks to my fabulous volunteer for working with the students on these, they went home the other day.  It is such a cute lesson, I plan on using it again next year.

 

Elf Journals Cont.

Yesterday we found Rosabelle on our cabinet with a note from Santa.  Here are two writing examples from yesterday:

The students copied the sentence from the whiteboard and had to draw their own picture.  The first example is from one of my regular ed students.  She has super handwriting and she is very detail oriented!  The second example is from one of my ASD kiddos.  He is a repeater and has worked so very hard last year as well as this year and he is doing so well!

The day before yesterday, Rosabelle was on the shelf.  How appropriate!  She was sitting beneath the palm tree and next to the luau pig!  The examples here are from the same students shown above:

Again, the students had to copy the sentence from the whiteboard and draw their own picture.  The students are doing really well creating these sentences together as well as copying them from the board.  They are putting their sight word knowledge to good use!

Here is what Rosabelle was up to today:

She made a mess of our name card on the chart and she added her own name!  I'll post some student writing examples tomorrow!  Rosabelle might be staying in the North Pole tonight as the kiddos were a little out of hand today. 

Elf on the Shelf!

  Last year I bought my daughter the Elf on the Shelf.  She was only 2 at the time but caught on to the concept quickly.  Here is Elfie causing mischief in our home:

  Today I was on Pinterest and saw a great Elf on the Shelf Classroom post.  So, tomorrow I will head to Barnes and Noble and pick up an Elf on the Shelf kit for school.  I plan on wrapping the box just like Amanda from First Grade Garden did.  I also downloaded her journal template and plan on keeping a daily journal with my students through the month of December as part of their Before School Work.  I'll try to post every Friday about where our Elf has been, what he's done and how the kiddos are progressing in their writing!