Classroom Elf Adventures- Part 1 of 3

For the next three weeks, I will be sharing our adventures with our classroom elf!

I started using Elf on the Shelf in my classroom last year and it was a huge success! I had a challenging time with behavior in my class last year and I figured it was worth a shot. I am so glad that I tried it and have been working on new ways to incorporate the elf into our routines during the month of December.

Let me start by introducing our elf- meet Dot!

I started our elf adventures this year by having a mysterious box delivered to our classroom on the day before Thanksgiving break. Inside the box was Dot's mailbox and a letter saying that she would be visiting us when we got back from break. There were lots of guesses as to who Dot might be ("Is Dot your sister?").

The first time that Dot visits, I made sure to put her somewhere up high just in case someone sees her before we read the story and decides to touch her.

Naturally, it took them about 60 seconds to notice her!

We read the story and talked about the rules for our elf. I showed them the papers that Dot had given us to write to her and they were SO excited!

After the kids left, I eagerly opened her mailbox to see it was stuffed full of letters!!!

My little friends were full of questions! So, Dot wrote to tell them that her favorite colors are red and green, the North Pole is magical, she flies using her special scout elf magic, etc. She also made sure to mention how impressed she was with a few students for working hard and a few others for showing kindness.

When the kids came in the next day, they were shocked to see that Dot had put her name all over the classroom!

We have incorporated Dot into our morning routine in two ways: we have an elf adventures journal that the kids take out and write in during the morning news, and we spend the first few minutes of our morning meeting reading Dot's letters and talking about them.

When we read her letter their faces just lit up! I have never seen them so excited before!

Dot must have been tired from her hard work labeling the classroom, because we found her in a bubble bath the next day.

When we opened Dot's mailbox on Wednesday, we found a small, green box with the instructions not to open it!

Thursday brought a lot of hilarity as the kids discovered Dot working on a listening center with Skippyjon Jones in our library.

On Friday, I filled a pot with crystal fill (found in the floral section of most craft stores) and had Dot's letter say that it was time to open the box!

Inside the box was a mini watering can, tic-tacs with candy canes printed on then, and a tiny set of instructions. The instructions told us to place the magic seeds on top of the North Pole soil (crystal fill) and put them in a safe place so that Dot could take care of them over the weekend.

Here is a close-up of the magic seeds-

The kids are so excited to see what has grown when they come back on Monday!

Now the elf is always a lot of fun, but it has also had a HUGE impact on behavior this week. One of my students earned a pink (the highest color on our classroom behavior chart) for the first time this week. When my pod-mate asked him how he did that, his response was: "You know, Dot reports back to Santa about our behavior..." :)

That's it for this week, but I have a lot more planned for Dot! Stay tuned for the next installment in our classroom elf adventures!

Are you using an elf in your classroom? I'd love to know how!

Click here for Part 2 or Part 3!

The Vocabulary Hat Parade!

Can you believe that October is almost over?! Where is this year going??

 

Before I talk about my absolute FAVORITE event of the school year, I wanted to mention my newest classroom purchase. I have always wanted one of those shelved for displaying seasonal books, but was only able to find large ones that were expensive and too big for my classroom. I came across this one on amazon for less than $18 and snatched it up!

 

 

It is only made of cardboard, so not super sturdy, but I covered it with duck tape and I think it will hold up pretty well with the added support. The kids LOVE it and are constantly picking books from it. :)

 

Now, on to the vocabulary hat parade!

 

Every year our school does a vocabulary hat parade on the Friday before Halloween. Each grade level is assigned a topic (Kinder has letters, first grade has nouns, etc.) and each student creates a hat to match their word. All of the students and staff (and parents!) come out and we get to parade around the school with our hats.

 

The kids always have a lot of fun... but probably not as much as I do!

 

I LOVE the vocabulary hat parade, because there is almost nothing I love more than making something for a theme!

 

 

My first vocabulary hat was a flamingo (naturally!). I made it by covering a pink foam hat and paper towel roll with felt and feathers. The kids really got a kick out of it!

 

 

The following year, I decided to draw on my background in floral design to make a rather large (and as it turned out, very difficult to balance!) garden hat!

 

 

It had a lighted garland around the fence and a working solar light in the middle.

 

 

 Last year, I decided to simplify a little, and went for an aardvark poking out of its burrow.

 

 

I used Styrofoam to build the structure of the burrow, covered it with batting and a suede-like material, and added the plants, longs and clay ants.

 

 

When I was planning out my hat for this year, I decided to pick a noun that would allow me to use a few different animals and some lights. I decided on the Arctic ocean because there was something about the walrus that I found irresistible!

 

 

I made the ocean with blue mesh ribbon that I filled with tulle and some blue LED lights. I added some chunks of Styrofoam as floating ice as well as a beluga whale plush and a clay narwhal. Underneath the walrus is a mini sound machine that plays ocean wave sounds!

 

 

 

This hat was by far the easiest for me to balance! I think I must be getting the hang of making hats!

Classroom Reveal 2015!

It's my favorite kind of post... the annual classroom reveal!

 

 

I'm linking up with the awesome teacher authors over at blog hoppin' for classroom tour Wednesday!

 

The last couple of years my classroom has looked pretty much the same. The layout has been very similar, the colors were the same, etc. This year I updated my colors, added some new things, and moved some things around!

 

Before I start the tour, here are a few of the before shots:

 

 

We had to take everything down for painting, so it was a big undertaking this year!

 

Well, without further ado, let the tour begin!

 

 

Here is the inside of the front door. The crates hold the books for when the kids are waiting outside in the morning as well as the bins for them to put their guided reading books in when they get unpacked. Above the bubbies I have the compliment jar and the classroom community frame where I post pictures from around the classroom. The kids LOVE to show their parents the pictures when they come in!

 

 

Moving further along the back wall, we have my student work display and student cubbies. The student work displays are made with fadeless paper and corkboard circles that I painted green. I use the green tubs for task cards, sorts, puzzles, etc.

 

 

 Here is where I store regularly used supplies and paper. The pocket chart serves double duty as a poetry center and a phonics sorting center.

 

 

This is the listening center with the crate seats my mom and I made a few years ago. They have held up really well!

 

 

This is my absolute favorite spot! I love my library!

 

I got the marquee letters on clearance at Joann's and added the pom-poms and quotes to make it feel more homey.

 



 

I use the tall bookshelf to store leveled readers, magazines, dictionaries, and chapter books.

 The canvases on the far left are some of our favorite characters. I plan on making an Elephant and Piggie one to add to the collection this year!

Here is the other side of the library. Books are numbered and kept in these bins. I also have little rugs the kids can take for a reading spot, whisper phones, fluency strips, and some nonfiction books that I wrote.

 

 

Just on the other side of the library is the door to the pod I share with the best pod-mate ever, Jen!

 

On the door is my birthday display. Student birthdays go on gift tags that I attach to the month presents.

 

On the wall is my comprehension challenge board. The kids can earn points for completing reading comprehension activities. This is the first year that I have done this, so I'm not 100% sure on the details yet, but I think they will enjoy the challenge!

 

 

I rescued this unclaimed glider on the last day of school last year and my mom was kind enough to recover it for me. I don't use it all the time (mainly for read-alouds), but I love it all the same!

 

Behind my chair is the basket where we keep the scoop rockers. I picked them up at Walmart over the summer for less than $5 each and the kids LOVE them! I figured that they would always be secondary to the library seating, but they seem to be the favorite spot to read so far!

 

 

This is the front of the room. The black rug is new and I got the blue and green spots from Sit Spots. I love that they are functional and look like polka dots!

 

 

Just in front of the rug is the bulletin board where I keep the center chart and calendar. The share chair got a bit of a makeover this year!

 

 

I store supplies for quick phonemic awareness and math activities on this black table. I also have the jar I use for calling on students (the star jar, each student's cubby number is on a star) :)

 

 

This is my teacher corner, complete with flamingo desk skirt and collection!

 

 

This is my guided reading area. I made the bucket seats this year. They were pretty short, so I had to lower the table quite a bit. It makes me feel very short when I sit there!

 

 

 

 

Here is my bulletin board for classroom rules and school expectations.

 

 

This is the word work center-

 

 

-all supplies they may need for word work are kept here. I wanted to try to reduce the amount of time it took for students to transition between centers, so I keep crayons, pencils, etc. here.

 

 

I added lanterns this year as table signs.

 

 Each table has a bookshelf for supplies that we use a lot. They have really reduced transition times!

 Well, that's it for my tour this year! I hope you have enjoyed the peek into my classroom. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!