Elftastic Fun and Freebies - Our Little Mischief Maker

Yesterday I shared all about our elf applications and now that we were all official elves, it was time for the next round of elftastic activities.

I love love love when our favorite mischief maker makes his appearance in our room.

The day after we received our approved applications, a very special package arrived for us straight from the North Pole! We had NO idea what it could be.

After tearing it open, they peeked inside to find:

*A letter from Santa

*Our Elf on the Shelf with his book

*A magic elf key

*Christmas Lists for the students to complete and mail to the North Pole

We opened and read the letter first. They were getting ridiculously excited at this point.

After reading the letter and seeing all of the wonderful things Santa sent us, we read the Elf on the Shelf book. Many of the kids hadn't heard of Elf on the Shelf before, which surprised me! After the story it was time to name our Elf. We made a graph on the SmartBoard. We started by having each child choose a name. We wrote those on the board and then narrowed them down to 4 choices through a vote. The final 4 choices were: Zippy, Snowy, Elfy, and Snowflake. After the long  voting process, we finally chose "Snowflake"! There was a bit of conflict about it because he is a boy and Snowflake is a girl name apparently, but in the end we decided that it doesn't matter because Snowflakes can be boys or girls. I realize this doesn't make sense, but I was using 5 year old logic here and it worked for them :)

The next day, the kids came in to find Snowflake dangling from our document camera. He brought some special treats with  him as well! He brought us the Elf on the Shelf movie - "An Elf's Story", cookies from the North Pole Bakery, milk, and a note. 

 

 

I am so proud of those labels for the cookies :) You can snag the label and note for FREE by clicking the picture below:

We ate our yummy treats and watched the movie from Snowflake!

 At the end of the day, we filled out our Elf Adventure Log. Each day the kids write about where they found Snowflake and draw a little picture. They did a pretty amazing job! To use this with your class click HERE.

 On Friday, Snowflake left us with quite a mess. He toilet papered the Christmas tree! YIKES! The kids were laughing ridiculously hard at this. I even had kids from other classes peeking in.

Sitting on his throne of destruction was Snowflake, with his sneaky smile.

You may have noticed the Snowflake is holding a key in each of his pictures. I created this fun little idea to help explain how Snowflake gets in and out of our room each night. You can grab your copy of this FREEBIE by clicking HERE. 

  

 And there we have it! Our first week of elftastic adventures! For a sneak peek of things to come, you can download my free Elf on the Shelf planning calendar below!

Hope you are having a wonderful week... and I hope your kids aren't too CRAZY! XO

We Are Official Elves!

It's ELF TIME! I seriously love elf activities and so do the kids. This week was FULL of elftastic adventures! On Monday, we read the story "The Littlest Elf". It's always a winner in our room. They love the cute pictures and the story is so sweet.

After reading the story, we talked about each of the different jobs elves can have up at the North Pole. The students then had to decide whether they would like to be an elf! We used our SmartBoard for this. Of course most of the class said they would want to be an elf, but two little friends were not interested.

After making our graph, I told them that I was speaking with Santa on the phone the other day and he was mentioning that he could really use a few more elves to help him out. I told Santa that I had a class full of friends who would LOVE to help him out this year. So, Santa mailed us some super important Elf Applications for the kids to fill out. We talked about what an application is and why you would need to apply for something. We even talked about the importance of doing our best work because first impressions count and we want Santa to hire us as helpers. Each child had to choose which job they would like at the North Pole and fill out a short questionnaire to see if they would qualify. The job choices were: Toy Maker, Treat Baker, Reindeer Caretaker, and Gift Wrapper.

 

After completing their applications, I mailed them to the North Pole for them. The very next day (Santa works fast) we found a package under the Christmas tree from Santa himself!

When we opened it, we found a letter from Santa, our elf applications {now with the official seal of the North Pole and Santa's signature}, and very special Elf IDs with each student's name on it! Santa's letter explained that he sent back all of the applications and approved them for the job they applied for. Although he didn't need any helpers at the North Pole at this time, he did want them to have special jobs in our room so he sent Official Elf IDs. Here are the special classroom jobs:

*Toy Makers: make sure all the toys, games, and center activities are put away each day

*Treat Bakers: pass out snack each day

*Gift Wrappers: pass out our little treats for our Rocking Stockings each day

*Reindeer Caretakers: take care of our 'Reindeer on the Roof' each day

Official Seal of the North Pole and Santa's Initials

Here is their reaction after seeing their approved applications and hearing me read the letter:

 

 

After we calmed down a bit (good grief), we filled out our Elf Ids. I laminated them overnight and added some string so they could wear them as necklaces. They loved it!

You can have official elves in your room too by grabbing a copy of my Elf Application Set!

Get ready for tomorrow... I'll tell you ALL about our new mischief maker!

Love and hugs!

A lot of SUGAR and a little SPICE!

Has it really been 6 days since I have blogged last? Time is just flying by! Sorry I didn't ever get back to you about our gingerbread fun, I will definitely be doing that now! I am finally on Christmas break and it could not have come at a better time. With all the sadness and fear surrounding the past few weeks, having some time to appreciate those I love most is a perfect way to end this year! And in order to celebrate my fantastic and amazing TPT and Blog followers, I am throwing a 3-day sale starting today and ending on December 26th. Please enjoy 20% off of all holiday items in my store! Just click the picture below to take you there!

I just had to share this beautiful family picture! We took this in my friends backyard and we were so excited with how it came out! We used Walgreens photo center and had it blown up onto a framed canvas to give to our parents for Christmas. I was super impressed that we managed to get one where all the dogs were looking. Also, there were ants biting me the entire time so thankfully I managed to smile!!

 Anyway, let's get down to business! I created a large gingerbread house outside of our room and the kids just went crazy over it! My mom found the adorable gold candies at Michaels. They were originally $25 a piece! OUTRAGEOUS! Luckily there were on sale and we got them for under $5 a piece! Woo hoo!

 We started our gingerbread fun by reading 6 different versions of the classic "Gingerbread Man" story. We created a Gingerbread Story Comparison chart and compared the elements from each story, including the: title, characters, setting, refrain, and ending. To snag your copy for next year while it's on SALE, click the picture below!

 We also graphed our favorite version! The graph parts are also included in the download above.

 

After reading the stories, we had to make gingerbread cookies of our own! The kids mixed all the dough and used cookie cutters that I found at Walmart. We brought them over to the cafeteria to bake. After a little while, we went back to get them and the cafeteria staff explained that they had opened the oven and our gingerbread men had escaped! We went around the entire school asking everyone if they had seen them. A fellow teacher saw them run past her room and the office staff said that we just missed them. We went back to our room and planned to set a trap to catch them. The kids brainstormed and came up with the idea to use gumdrops as bait. We set a trail leading to a jar and left to go home for the night.

 

The next day when we got to school, we saw that our trap had worked! We had caught the gingerbread men!! The best part was decorating them. YUM!

 Our sweet little Sprinkles the elf also had a delicious treat for us. A homemade gingerbread house!

The next day, we did a funtastic lesson from Deanna Jump's Gingerbread Man Fun Unit. The kids each took only one bite from their gingerbread cookie and put it down. They each received a cute picture that showed a gingerbread man with a bite in the same spot they had bitten. We graphed our results and found that most people bit either the leg or the head first!

 As a culminating activity, we did a gingerbread science experiment. Our key question was: 'What would have happened to the gingerbread man if he had tried to swim across the lake?' After making predictions in their Science Smarts notebooks, each group placed a gingerbread man into the 'lake'. We drew and wrote about our observations at different time intervals. I was so surprised that they didn't dissolve quicker. Must be all the preservatives they put in! Even after 72 hours, they still held their shape. Gross.....

 After 72 hours, I let the kids poke them (which I think was their favorite part of the entire experiment). They separated a bit, but still stayed in big chunks. Not at all like I predicted! And with that, it was the weekend and almost the last week of school. My next post will be allll about our Polar Express week. We had so. much. FUN. Can't wait to share it with you! Hope you are having a wonderful holiday!