I was so excited this year to bring the elf into my classroom to have some fun before we go on our break. Yesterday, a special friend visited our room and the students were so excited! Many of them have a special elf that comes to their house while others had no clue what this was.
DAY 1
As the students entered the classroom they saw they had some special notes and a small treat on their desk from the elf.
Then, I read the book and I explained that touching the elf would make him lose his magic. The students were super excited that he would report to Santa at the North Pole, and even though they are in third grade, the students either totally believed it or are playing along for the sake of their friends. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to put him on the table right by the white board since I bumped into the table a few times because I’m not used to it being there. You should have heard the gasps coming from the kids as they hoped I hadn’t touched him or knocked him off. Lesson learned.
After reading, the students drew a picture of what they saw when they entered the classroom and wrote about what they think the elf will do.
Now it is time to choose a name. I had each student come up with 2 names. We made a huge list as a class and voted to narrow it down to 8 finalists. I then gave each student 2 votes (for the sake of beefing up the tally chart and bar graph) to vote for the winner. Snowflake and Sir Jolly actually tied, so we had to vote once more, giving Sir Jolly an extra tally. I was totally happy with this name. It was so creative and extremely festive and fitting for our little elf.
DAY 2
I had a little too much fun decorating the classroom for the second day of Sir Jolly’s visit. He came to our room, popped out of the ceiling (through an existing hole from an old projector) and shared his appreciation and love for his name. He loved it so much he spent way too much time on his computer writing his name with fun fonts, coloring his name on large pieces of paper, and plastering it all over the room.
You should have seen their faces when they saw him in the hole. Some were laughing hysterically! On their desks today was this note from Santa. Then, they drew what they saw in the classroom, wrote about what they saw, and drew conclusions about what Sir Jolly did overnight. Santa wanted them to practice their handwriting, so he also sent some cursive writing practice pages for them. 🙂
If you’re interested in purchasing this set from Gina’s TpT store, you can click HERE.
