Every once in awhile I get a little pang of sadness when I see all the fun and cute ideas there are for lower elementary. K-2 is all about read-alouds and writing on fun cut-outs, and singing songs with matching dances, and hugs and cuteness. I admit. I get jealous.
BUT THEN
I remember that K-2 is NOT all smiles and rainbows after spending about 5 minutes in one of my friend's kindergarten classes and I am suddenly grateful for children that give me attitude and mean-mug me, but will also not run around my room screaming (most of the time).
One of the things I really wanted to steal from K-2, though, was Elf on the Shelf. But would my "too cool for school" fourth graders be above this???
Well here's how I used him in my classroom:
1) I kept the activities basic:
The only thing I gave the students was this elf journal I found on TPT. I stapled some together and they got to draw a picture and write a couple sentences each morning about what Elfie did. We haven't done too much with the elf with all the other activities you see all over Pinterest because I don't want to overdo it. We play it cool in fourth grade.
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| Day 1: gets delivered along with one elf journal per student! |
It's gotten to the point that if a teacher says something, it's lame, but if THE PRINCIPAL OR DEAN says something, oh baby. So I had my dean deliver our elf and journals (after keeping them in the freezer all morning) so that I could be skeptical along with the kids. I read the letter I found here and gave the kids journals (oohs and ahhhhs at how cold they were) and we all agreed that we would just see what happens with this so-called "magical" elf.
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| This was never seen by the kids bc the janitor cleaned it up. Haha fourth grade teachers decided we couldn't eat all that candy again to get wrappers so this one would have to wait to be revisited! |
Every morning when they come in, I tell them "I came in this morning and look where I found Elfie!" They quiz me about where he was when I left, did I lock the door, who has access to the room, etc. Haha but I always laugh with them and say things like "I can't believe that little guy got into my tickets!" and deny deny deny that I did anything!
Finally, here are some more pics of Elfie and how he's been doing in our classroom. The kids are so funny with their suspicions. They will look through the class window every time they walk by trying to catch him, while others thinks it's me and others have blamed our poor maintenance man. Others have told Mr. E (the 4th grade science teacher) that my room is haunted. Eeek!
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| Day 2: doing our morning work |
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| Day 3: taking tickets the kids get for good behavior |
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| Day 4: swinging/hanging out in one of our pom-poms |
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| Day 5: reading fairy tales in the reading corner |
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| Day 6: working on a puzzle (one choice for indoor recess) |
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| Day 7: doing homework (one student handed it to him when posed doing the puzzle and said "who knows? maybe he will do it!" so Elfie also wrote a "PS: thanks <student name>!!" haha) |
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| Day 8: holding hands with my scarecrow. BFFs! |
*Last week with Elfie:
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| Found Elfie on www.northpole.com when we came in! haha |
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| Took a personal day to take my certification exam. Elfie watched the kids for me |
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| The day I was out, Elfie fell and some kids played with him. A student called to tell me "It was a bad day for Elfie" so he was sick the next day. |
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| Once Elfie felt better, he brought candy canes for everyone! "A treat for you from the big guy. Almost Christmas! <3 Elfie" |
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| Goodbye Elfie! Stole the poem from Jake that graduated with me "Dear 4th grade, Today is the day I must say goodbye, I know it's sad but please don't cry, for I will be back this time next year, to fill more lives with joy and cheer! Love always, Elfie" |
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