It's the busiest time of the year!  And I just love it!  The Christmas tree is up, lights are twinkling, and your room is filled with child created decorations.  I wanted to drop in to share some Elf ideas and some Christmas activities we have been working on for the past few weeks!  I team teach Kindergarten, so we actually have two elves.  We wrapped each up in burlap and added to cute tag and letter from The First Grade Parade .  The office called down to let us know we had a special delivery. Holly was lead teacher that day, so she read The Elf on the Shelf book to them.  And yes, we wear a headset!  We got the voice amplifier from Amazon and it has been a lifesaver.  It's especially great when you are teaching 40 kindergarteners in one classroom! We had two elves to name, a boy and a girl.  Frosty and Elsa won.  I tried really hard to convince them on voting for Snowflake for the girl's name.  No such luck... We did a directed drawing of ...
Over the past few years, I have seen so many fun blogposts on Pinterest of families doing North Pole breakfasts with their children at home.  Typically, you do the North Pole breakfast when your elf arrives.  I thought it would be so fun to do a North Pole breakfast to send our classroom Elf on a Shelf back to the North Pole!  So last year, I threw a North Pole breakfast for my second grade class for their Christmas party. It was the cutest and easiest Christmas party ever!  I compiled everything you need to have your own in the freebie pack below! I sent home a letter to parents a couple of weeks before the breakfast so that they could help out by providing the food and drinks.  I included letters for you for both a girl and boy elf.  You will want to make sure you have plenty of the red and white paper straws.  You will need them for the milk and for the powdered doughnuts.  I stuck them in the powdered doughnuts to look like little north poles!   We needed a...
November is one of my favorite months in the classroom!  I just love all of the fall colors of our crafts and craftivities, fun Thanksgiving books, and the excitement of the holidays just around the corner.  It's also a very busy time and we seem to be trying to find the time to plan all of those activities we want to include in our classroom.  November is the perfect time to teach author's purpose, especially with the author's purpose is as easy as PIE theme!  Your littles will love being author's purpose chefs!  I wanted to drop in and share some methods, songs, and a freebie I have used over the years to teach this skill.  Hopefully, this will help you out a little with your planning for the next couple of weeks! These are some of my favorite books to use in November and work for author's purpose. I always try to do at least one craftivity a week, if not more.  I have kids who ask everyday, "What are we going to make today?"  So, I try to kee...