Sunday, November 27, 2016

The Elves are Coming!


The Elves are Coming!



It's that time of year again. The elves are finding their way back to our classrooms and into the hearts of our kiddos.

We are introducing our elves this week. Cue the planning and preparation!

Our elves arrive to our classrooms via a bag straight from Santa. The elf is even cold from the North Pole! He spends the morning chilling (literally) in the refrigerator before arriving in our rooms. The kids love that he is cold!


Our elf comes with a letter from Santa. In the note Santa explains that the elf will be watching them and reporting to him each night.

He also brings with him sheets of paper where the students can pick a name for him. But only Santa can pick his name, so the letters go back with him that night. We have no say in picking the name!

This year we found these super cute envelopes for the elf to take the name sheets back in. It will be arriving with him too this year. We found it at Target in the Dollar Section! (Of course we did!)


Remember when I said planning and preparation? Before the elf arrives, we make a schedule of what the elves will be doing each day. That way it is easy for us to keep up (and also to plan ahead if we need to!)


Each day the elf brings a letter with him. The letters are pre-made, however, we sometimes have to switch them up. For instance, one day the elf might notice that some of the students were not listening. Or the big secret, (which he lets the students know pretty early on) that Santa REALLY loves teachers! The kids love that one! They even sit up straighter!


One challenge that we both had last year was where to put our elves each day. We both had students that liked to touch. EVERYTHING. So our elves had to go up. High. This actually produced some of the cutest ideas though!

Here are a few:

Flying in a hot air balloon

Zip Line

Swinging from the ceiling

The kids were convinced that he loved heights!

Our rooms are connected this year. We are planning snowball fights with our elves through our hallway. We can do so much using both of them together!

How do you introduce your elves? What are some ways you have him "watch" each day? Leave us a comment and let us know!