Jolly's Adventures Continue!

Well, Jolly didn't get into quite the predicament Freddie the Elf did in Virginia, but he did have loads of fun... and some trouble... in our classroom.  He's an elf that brought plenty of holiday spirit to our classroom.  Just look!

Ziplining on the Christmas lights.  He also had a beautiful mountain scene projected on the SmartBoard here.

He got himself into a bit of a predicament on this day.  The green army man was upset that he didn't have his own elf, so he tried to kidnap Jolly! Luckily, we were able to brainstorm some ideas and save Jolly ... WIHOUT touching him!  We taped the army man in his place, and ate the MREs he left.  (Because on this morning, David looked at me, pulled the MREs he brought back out of the pantry, and said "Hey, can you make the elf do something with these?")

The kids wrote about what happened for their morning work.

Look at what a sweet reader Jolly is! He knows how to select a good-fit book and sit criss-cross applesauce while reading!

When Jolly had his North Pole breakfast, he also brought us a waffle iron and all the ingredients necessary to make waffles! (How convenient!!) As I made the kids their waffles with the things Jolly set out, we talked about the steps one at a time so they could write a How-To piece on How To Make Waffles in the future.

I just love having an elf visit our classroom.   He keeps a close eye on the kiddos and reports back to Santa, so I don't have to worry about any crazy behavior!

Jolly the Elf

On December 1, students arrived in our classroom and noticed some tiny trees and a gigantic mess of snow coming from the ceiling.  Nestled in the trees was a tiny note from our elf, Jolly:

He told us that he wanted to visit, but could only make an appearance if the students were well-behaved.  The following day, we came back to class and saw Jolly sitting beside the trees and icicle lights hanging from our ceiling!  He'd also put up a Christmas tree! His sign said "I love Christmas! I decorated for you!"  He also brought the Elf on the Shelf book for us to read.  Students learned that it was important not to touch him or he'd lose his Christmas magic and wouldn't be able to come back to visit us each day.

On Monday the 5th, we realized Jolly had a really good time over the weekend.  He returned to us in a robe and slippers near a bubbly hot tub!

Unfortunately, someone in our class touched Jolly on Monday.  He did not return to us on Tuesday.

Instead, the elf in another Kindergarten class had a note addressed to us!  He told us that because someone touched and pushed Jolly that he could not come back.  He was sad at the North Pole and really hoped Santa might give him just enough magic to come back again.  The other elf was willing to let Santa know how the kids did on Tuesday.

Immediately after reading the letter, ALL of the kids said "WE NEED TO WRITE HIM A LETTER!" (Who am I to turn down a writing assignment that the kids came up with themselves?)

Their requests to Santa were precious.

I had a good feeling that the letters would convince Santa to let Jolly come back.

Sure enough, on Wednesday morning, we found Jolly back in our classroom!

This time he was up high on a swing, where no one could touch him - even on accident.

He left another elf-sized note in the trees for us:

I just love having an elf in the classroom.  The kids get excited to find out what he's up to each day,

and for most of the kiddos, it helps them make good choices.  

Meet Diamond, Our Class Elf

After brainstorming various names and taking a class vote, our Elf on the Shelf's name is Diamond.

For the past few years, I've heard students talk about their elves and I've heard parents/coworkers share cute things their elf has done... but I never really understood the full process until I introduced the elf in the classroom this year. 

We are having so much fun with her! She's a sneaky one. But she loves books, just like us!

Christmas Tree Projects

Similarly to the disguised turkeys at Thanksgiving, students get a bare holiday tree at the beginning of December to decorate according to a theme of their choosing.  While the project is done at home, the trees are presented and hung up in the classroom.

I try to do a good amount of projects so that students get used to using their "presenter voice." They get so excited when you hang them up!

Testing Week

Man, ain't nobody like testing week. ;)  But really...the kids don't like a disrupted schedule, they can't stand being super quiet, and I get tired of sitting down at the back table with kids one on one instead of walking around checking work! Seriously, after Monday, I said "Bye, have a great weekend!" to a child before I even realized wait a second, it's only been a day. 

There is, however, one really awesome thing that results from testing... the student growth! 

Not that we, as teachers and parents,  don't see it on a daily basis. There's still something really affirming about kids doing as well or better on a test than you expect! They're all reading! Some are already at an I(!)  Most at a D. They're little geniuses. 

Anyway, to cancel out the blah testing feel, we did our fun holiday writing this week! Students listened to Santa's Stuck and wrote about how he'd get stuck/unstuck at their house (ugh, I forgot to take pictures of this...again, because I wasn't walking around).  They also listened to How Santa Got His Job and filled out Elf Applications (you can find tons of these online if you Google "Elf Application" and then just choose the one that works best with your class).  These will actually get mailed to the North Pole and returned to the students with an "ACCEPTED"  or "DENIED" stamp for next year's elf positions. 

My *FAVORITE* holiday writing, though, is a spin on Laura Numeroff's creative stories. Students listen to all the If You Give A...  stories and then write their own, given the title "If You Give A Reindeer a Root Beer..."

They were better this year than ever before! Students worked on them each day during writing workshop, adding and changing as they heard more of Laura's tales. Morning Work was coloring time (a rare opportunity!) for the stories, and on Friday, the kids shared them with the class. 

I only snapped photos of the covers, but some of these stories were 8 pages long and they all circled back to the root beer! I think my favorite tied the root beer to pizza, then to the beach, then ice cream, then root beer. 

Oh, we also mixed things up this week by traveling among the classrooms to celebrate Holidays Around the World in Social Studies. :) Next year we hope to have that planned a little better, with some boarding passes and passport stamps. 

And yes, Friday was my birthday! 26! Over the (little) hill.  I'm bummed that David is deployed and missed it (along with all the major holidays), but the teachers at SHES are amazing and helped me celebrate! The kids said Happy Birthday literally every chance they got. And Mandy came down from D.C. to visit! 

So, I guess testing week wasn't that bad... And now we are down to one week left before break! Where is the time going? Also, I need to Christmas shop. Hello, procrastination, my old friend. 

I'm here! I'm here! I didn't leave forever.

Hey, it's the first blog post of the new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. This year's winter break marked not only a two-week hiatus from school but also from a couple other aspects of my life:

-I didn't blog.

-I didn't wake up before 7:30! (That's 2.5 hours of sleeping in everyday.)

-I let myself go THREE DAYS IN A ROW without working out! (There's really no excuse for this one, I just wanted to feel like a rebel.)

-I didn't record what I ate. (For the first time in 6 years! Because when your sister gifts your boyfriend a dutch oven and Julia Child's cookbook for Christmas, you really can't pretend to record the calorie content in the buttery-laden meals. Plus there are so many goodies! So many gluten free goodies!)

-I stopped wearing the FIT! (For the first time in 2 years! I have to let the minor dent in my arm go away before that can go back on.)

-I didn't go on Skype. Well, until yesterday.  For almost every day of break, I got to go on in-person dates with David! To include our very first New Year's Eve together. Somehow, we've missed spending the last 6 of those with each other in person.

If you know me well at all, some of this will come as a shock to you.  If you don't know me that well, you may now think I'm a bit ...ehh, structured in my ways. Anyway, I can't rebel forever, so clearly those things were only during the break. Now you'll go back to getting regularly scheduled content from me and I'll go back to the routine of things.

I can't say that I'm ready to go back to school tomorrow, but I definitely miss the kiddos. I'm interested to see if anyone completed their homefun packet for a toy out of the toy chest! Santa left some good ones behind in the classroom ;)

Here are some of the highlights from my holiday season:

Pajama Day the Thursday before break in honor of Polar Express!

Melted snowman ornaments! Made with hot glue and lots of prep.

These turned out *SO* cute. I loved the individuality.

Blast from the past! Some of last year's girls came to say hi at the holiday dance.
I am dressed as a Christmas tree because I don't own a tacky sweater.
That won me a free pizza in the tacky sweater contest!

(David ate it for me but bought me a gluten free version.)

Um, REALLY excited about my new pans. Glad Padre captured this moment.

Also, David is more excited about that down comforter than he looks.

Snow-tubing at Wintergreen.... wearing FOUR layers for a surprisingly warm day.

Ended up sweaty, but way better than cold. Also, for a first-time tuber, we found out I'm really good.

Blue Georgia skies. Plus I was on the road a lot.

 New Year's Eve in Macon, Ga.

The ol' Cherry Blossom ball drop! Haha. So funny.

Puppies in my lap on the way home... for ten hours. 

This wasn't mandatory; I foolishly volunteered. But they're so cute!

NOT PICTURED are the rest of the family.  David and I spent this Christmas with my family, then stopped by to spend an after-Christmas Christmas with his family on the way to GA. Despite all this family time, I seem to only have photos of David and I.  And a lot of my feet, which I thought were hilarious to take photos of on the road.  Mandy hasn't yet sent out her pictures so I'm hoping this will guilt her into it.

I am extremely excited to move into winter topics in the classroom. I love all of the snow-related themes we work through! Anyway, what were some of your highlights? Any good resolutions? I skipped those this year... or maybe I'm still working on them....