Mrs. Janelle's Elf on the Shelf~ Chocolate

This is my second year to have a class elf. This year my class named our elf Chocolate. Chocolate came to us after Thanksgiving break and stayed with us until our last day of school before Christmas break. There were times when I thought that Chocolate was going to have to leave us early and go back to the North Pole because of behavior, lol. We even had a horrible event occur when I was out sick one day and our elf was touched by a student. :/ However.... Chocolate made it until Christmas and the children really enjoyed having him in our class. Here are a few pictures of some of our elf fun!

 

Our elf arrived in a special delivery box from the North Pole! The children were so excited. Inside the box was a note from Santa, the book Elf on the Shelf and our own classroom elf.

 

On the second day of Chocolate's arrival he brought us chocolate kisses from the North Pole for the class to share.

 

 

Our elf was good for awhile. He would just move to different places in the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day when we forgot our class rules, Chocolate moved to our rule board to remind us of the classroom rules.

 

 

Around two weeks before our Christmas break, the fun began. Chocolate played several tricks on us.

 

 

One morning we found him hanging out by the door with a dry erase marker. When we went to our cubbies, this is what we found.....

 

 

Chocolate had drawn mustaches on all of the children's cubby tag pictures!!!!!

 

Another day we found this......

 

 

Toilet paper on our desks!!!!!!!

 

And then.....

 

 

He took all of our pencils hostage! He took them out of our pencil baskets and tied them together!

 

 

One morning he had a cold and left his dirty tissues all over the classroom! The children thought this was so gross, lol.

 

 

What is that in Chocolate's hands? Oh no! Look what happened.....

 

 

Green sad faces on our morning work!!!!!!

 

 

Why does Chocolate have toilet paper?????

 

 

He even gave all the children a red face one morning!

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun with our elf! The children hated to see him go. I hope that you had as much fun with your classroom elf as we did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January Currently

Happy New Year Everyone! I have teamed up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the January Currently.

 

 



 

My daughter is having a sleep over tonight and I am enjoying listening to the girls singing and laughing at midnight. It is the most beautiful sound that I have ever heard. It makes me so happy. :)

 

I have loved having time off during this Christmas break. I was just a tad to lazy. :P I spent the majority of my break lying on the couch and watching Netflix. My husband and I starting watching the show Revenge. We are totally addicted, lol. However, we finished watching it the other night and now we are dying to find out what happens. Ugg!

 

I am thinking about all of the things that I need to get finished before school starts back on Monday. I had full intentions on working on school stuff during the break but my couch/Netflix addiction got the best of me. I really needed the break so I don't really feel that bad, lol.

 

I am really wanting just a few more days off, lol. I have enjoyed it so much. Time just flies by when you are having fun.

 

I have noticed lately that I feel so unorganized. I am a planner kind of gal and have found that I tend to get about 80% more done when I plan it all in a planner. I have been in search of one for awhile and I think that I have finally found "THE" planner for me. However..... It cost $50.00. :P I guess that I will have to wait until payday to get it. :( Counting down the days.....

 

My OLW "One Little Word" that I am going to live by in 2013 is FORWARD. I am going to look forward to the future and quit worrying about things that I cannot change. So 2013 for me is going to be moving forward.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog. If you would like to link up with Farley too then click on the picture below. I hope that everyone has an awesome new year! 

 

 

December Currently!

I am still in shock (like most of you) that it is December already. It seems like this school year is flying by! I have linked up, once again, with Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade for this months currently. Here is what I am currently up to.....

 

 

 

 

I just love the Griswold's! I have to watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" every Christmas. It just cracks me up. I never get tired of it. I was so excited when I saw that it was on TV tonight! Yay me!

 

I have finally finished all of my indoor Holiday decorating this weekend. I just love my Christmas tree. I have spent the last few years collecting gingerbread ornaments and my tree is now complete thanks to the Cracker Barrel and Hobby Lobby.

 

My parents have both passed away and Christmas is now kind of a lonely holiday for me. My husband's family have all moved away and my Christmas wish this year is for all of us to be together this year. I don't want any presents. I feel that God has blessed me with all of the material things that I need. I just want to have fun and celebrate with the friends and family that are still on Earth. That would be the best Christmas gift ever!

 

I really need to start my Christmas shopping. I haven't bought the first thing yet and it is killing me. Last year I went black Friday shopping and was finished that day. This year I decided to stay home and now I regret it so bad. I hate waiting until the last minute.

 

My random act of kindness is buying a stranger a drink at Starbucks. I am also planning on taping a dollar to our drink machine at school so that the next person to buy a drink gets one for free.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and reading my currently. I hope that you have the best Christmas ever! Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

 

 



We Give Thanks!

What a busy month November has been! I got to attend SDE's Tennessee Kindergarten Teacher's Conference. I learned so many new and awesome ideas. I am so excited to start using them in my classroom. I got to go to workshops given by Heidi Butkis from Heidi's Songs. I just loved her ideas and songs. I ended up buying 4 Cd's, 5 DVDs and her amazing word family book. I started using them this week and the children love her songs. The week following the conference was a short week due to Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving by having a Thanksgiving lunch and invited parents to attend. It was a huge success. Almost all of my students had a parent or grandparent come to eat with them. We also made this awesome "Turkey Pie Graph." I asked my students the question, "Do you like to eat turkey?" Our graph turned out awesome and the children were so proud.

 

 

We also read a story about the first Thanksgiving. After we read the story the children made drawings of something that they are thankful for.

 

 

 

Here is the final picture of our Thanksgiving wall display.

 

 

On our last day of school before the break, we made long legged turkeys. Are these too cute or what????

 

 

 

 

 

I got the awesome Thanksgiving ideas from the one and only Deanna Jump. You can purchase her Thanksgiving unit on TPT.

 

Stay tuned..... I will soon post pictures of our classroom elf! Don't you just love the holidays?

 

 

 

 

 



November Currently!!!!

Wow! I can't believe that it is November already and time for another currently. I have linked up with Farley over at Oh' Boy Forth Grade for this months currently.

 

Okay.... so I am totally addicted to the show "Sons of Anarchy." That Jaxs is a total dreamboat! He is so bad yet good at the same time. Wowzers!!! He is my new crush. My facebook friends kept posting about this show so I started watching it on Netflix to see what the fuss was about. I am now a SOA addict. Is there a support group for this????

 

I am super excited about the time change. I know that a lot of people hate it but not me. I do so much better in the Winter and Fall. For some reason my brain believes that I am getting extra sleep and I do so much better about getting up for school. I know... crazy huh?

 

I am getting super excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not only do I get to eat tons of awesome food but I get to spend time with family too! I have been searching and gathering tons of awesome ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't wait!!!!

 

I am really wanting to start my own Teacher's Pay Teacher's store. I am going to start my first unit this week and hopefully finish it before Thanksgiving. I also really need more time in the day to get all of this stuff done. That's not going to happen is it?

 

In my classroom we listen to Dr. Jean Feldman Cd's all day. She is awesome and one of my idols. At home and in the car I am totally digging Coldplay. Their music is so chilling and soothing.

 

Thanks for checking out my November currently. Click on the button below to link up to Farley's currently.

 

 

Building Vocabulary Through Vocabulary Journals

My principal recently purchased a set of Elements of Reading vocabulary cards for every classroom in our school. At first I was wondering what in the world I was going to do with them. I then brainstormed and decided to start using them for our vocabulary journals.  Here is a picture of what the vocabulary cards look like.

 

 

 

I am really excited about how well my students are expanding their vocabulary through the use of the cards and their journals. If you would like to check out the cards and  buy a set for your classroom, you can find them by clicking on the picture below. It will take you to the Elements of Reading website.

 

 



Bumpkin the Pumpkin

Halloween went great in my classroom this year. Our Halloween school days are always crazy! Kindergarten students in costumes always make for a wild day, lol. My kinders were really good this year. The events of the day wore me out. Here is a group picture of my sweeties in their costumes.

 

 

Are they not just too stinkin cute???? I decided to devote the entire day to the holiday. Their minds were in Halloween mode so I decided to play on that. We read several Halloween stories and then I read them my "Bumpkin the Pumpkin" story. They loved it! During center time we made our very own pumpkins out of toliet paper and orange table cloths.

 

First we covered our toliet paper rolls with a piece of orange table cloth.

 

 

Next, I had the children cut out the eyes, nose and mouth for their pumpkin.

 

 

 

After we glued the eyes, nose and mouth to our pumpkins, the children had to twist a piece of a paper lunch sack to make the stem for their pumpkin.

 

 

Here is a picture of our finished product. I think that they turned out fabulous.

 

 

 

The children gave their pumpkins to their parents at the end of the Halloween party.

 

Here is a picture of our party. My parents did a terrific job of bringing in treats and snacks.

 

 

One of my students loved our story "Where's My Mummy?" so much that he had his mom make us these fabulous mummy cupcakes. Are they not just too cute?

 

 

I hope that everyone had a Happy Halloween! :)