The Elf On The Shelf

We have been having lots of elf fun in my classroom. 

My little ones are all trying so hard so that they will be on Santa's 'nice' list.

This is my first year with our classroom elf and I must say I think it is pretty darn cute.

There are lots of great ideas for  Elf on the Shelf activities.

Mel from

 Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations 

is having an

Elf on the Shelf Elfcapades Linky party.

If you were looking for some great ideas pop over to Mel's blog. 
She has some great ideas.
I think she is having a secret love affair with the elf. 
She LOVES everything ELF! 

 We have been having lots of elf fun in my classroom as well.

My book arrived last week and my little ones were so excited!

 Our elf is a girl. 

My little ones were quite amused that an elf could be a girl!! 


We voted on a name for our elf. 
My little ones called her
 Twinkles.

Twinkles likes spending the day with Pete and Chester.

They help her look for who is being naughty or nice.

 Twinkles sometimes pops up in a reading box.

 
 We made made an elf adjectives anchor chart.

 We used our adjectives in our silly elf sentences. 

 

 We also did a fun graph and maths activity.

I wrote a poem called The Little Elf. Here is our pocket chart.

I also made a reader for my little ones to take home.

 

We did a text to self writing activity to go with our elf that we made.
~ I am being nice when. . . ~

We wrote about ways we can be 'nice'.

This activity is particularly good at this time of year when my little ones are so excited and tired. 
It is a good reminder about doing the right thing and being a 'nice' person.

We have been having lots of elf fun!!

Don't forget to pop on over  to

Seusstastic Classroom

for more Elf on the Shelf fun. 




Last but not least. . .

A big thank you to Nikki from Melonheadz for the fantastic 
clip art.
I am ADDICTED to her stuff.
If you like the elf clip art I have used you should check out 
her blog Melonheadz Illustrating
or
her TPT Store HERE 

 
  If you haven't already, you really should check out her stuff.

Happy teaching 

The Gingerbread Man

It feels like forever since I did my last post. I have been so busy.

We only have 2 weeks left till school finishes and I can't wait. 

We have been having a lot of fun in my classroom. Last week we did lots of activities about the Gingerbread Man. This story is such a classic. 

We had a fun Gingerbread Man hunt. I have been doing the "Great Gingerbread Man Hunt" for several years. I got this idea from Mrs Gagne's Classroom. I just tweeked the clues to suit our needs.

My little ones got so excited as we tripped-trapped around the school looking for the elusive gingerbread man!

Here we are trying to be quiet so that we could sneak up on the Gingerbread man.

The gingerbread man had been in the library and he left us another clue. Can you see the intense concentration as our librarian read out the next clue.

 

The Gingerbread Man had been at the office and left us another clue!

 

Next stop, the principal's office. My students had no problem opening cupboards and drawers looking for the Gingerbread Man!!

We did manage to catch that Gingerbread Man. We took a photo of him with us before we ate him all up!

And that was the end of the Gingerbread Man!!

We did a lot of fun activities.

I have put my activities on TPT if you are interested HERE

Teachers Help Teachers

Down here in Australia we have been hearing about  

Hurricane Sandy.

I hope everyone is safe and well. 

We can only imagine what it has been like.

We can replace 'things' but we can't replace people.

 Laurah at THE ESOL ODYSSEY is asking teachers to link up to help those teachers who have lost valuable teaching resources. 

She is asking for teachers to donate a teaching resource to help those teachers who may have lost everything.

Just go to Laurah's blog and fill in the form with whatever teaching resource from your TPT/TN store you are willing to donate. 

Laura will will do the rest and and distribute the files to teachers who need a helping hand. 

Something small will help in a big way. 

 If you are a teacher who has been affected by the hurricane and would like some help with teaching resources, go to Laura's blog and fill in the form requesting help. 
Leave the rest up to Laurah.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins & A Freebie

We have been busy doing pumpkins activities.

Here is our 'pumpkin man' glyph.

My little ones loved the poem Five Little Pumpkins.

This is a popular poem for pumpkins but

I changed the part about witches in the air to say leaves in the air.

Here is our craft activity we did to illustrate the poem. 

 

 We learned about the pumpkin life cycle.

 

 All these activities and more are in my Pumpkin unit 

on TPT HERE

 

We also did an activity for this little poem,

Pumpkin, Pumpkin. 

You can pick this up for free HERE

 
Happy teaching.

Starry Night ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I LOVE teaching my little ones about art and artists. I am not really an 'arty' person myself but there are many fantastic blogs with wonderful art ideas. 

I got this idea from Kristin Thomas at

 For The Love of Art

You really should take a peek at her blog and be inspired.

Kristin did this activity with 2nd Graders but my little Kinder Van Goghs did a great job at creating their 'Starry Night'

Happy teaching.

Froggy's Halloween

My class love Froggy books and just quietly so do I!

Have you read Froggy's Halloween? 

 Froggy cannot decide on his costume for Halloween.  

He finally decides to dress up as the 'Frog Prince' much to the delight of the lovely Froggilina. 

But Froggy can't escape quick enough so he 

leapfrogs over his parents to escape.

My little ones are still laughing and asked me to read the book again.

It has been a favourite during free reading time.

I put together some activities as well as making the handsome 'Frog Prince'

If you are interested, you can see this at my TPT store HERE.

Happy teaching!

Awesome Aussie Giveaway

 Brooke over at 

Teachable Moments 

 has an 

Awesome Aussie Giveaway.

 Aussie bloggers are slowly joining the bloggy world so we got together to have a giveaway...

 Made in Australia!!

 

 I am giving away my Bats unit

 

You can read about it  HERE

 There is over $70 worth of great products to win so pop over to 

Teachable Moments

and join in the fun.

Happy Teaching

Freebie Flashback Linky Party

Lisa over at

 Learning is Something to Treasure 

is having a Freebie Flashback Linky Party.

You should jump on over to her blog and take a peek at all the great freebies that other bloggers have to offer.

For my 'Flashback Freebie' I have chosen my sight word emergent reader for the word 'on'. Included in the freebie is one of my Flipbook activities that focuses on the word 'on'.

You can read about it HERE

Happy teaching!

Gone Batty and a Freebie

After we had finished reading Stellaluna,  we were busy learning all about bats.

We  wrote bat facts in our Bat Book and then displayed it on our bat.

As a class we did a Venn Diagram and compared bats and birds.

Here is our bulletin board with our bat display.

We also read Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt.

We did a cute Bat Jamboree Glyph and wrote what our bat was going to do at the Jamboree.

This little one wrote that her bat was singing One Direction ~ cute!

Here is our display.

We did many other fun activities

All these activities and much more are in my  

Gone Batty Unit at TPT HERE

As I promised  here is a  freebie for you~ enjoy.

You can download it HERE

I would appreciate your feedback and comments.

Happy teaching