A Jolly Good Time Reading!

Jolly Twinkle-toes was a big hit this morning! This week we have been learning how to conduct a literature circle during reading time. Jolly is such a smart little guy! He learned so much that he wanted to try out literature circles himself. He recruited a few friends from the "Furry Friend" basket to join him. Somehow he fould the one book we have about elves...The Elves and the Shoemaker...and fortunately it was just his size! The Furry Friends have completed Wonderful Word Cards to share an interesting word they found in their reading!

The Elf on the Shelf

Our elf is here...Jolly Twinkle-toes. He arrived in our classroom on Wednesday, November 28. He was perched on top of our Promethean Board with a special letter from Santa warning the kids not to touch him. We read his book during Morning Meeting and used an elf name generator website to select his name. The first couple of names that came up were not that cute, so we tried again and again (until I got tired of hearing "NOOOOO!"). Finally I said, "This is it! Whatever comes up next is the name we keep!" Luckily we got Jolly Twinkle-toes and they all said "YAAAAAYYY!" We call him Jolly for short.

On Thursday Jolly was found at the North Pole. He was sitting on top of the globe! I think he wanted to show us where he lives. On Friday, Jolly was proud to hold the classroom flag. Jolly leaves us letters every day to let us know about his report to Santa.

 

 

 

Jolly was very busy in our classroom over the weekend. Monday when we got to school, we were surprised by a fully-decorated, elf-sized Christmas tree with hand-painted ornaments. (My mom and I painted these little wooden ornaments when I was about 10 years old!)

 

 

Unfortunately, we have a little Skeptic in our class who braved to touch Jolly. The other kids were very upset. And poooooooor Jolly became very ill. He couldn't fly home to the North Pole but he did email Santa his report. He also made himself a cozy little bed out of our tissue box!

 

 

Jolly stayed in his bed all day on Tuesday. We received a letter from Santa via a neighboring classroom's elf. The letter said that the only way to restore Jolly's magic would be left up to the person who touched him. She and I had a little talk and realized that the way to make things right when you hurt someone is to make a sincere apology. She wanted to write a letter of apology but couldn't manage to get it done by the end of the day, so poor Jolly was found in bed again today :(

 

She did write a letter at home last night (as I thought she would) and she read it to him when she got to school this morning. By the end of writing time, Jolly had written a new letter to us announcing his recovery. When the kids returned from Enrichment class Jolly was sitting up in bed. We could definitely tell his health was improving.

 

I can't wait for the kids to find Jolly tomorrow! They are going to be so surprised by what they find! Stay tuned!

I don't know what I am doing!

I like to think of myself as tech-savvy...and most of my colleagues would not dispute that. But this blogging thing is really throwing me for a loop! I guess it is just a matter of learning something new. I have tried to make my own page background and it seems to be "too big."  I also think my header is too busy. I am not quite happy with it right now, but I will keep working on it.

I am a second grade teacher and we are on break for the summer (as most are). I have been trolling Pinterest and keep finding cute blogs from so many teachers so I thought, "I should do that." Only, I don't really know what to say or post. I guess things will come to me as the year comes around. Right now I will just have to keep playing around to figure out what I am doing! So, here's to my first post!!! YAY, ME!