Santa's Beard Countdown and Elf on a Classroom Shelf

Happy winter break!!! (I’m hoping most of you are on break by now!) My last day was Wednesday, so I’ve been enjoying some serious relaxation time!! The busyness of the holiday season has cause me to slack on my blog, so without further ado, here’s what we’ve been up to lately!

At the beginning of December, we made Santa’s Beard Countdowns! These were a huge hit with my students!



Click on the image below to snag the freebie for your class next year!



I used a combination of fabulous resources from bloggers for my Holidays Around the World Unit. The majority of goodies came from Halle and Jenna’s {Across the Hall in 2nd Grade} wonderful Christmas {And Other Holidays Too!} Around the World Pack. Here are some of my students with their suitcases, ready to board Santa Express Airlines!



Besides staying busy with our Holiday Around the World activities, we also worked hard on our Elfie Antics: A Classroom Elf Adeventure Journals!



(Yes, out of all of the cute Elfy names in the world, my lovelies voted on the name Tommy!)





The Elf journals proved to be a fantastic motivator to keep my kids writing right up until break! I used the journals as a part of my students’ morning work routines. Each day, they came in and discovered what Tommy did overnight and then wrote about his adventures in their journals! The journals turned out darling and will be a great keepsake! Here are some of Tommy’s antics:



Tommy spelled his name with our word building materials the day after we named him!



Taking a nap with a Care Bear on top of a tissue box… we must have worn him out the day before!



Giving a lesson to some of his tiny friends! He also ate the candy cane a student had left for him!



Oh dear! He made himself a swing and is hanging from the ceiling fan!



We found him sitting on top of the SmartBoard and noticed that he put red polka dots on our lunch count!



Ready to check out all of the kids who move to Above and Beyond for the day!



Ahhh!! He took a picture of himself and turned it into my desktop background!

If you’re looking for something to spice up your Elf on a Shelf Adventures for next year, check out my Elfie Antics: A Classroom Elf Adventure pack on TPT!




My class party was on Wednesday. We usually have the actual party in the morning and then spend the time after lunch watching The Polar Express. The kids are allowed to wear their pajamas to school, which is always the biggest hit of the day! I usually run my classroom parties in stations—we have four stations and rotate every 15 minutes. Here’s what we did:

1) Classic snowman handprint ornaments! I adore these!!!





2) Reindeer food! {2 scoops of oats and a sprinkle of glitter!}



3) Pin the nose on the snowman!



4) Cookie decorating!



(Priceless!)

Happy holidays!!!

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Elf on a Classroom Shelf

Do you use Elf on a Shelf in your classroom?  I sure do!  In fact, one of my lovelies from last year already stopped by last week to see if the classroom elf had arrived yet!  Too cute.  My elf usually arrives two weeks before Christmas and adds some major excitement to the classroom.  This year, I wanted my students to document the elf’s adventures by keeping an elf journal.  I browsed TPT for some files and couldn’t find just what I was looking for, so I made it!  Introducing…

{Newly updated!!!}

The file is filled with activities such as:

If you are planning on hosting on Elf on a Shelf in your classroom this year, please consider checking out my file at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  Best of all, I will be joining in the Cyber Monday madness by placing all of the items in my shop on sale this Monday and Tuesday!

{Super Cute Button by Ashley Hughes}

Enter the code “cmt12” at checkout to receive 28% off my products!  Here are two of my best sellers:

          

I have one last thing to tell you about!  If you are going to be doing any other Cyber Monday shopping, you will want to check this out!!!  (I feel like this is one of the best kept secrets for online shopping!)

Have you ever heard of EBATES?  EBATES is a site where you can get paid to shop online.  It sounds like a scam, but trust me, it’s legit!  I’ve gotten paid several times in the past!  Basically, the way it works, is that instead of going directly to the website you want to shop at, you access the website through EBATES.  For example, instead of going to www.target.com, you first log-in to your EBATES account and click on their Target link.  EBATES has a partnership with over 1,500 stores!  Each store has its own percentage that it credits back to the buyer just for shopping through EBATES.  Unfortunately… no TPT just yet :( … however, here are some of my favorites and their current cash back rates: 

1) Target: 2% cash back
2) Sephora: 8% cash back… wow!!!
3) Amazon: 4% cash back on toys
4) Office Max: 4% cash back
5) Kohls: 6% cash back
6) Groupon: 3% cash back
The percentages may not seem like a lot, but it definitely adds up if you do a decent amount of online shopping!  Click on the button below if you want to check it out!  Happy shopping! 

What’s on your Cyber Monday shopping list??  Leave a comment with what you’re hoping to buy (can be from TPT or anywhere else!} and I will choose a winner at random to receive my new Elf on a Classroom Shelf file!  {Ends Monday at 9 pm}  Don’t forget your email address!  Winners chosen!  Congratulations to all who commented… you are all WINNERS!!!  Check your inbox :-)

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