We Got an Elf.

I feel like everybody has an Elf on the Shelf. I couldn't be left out, so this year my classroom has an elf friend. Yes. Santa decided we needed extra monitoring and positive behavior reinforcement, so he sent an elf to spend his days in my classroom. Poor little guy.

Back in October (I think), elfontheshelf.com had a promotional thing for teachers to sign up to receive a free Elf on the Shelf pack for the classroom. I'll do anything if it has the word FREE attached. I received a box at school at the end of October containing the book and the little squirt.

I wanted the elf to make his appearance yesterday, but I was out half of the day for a team planning day. I just couldn't do that to my sweet sub. That would have been very cruel. So, today our elf made his grand appearance.

My students have been coming to school for the past week sharing the stories of their home elf shenanigans during our morning community circle time. This morning I really played up the fact that I wished I had an elf. I was overly dramatic asking the kids how I could get one and if they thought Santa would ever send one to our class. We all wished really hard and talked about how we believed in Santa magic.

The secretary at my school will willingly take part in any kindergarten craziness I decide to do with my class. I wrapped the Elf on the Shelf book in pretty red wrapping paper and included a special note taped on the cover of the book for my class. We popped the book in the freezer at school for a couple hours to get it chilly. The secretary came down to my classroom later in the morning and delivered the special package from the North Pole. The wrapping paper had frost all over it. The kids all had to touch it. They were shrieking because they said all of our wishing really worked.

I read the note to my class and it explained that we would be seeing a special visitor from the North Pole when we were least expecting it. Then I read the book. And then we moved on and did math. Yeah, I killed all the magic.

While the kids were in lunch, our P.E. teacher went to our room to put our elf on top of our projector.

After lunch, my Assistant walked our class back to the room before I could catch up to the line. I had been in the teachers lounge stuffing my face with some of the greatest sugar cookies in this world. I ate a total of 6 today. And they were huge cookies. Oh well. It's the holidays.

I was still down by the office in the middle of the school when I heard the screams. My kids were full out screaming. It took them .3 seconds to discover our elf friend. I took off running down the hall (chomping down the last of my cookie) to join in on the crazy town that was down in my classroom.
I have never seen a group of kids as excited as my kids were. Screaming. Jumping. Doing front flips. Cheering. You name an excited gesture, they were doing it.

Once we finally settled down, we talked about some name ideas for the shifty-eyed, always smiling, plastic-faced creature.
Trying to name an elf is no easy task. I had to sit down once during the process to collect myself. One of my kids really suggested "horny". Then another kid said "porny". What? This is no time for rhyming, kids. I didn't write those suggestions on the board. We had some of the most off-the-wall names. Names I wouldn't give a rock, let alone an elf I'm going to have to refer to 586 times a day for the next two weeks. I regret not taking a picture of the names on the board to share with you all. It's a loss for everyone.

We narrowed them down to our top 3. Surprisingly, they were somewhat normal. Elf name material? That's questionable. Random? You bet.

1. Chuck
2. Markie
3. Corgi

Chuck? Totally random, but I kind of loved it.

Markie? The kids said it was like me. Marcum, Markie. Makes sense in a very kindergarten way.

Corgi? That's an easy one. My kids love my dog. I have a corgi.

Since we did a pretty extensive election unit this year, we had a top secret voting process for our elf name. Markie won by one vote. Chuck was the very close runner-up.

So, please keep me and my namesake, Markie, in your thoughts for the next two weeks. Lets just hope he makes it out of my room still intact. I was really hoping he would be a positive behavior influence, but based on how our "good choices" went out the window (along with my patience) this afternoon, I don't know how much it's going to help. Sigh.

Here's Markie watching over the class. Yeah. The kids are running the show. I just sit back and let them teach. ;) 

And P.S.--Don't be jealous of my panda math illustrations on the board.