Elliott our Classroom Elf

One of my best friends works for The Elf on the Shelf in Atlanta and let me know of a promotion that they were doing in November... they were giving away a ton of free Elves for teachers! Like thousands! So I immediately sign up to get on the list and our class Elf arrived in plenty of time for Christmas.

I knew that with my crew I'd be limited in the amount of places that I could put him and not have him be touched (for anyone without children or who aren't teachers... the Elf loses his "magic" when he is touched). So I didn't put him out until about the week before we got out because I knew someone would touch him if I put him down low... which did happen today when he was within arms reach but I had run out of places! Good thing we don't have school tomorrow and Elliott had to go back to the North Pole tonight anyways! The kids loved looking for him in the morning but I can't say it helped with their behavior other than the first day or two... the kids were SO loud and WILD these last 2 weeks!!

The first day he was in Marty the Moose's house (Marty is our class stuffed animal that different kids will take home each weekend and document their visit). I figured he was pretty safe in there b/c the kids know not to touch him during the day.

The next day he had written all over our board (I did have one little girl tell me that I was the one who did it.... I honestly don't know how more kids don't figure it out... but I guess that's the magic of Christmas and I was on the young side when I figured out the whole Santa thing!) 

After that he moved around some of the pockets in our advent calendar. 

The next day he was hanging out in our class holiday tree... nobody touched him that day (but our new friend hadn't started with us yet) 

The Elf decided that he needed to get a better look of the carpet area during instruction because the kids were talking constantly during stories!! This spot was my aide Melissa's idea and he was perched up on the flagpole. I didn't cut his hands apart which made is what made him able to hang and "grab" onto things. 

He was then hanging from the hook that our behavior chart is on... trying to inspire them to stay on green... 

Lastly today he took down a string of lights from our bulletin board and was sitting on them. 

It was fun getting to watch the kids look for him each morning and the first day was so funny b/c one of the kids freaked out because he thought his Elf from his house had beat him to school and was now in our classroom. I had to tell him that it was not his Elf from home and that it was our own :) 

Now it's time to relax and take a much needed break from school!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!!!