There's an Elf on OUR Shelf!

What a day today was! Our class received a special delivery... straight from the North Pole! In fact, when the package got delivered to our classroom it was STILL cold! Here is what our special package looked like:

And what was inside??? An Elf on the Shelf of our very own! I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like when we first opened the package but this is what we saw:

And weren't we excited! There was even a letter to our class from the big man in red himself!

After reading the letter we read the story, which explained how our new classroom friend works. There is one big rule with the Elf on the Shelf - Don't touch the elf! We made sure everyone could follow this rule before moving on.

Next we named our Elf, just as Santa asked. We made a giant list of names, then narrowed it down to two favorites - Snowy and Melody.

Meet Melody: 

It turns out a LOT of kiddos in my class have an Elf on the Shelf at home, but none of them have a girl elf! We can't wait to see what excitement Melody brings to our classroom!

Well, that's all for today! But be sure to check back in because Melody is going to be helping us with a very special task come next week... stop by to see how I use the elf on the shelf to incorporate geography, holidays around the world, and more!

Election Day Activities!

Yesterday our classroom was filled with Presidential-related activities! I stayed away from talking too much with my littles about the candidates themselves and who their parents were voting for, but instead focused on what the president does, how he (or she someday!) is elected, the voting process, etc...

We started our day coming up with a list of character traits we thought our President should possess. We've been talking about character traits from our read alouds all year, so this fit in nicely. We made the following chart:

Then I had the kids write about what the world would be like if THEY were the president (click here to see where I got this idea). Here is what they came up with:

Adorable, right? 

Then we did some Presidential Math! I made slips for each state (+DC) and the number of electoral votes they have. We read Grace for President, which gave a good overview of the voting process and how electoral votes work. Then I gave three-four "states" to each child and had them complete the following worksheet:

Click here to grab this document

And here is the document for the states/electoral vote slips I used.

The kids had a ball with this activity! After we finished our worksheets we took the slips for each state and created a line plot on the floor. We did a lot of analyzing of this data! We found the range of the data as well as the median and the mode (great review for those concepts!). We also answered questions such as, How many states have more electoral votes than our state? How many states have less electoral votes that our state? This was great prep for our state standardized tests in third grade, which ALWAYS has a line plot question asking just this type of question!

            

After we finished our math activities I had the kiddos take back their electoral votes to hold on to until after lunch.

(Cue lunch break and one exhausted teacher enjoying her few moments of calmness until...)

The kids returned from lunch VERY excited because before they left I told them we would be holding our own election right here in our classroom! And who were the candidates they asked??? None other than Charlie Bucket (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Roxie Warbler (Roxie and the Hooligans). We read both of these chapter books earlier this year. When the kids got back I had them make a web graphic organizer for each of the characters where they listed the traits that would make that character a good president. Two groups worked on Roxie and two on Charlie for ten minutes, then they switched. We put all of their ideas into one chart on the board:

Then I had the students decide, who would you vote for? They put their vote on the back of their electoral vote slips (C for Charlie, R for Roxie) and placed their votes in our special ballot box. 

Then they went back to their seats and wrote WHY that character would make a good president.

Get that file here.

I think the kids did a GREAT job with these activities and some had some really meaningful thoughts as to why they chose a particular character. "I think Roxie Warbler would be a good President because she has a spark in her that would set a wildfire." Love it?!?! 

And I'm sure your just dying to know, who won the election?!?!

354 to 184 - Roxie Warbler Won! 

I hope you all had as much fun on Election Day as we did! I'd love to hear your ideas as well!