5 Days Before Christmas

When your French teacher comes up with an idea to have the class figure out their "elf names", you embrace the fun and go with it!  

So, 5 days before Christmas (break), our class had "Elf Day".  I delivered hats to each of the students with an ulterior motive in mind!  If the kids put their name on their hat, I would not fail to remember their elf names! 

Madame passing out the clips for the Name Game

The trick of Madame's game is to only call each other by our elf names.  If we get caught using real names, we give up a clothespin.  Elvis PicklePants is currently sharing the collecting lead with Gabriella ... OOPS!  I meant Merry SugarSocks.

Names are determined from the first letter of your
first name and your birth month

Carrying the elf theme into some curriculum, I read aloud the story "How Santa Got His Job" by Stephen Krensky.  We talked about what qualities Santa possessed that made him suited to his job as deliverer of presents on Christmas Eve.  I then challenged the students to apply the RAFT strategy to their writing.

R - Role -  An elf applying to work for Santa

A - Audience - Santa

F - Format - Persuasive letter

T - Topic - Elf for hire

Students worked on the brainstorm portion and some even began rough drafts.  Tomorrow, we will co-create success criteria, consider the rubric, complete the rough drafts and ask a friend to help us peer edit.

We ended the day, like all elves, in a rush to meet a deadline!  This was a day that the 6B classroom was transformed into Santa's "wrap shack" as the students hustled to pack bags for St Bernard's "Operation Christmas Backpack".

Each classroom was responsible for bringing in a part of the contents which ranged from toiletries to socks, gloves and toques to some snacks.  These will be loaded in my sleigh (Jeep) and dropped off at Street Help.

Until tomorrow,

~Jolly McJingles 

(aka MissBrooks)