Lola the Elf on the Shelf

So my child is almost 21 and I never had the pleasure of having an Elf.  I have had some fun in the past with my nieces Elf and my best friends elf when I have been home at Christmas time.  Now for these 5-7 times I had a blast and was sad that my son didn't have that experience.

Well after 3-4 years of having a library Elf I GET it!!!!  I totally get why parents are all grumpy and nuts messing with this elf.  In the library it sure is fun to see 400+ kids search for her everyday but it is also hard to keep finding places high enough where she can't be touched.  My 2nd year with her she got touched a bunch and spent 10 days, yes I said 10 days in the Elf hospital.  I sure hope I taught those little "touchers" a lesson.  I want to leave and go home at 3:30 like everybody else, but NOOOOO I have to wait and make sure there are no teachers kids or after school club kids or tutoring kids around because sure enough I move him and bam there is a kid.  Ugh.  So she has been in some pretty lame places I must admit.  My favorite place to put her what I call the "Miley Cyrus" She is coming in on a wrecking ball.

Now don't get too excited I haven't done much of anything thrilling with her.  Here are just a few others.

Kindergarten was watching a Puppet show this week so Lola was watching them

Again Lola watching the Puppet Show

Lola peeking out from the Magic Tree House.  You can see Annie in there too.

I guess she didn't think we had enough decorations so she added some garland.

Playing Jenga with The Three Little Pigs, Gerald and Piggie, and Junie B.

Riding the horse from There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly

Trying to catch the Fairy coming out of the Fairy Door.  I wonder if Fairies and Elves know each other?

Lola in a snow globe, she also happens to be holding a clue to a breakout that a 2nd grade class was doing.

Hanging out with the breakout boxes.  Looks like she Broke Out!!!

Now what else will Lola get into?  Let's see I have 6 more days to have her ready.  Oh and did I mention I got up and got to school early this morning because I forgot to move her last night even when I was here late and NO children were here!!!

Election Day In an Elementary School

As we all know this election, I believe, has brought the worst out in people and I for one surely didn't want to see that happen at school.  I had heard about the book One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote a Cat in the Hat book by Bonnie Worth and published by Penguin Random House.  If you go to http://www.seussville.com/catinhat4prez/ you could see the causes that they chose for the children to vote on.  Random House is giving $10,000.00 to the winning organization for the cause.  The website had each cause paired up with a Dr. Seuss book.

The Causes were:

Education you read The Cat in the Hat and the organization is Firstbook.org

Ocean Conservation you read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and the organization is oceana.org

Environment you read The Lorax and the organization is conservation.org

Fight Hunger you read Green Eggs and Ham and the organization is feedthechildren.org

Kindness you read Horton Hears a Who and the organization is pacer.org/bullying


I think it was just genius to write this book which does talk about electing a President but to then for them to link them to these causes which is something the kids could really talk about and care about.  Let's face it the children if given the chance will vote exactly how they hear that their parents are voting.  This way gave them a cause that they could relate to better and even care about.

The one bad thing is we won't know for sure who won until after December 1st.  The kids are dying.

We set up voting like a real polling place.  We had an alphabetical list of all the students and they had to come in with their voter registration cards filled out, sign their name and then enter to vote.  When they were done we had paper bracelets that said "I Voted" for them to tape on their wrist.  It was wonderful and I highly suggest doing this for elementary children.

We set up two computers in our Challenge lab for privacy

A 5th grade teacher helping to monitor

Waiting patiently just like in real life with their voter registration cards in hand.

2nd grade had just been talking about it in their class.

Finding names in our Voters book

Back in class with their bracelets and smiles

The kids were getting tired of waiting but that is real life.

Now if anybody were to ask me what I would do different, well I would have some parent volunteers not just myself and my aide, I would have more polling computers and I would put it in another room so that the library could still function.

Story Book Pumpkins

This is one of my favorite things to do every year.  It has gotten bigger and bigger every year, which makes me so happy.  This year we had more than 115 pumpkins and 10 teacher pumpkins.  The students and families were allowed to vote for their favorite teacher pumpkin.  I'll post the winner of that next week.  I surprised the kids and if they did a pumpkin they got a coupon for 20 minutes of free Library Center/Cozy Corner time.   I couldn't just pick a few to show in the blog so here they are all.

We also incorporate Red Ribbon week and Halloween with the pumpkins.  The last day of Red Ribbon week is "We have too much Character to do Drugs!"  The students can dress as a Story Book Character.  They must get the costume approved by their teacher and they give a little oral report in their classes that day about their character.  Many students did their pumpkin and their costume to match.

BreakoutEDU

If you don't know what BreakoutEDU is then you and your kids are missing out.  I encourage you to go to their website and check them out.  It is based on the concept of an Escape room where you solve clues to escape.  Breakout is a box with a series of locks and to find the  answers they must solve puzzles that have been created to align with their curriculum.  You might be asking, "What is the benefit of doing this?"  See the graphic below from the BreakoutEDU website.

 It is so much fun but really makes the kids think.

I did my first BreakoutEDU last year with 1st and 2nd grade and they did a great job and figured out the clues.  Inside the box you can leave a treat or a prize or some kind.  I have been putting in a coupon for free Cozy Corner time in the library and teachers have offered homework passes and class rewards.

On their website you register to learn more and they will send you a password that will get you into all of their games.  The games are written by teachers and are all done in Google Drive you so you can save them easily.  They cost $0.00, and we thank them for that.  If you buy the kit from them you will get it a few weeks or you can buy locks yourself and try to find a box.  I did buy myself at first but then I wrote and was awarded a grant by my education foundation and was able to purchase 15 kits from BreakoutEDU.

I started looking at lessons on the site and I joined the online community on Facebook.  There are so many lessons and helpful people out there and it is catching on like crazy.

I have written a few of my own too.  I wrote one for my staff to do for inservice and it was a 100% failure.  It was so hard and what I thought was easy to follow wasn't.  As my friend said, "Yeah it was easy if we were in your head!"  I guess they weren't in my head.

I did a breakout with 5th grade this week and the one clue that hung all the kids up was a word that rhymed with chill.  The answer was drill but to my horror they didn't get it.  I don't know if it is a word they don't use or if they were just tired.  Like any good teacher I think if 85% missed it then I need to re-teach rhyming words.  Or maybe they don't do woodwork with their daddy like I did:-)

5th Grade almost ran out of time

5th Grade - they did it

Plenty of time to spare

2nd Grade - they worked hard 

2nd grade - they did it and still had 5 minutes

I also have to say that James and Patti at BreakoutEDU were a pleasure to work with and so nice. They watch the Facebook page and answer any questions you may have.

I hope everybody checks this out.

Kathy