"It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas..."

Well, the holidays are here and in the primary grades we still try to squeeze in a bit of magic and mystery to the Christmas season for our students. I will also preface this by saying that where I teach, we can actually use the word "Christmas." Where I started my teaching career because of the various religious, cultural, ethnic, and social situations we were not allowed or able to use Christmas. We had to steer toward a "Happy Holidays" theme. We also could not use red and or green, Christmas trees, Santas, etc. We had to use more of a winter theme. I am not stating a right or wrong position here. I am just stating that various areas of the world approach this time differently and what today's post is about is based on the fact that I am in an area that celebrates Christmas in all facets. Hence the visit from..."Spotty."

"Spotty" is ready for Monday morning with a personalized note

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I had never heard of "The Elf on the Shelf" until about two years ago, so I was surprised that so many students enjoyed this "little visitor" and the impact he had on classrooms! As you may be able to tell, I always like to do things a little bit differently so I just couldn't go out and buy and Elf and follow the Elf on the Shelf trend....not that there is anything wrong with that, but I have students who already have an "Elf" at home and I wanted to see how they would respond to something else.

So I went out and bought a spotted dalmatian with a Christmas look, typed up a little introductory letter about who Spotty was, where he came from, and why he was in our class. Then on Monday morning I sat him on a student's desk. Well I was surprised to find that the students loved knowing about Spotty and they have really taken to him. In the letter the students were told he came from the North Pole and he heard from his frosty friends that our class was known to be the best so he wanted to "Spot" us having good behavior and doing our work. Now each day Spotty moves around the classroom and leaves a little note for the students and a reminder to make the right choice and if they do, they may just get a little reward! The rewards are small things like listening to Christmas music or watching the Christmas tree lights in our room. The students are very excited and I can use "Spotty" to help keep them focused on work, including important Benchmark Tests.