A Magical Place!

Believing in something magical is part of childhood!  Christmas time in a classroom can be filled with magic and imagination.  The new idea of the Elf on the Shelf is a great classroom management technique during this time.  The book is a fabulous addition to this set.  It includes the complete story of the North Pole, Santa and how the elf is assigned to you. 

The Elf on the Shelf is written by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda A. Bell.  It is a fantasy fiction book.  It is also considered a picture book.  It is full of magic and gives beautiful pictures of the North Pole. It is written as an elf being the narrator.  He starts around Thanksgiving and gives you all of the events that take place up until Christmas morning.  He tells you how to name your elf.  He also tells you what he is looking for and how he reports it back to Santa.  He then elaborates on being good and how he especially tells Santa that.  The elf gives examples of where he can hide but he cannot talk to you at all!  He ends up his story saying that he will have to go when Santa calls him home but he will return next year so be on the look out!

If a teacher purchases this entire set she could do many activities around it.  She would get the children excited to come to school and see where the elf has moved.  She will get the children to be on their best behavior.  The students can write letters to Santa and leave for the elf to take to him.  They can also predict where he will be the following day and graph this for math. 

A strategy that would be incredibly fun for the students is to make a newspaper about a magical place revealed!  They could come up with a catchy title about magic.  The lead story could include proof that a magical place exists because a living creature has appeared to earth from there!  They could include births in their newspaper and each child who has an elf at home could include their elf's name and birthday.  They could advertise the elves making toys in the workshop.  They could even have an advice column on how to behave! 

This could get the students very involved.  If students are older and do not believe in Santa, they would still enjoy the idea of Christmas magic and be very excited about writing a newspaper.  A copy could be printed and sent home with each student. This would be a Christmas to remember for years to come!

The biggest fish in the sea...

 

Sea World is a very fond childhood memory of mine.  Watching "Free Willy" was my favorite movie growing up.  Dreaming of whale watching in the middle of the ocean was a fantasy that I always dreamt of.  These experiences all revolve around one of the greatest animals to ever live.  This animal is the whale. 

 

I wanted to learn more about this intriguing animal so I began to look for an informational text to gain a better understanding of its characteristics.  I came up on the book "Whales" by Ann Herriges.  It is a non-fiction narrative with tons of information.  It is written on a second grade level so the terminology is very easy to understand.  It has several access pages to give additional information such as a table of contents, glossary and a page with further research material. It is very well written with good organization of the information and has very attractive graphics.  This book is a great tool to gain more knowledge of this sea creature.

 

The information includes attributes of the whale such as size, how they swim, what their fins are called, how they breathe and their teeth. One of the most incredible facts about a whale is that they are mammals.  When I think of mammals I think of hair.  You clearly cannot see hair on this animal but they do have live births, feed their young and are warm-blooded. 

 

This book is a great way to cover ocean life in a science unit.  It can also be used for independent reading for children to gain knowledge of a particular animal.  It would be very useful for many different grade levels.  It can introduce this animal in younger grades or be used for research material that is written in a child friendly way for fifth graders.  It is a very useful piece of literature. 

 

The blue whale is the largest animal to ever live!  Can you imagine riding on his back through the big ocean?  It is a neat idea to ponder.  If this animal makes you smile then dive into this book and swim away with an ocean full of knowledge!