BREAKING NEWS!
There has been traffic at the North Pole causing Santa’s helpers to arrive late. Early this month we welcomed our classroom Elf! Our friends were excited as Kairo spotted him first, and told Caytlin, pointing to the Elf. “What should we name our elf?” Asked Amanda. Ayoub then repeated “Elp”. “What a good idea, let’s name him Elp,” said Amanda. Then Ruby said “hi Elp!” Oakley also said hi along with Caiden, and Audrey kept waving at Elp. What an amazing surprise to finally greet one of Santa’s helpers.
The following day, when we came back from outdoor play, our toddlers spotted our classroom Elf. “I see Elp,” said Ruby. Amanda said, “you’re right, Ruby, there he is, he seems stuck!” As her friends were coming in the classroom Ruby told them, “he’s stuck!” Audrey hurried to the black board and was giggling, “Elp!” Finn then smiled and said, “he’s there!” Amanda told them Elp was wrapping up gifts for Christmas and got into a sticky situation.
As the days went by we continued to enjoy our Elf on the shelf spotting him in various places but one of our favorites was the most recent. Silly Elp was playing peekaboo by our mirror. Ruby was the first one to find him and said, “he's up there.” “But wait a minute, what’s this that Elp left behind?” Amanda asked. Oakley quickly went to check it out. It appeared to be messages from Santa. We read them out loud, “Nice, Strong, kindness, gentle, hugs, friends”. Seems like Santa is sending us reminders and some words of affirmation. He’s reminding us to be kind and gentle, and that we are brave and beautiful, to give hugs and high fives! Amanda read all these great messages out loud and many of our toddler children began to repeat. Ashton was saying, “star” as he admired himself at the mirror, and Ayoub sounded out the word “high five” and gave Amanda a high five.
This sure has led us to feeling a sense of belonging for most of us who also have our own elf at home. Our elf has also been giving us some great learning experiences as we learn new words furthering our language development. Finally, we were able to work as a team to find our elf every day this month, allowing us to engage in our social skills as we built relationships with each other, and followed one another’s lead. Where will Elp the Elf be next?
