Hello, friends! Well, I have always sort of marched to my own little drummer -- at least that is what my parents always said. "Oh, you know Lesley. She marches to her own little drummer." I never really thought that was true.
But when it comes to that elf that appears every year around this time, well, yeah, I'm not marching to that drumbeat. Not that I hold it against anyone who does. I love the idea. I think it's adorable and cute and gives the kids something fun to remember years from now. My daughter still talks about all the classroom elves she's had over the years. (4th grade now = no elf on the classroom shelf this year) And I do want my kids to have fond memories of first grade. But I was not giving in to the crass commercialism of the elf at 25 bucks for the kit. 'Cause I'm sort of cheap like that.
Enter a trip to World of Values last year. As I nosed through the store, stocking up on clothespins, googly eyes, and red pompoms to make reindeer, (you can revisit that post by clicking
{here}), I wandered into the book aisle, and there I saw, in all its only $6.00 glory, Randall the Reindeer.
Oh, yeah! Now we're talkin'! I snapped up that little guy right quick, and he's been a classroom Christmas tradition since. (If doing it one year makes it a tradition?) This was perfect. Same basic concept as the elf, but none of the competition.
No, well my elf did this at home. Or my elf did that at home. Randall is a whole, unique ball game with no comparison, so whatever I choose to do with him in the classroom is original and fun!
He arrives around mid-December (when I dig out the December box) and stays until the last day before Christmas break. He arrives in the classroom with a gift for the class.
This year he brought Charades for Kids.
From now until break, he will leave a naughty or nice behavior report for each child at least once. Randall is very observant, and his reports will be specific, like, "You moved over on the riser yesterday so Lucas would have room for his feet." If he leaves a nice report, he also leaves a candy cane for the child. If he leaves a naughty report, no candy cane. So far, he has not had to leave a naughty report, but you never know...
He doesn't get up to the same mischief as the elf does. His job is to hide where no one can find him so he can send a report back to Santa about each child's behavior. He starts off with easy hiding places, but it will get progressively harder for the kids to find him. When I left school today, he was hiding behind the schedule cards with just his eye peeking out.
He might get up to some mischief over the weekend. It is pretty boring sitting alone in the classroom over the weekend. Or maybe he'll bake us up some cookies. Healthy ones, of course. Or who knows.
This year, he will bring my kiddos this Randall Report Journal where they can journal about where they found him and who got a behavior report and what they would like to see Randall do in the classroom. You can click on the picture below to download your own Randall Report Journal -- yes, I even made a cover for all of you who have an elf.
Do you have any ideas for Randall? Leave a comment below and let me know what Randall should get up to in the next 6 days.
