Elf on the Shelf Door Decorating Idea and Freebie!

Last year, my very first post on my blog was about a door decorating contest we had at our school during the month of December.  Now Pinterest was around, but I was being stubborn.  I wanted to win the competition, and I thought the only way to win was to tie it into my instruction and to make it unique.  Come to find out...everyone was a winner!  Lame if you ask me, but we still had a lot of fun!

With Elf on a Shelf becoming a hot item, I thought it would be a great way to pull student interest into the activity.  Now remember, it was my very first post, so I was not all camera crazy while the kids were hard at work!  Wah wah!  Anyway, we created a little elves shop, got out some supplies, and students started working on their elves for the door.  They could pick their colors and their theme, but the trick?  They were going to have to write about it, too!

My precious little elves got to work, and started creating their own friends.  We had a green monster, a pink princess, a few Colts elves, Christmas elves, Santa elves, and my favorite (the one on top with the red and white striped pants), an IU Hoosier elf!

Yes, I am aware that the quality of this pic is bad horrible!  

Remember...first post ever photo from 12 mos. ago! 

#badbloggingetiquette

I'm sure you all can make this look SOOOO much better, but because of my stubbornness in creating something unique, I was a little late getting it up.  I used crumbled brown paper and rolled it to create the shelves.  

After they created their elf, they had to name their elf and then use descriptive words to see if others could guess which elf was theirs.  You could make the descriptive writing portion as detailed and intensive as you wish.  I put their descriptive writing on the other side of the doorway.  It would be great on a bulletin board if you could put the elves and the writing on the same board.  The students absolutely LOVED figuring out whose elf was whose based on the writing.  I had a really simple writing sheet last year, but here are some cuter ones you can use for your little elves!  Click here to download these writing sheet *FrEeBiEs* and pick the one that best fits your crew!

Also, wondering about the Elf template to help your students?  Use this link to find the templates I used from DLT-kids!  I made templates on card stock (sans the candy cane) for each table group and then let them trace them onto the colors they actually wanted.  The brads took the longest, so a parent helper would be great for putting helping to put them together! :)

I'd love to see what all of you can create with this.  Happy elfing!