Elf on the Shelf Ideas for the Classroom

If you have a classroom elf, it can be hard to come up with Elf on the Shelf style ideas every day along with all the other things you have to do in the crazy runup to the holidays.

My daughter had one in a couple of her elementary classrooms, and the teachers had the after-school staff move them at the end of the day once the kids were gone. Brilliant!

If you’re doing it yourself — or even if you’re doing it at home — let this post of Elf on the Shelf ideas for the classroom make things a little easier for you.

First off, K Teacher Tiff wants to remind you that doing the elf thing doesn’t have to be hard. Especially with little kids, you don’t have to do big, dramatic scenes, you don’t have to use the name-brand elf, and you can find lots of inspiration online. Which is what we’re here for. She also has an elf journal on Teachers Pay Teachers you can give to kids so they can track the elf’s movements.

For some of that inspiration, Saddle Up for Second Grade has 15 Elf on the Shelf ideas for the classroom, which includes some classics like taping it to the clock or wrapping it in a roll of paper towels on a cold day.

Simply Kinder has a couple of posts with Elf on the Shelf ideas. If you have centers in your classroom (or your house!) there are lots of easy things you can do like have the elf reading a book or doing math. The second post linked here shows some fun accessories she bought her elf, which can give you some ideas for other scenes and things you might craft for your elf. (The candy cane grappling hook is adorable, but you could make something similar with pipe cleaners, for example.)

Chaylor and Mads has a printable introduction letter you can download to share with your class on the first day. That post also has a list of potential names if your class has trouble coming up with one, and ideas for things the elf can do in your classroom.

Sweet for Kindergarten has more cute ideas, including having the elf hanging from a paper chain from the ceiling! And if you need even more ideas, Ms Rachel Vincent has 20 on her blog. I love the idea of having all the elves from different classrooms team up to cause chaos one day (but kids might get emotional trying to ensure “their” elf gets back to the right place, so make sure you know which one is yours!).

Elf on the Shelf Kit for making the 24 days a little easier with props and suggestions.

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

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