24 Ideas for your Class ‘Elf on the Shelf’

Is anyone else Christmas obsessed? When it comes to the classroom, we love getting all festive because there is no one more willing to join in on the excitement more than kids!

In saying that, Christmas time can be a little hectic, just like school, so we are here to make your teacher life easier. Without further ado, we would like to share with you 20 different ideas for your class Elf on the Shelf.

Before we start, COVID times might call for a quarantine period! This is a cute idea to get your kiddos excited for the Elf adventures to begin!

20 Ideas for your class Elf on the Shelf

Print this list, tick it off as you go, and rest easy knowing that we have done all the creative thinking for you!

1. On your teacher computer/desk

2. Sitting at a student desk (with all their belongings out)

3. Get Elf to kick start your Kindness at Christmas campaign by leaving your class kind messages. Find free templates for the Kindness Kris Kringle here.

Grab our Christmas Kindness KK for free

4. Pinned to one of your display boards

5. Writing a message on the board for the class

6. Introducing a class Kindness Advent Calendar

Click here for the calendar

7. Hiding in your class library

Photo credit: @learn.with.laura

8. Pretend Elf has written a naughty and nice list on the board (under nice, list your students’ names and under the naughty list write some of the teachers)

9. Ask someone in the office or another teacher to deliver your elf during the day saying he/she was trying to escape

10. Making something from manipulatives (e.g. playdough, MAB, coloured rice, counters)

11. Sitting with a cute message to be kind to their teacher

Photo credit @misslearningbee

12. Pretending to mark books

13. Pictures of Elf stuck all over the room

14. Pretending to have brought back a snowman from the North Pole

Photo credit: @misslearningbee

15. Having an ‘Elfie’ displayed on your projector/screen/smartboard/class iPads (you can follow up with your students making their own Elfie Selfie – get your free template here)

16. Doing a fun activity that you have planned for the day

17. Set up with a security guard so he/she behaves

18. Set Elf up with a ‘Crack the Code’ mystery for your students to complete (we have a free one for you here)

19. Hiding in one of your student’s trays or a storage box

20. Hidden inside your class sharpener

Photo credit @misslearningbee

21. Elf graffiti’s a class photo

22. Lying in lost property

23. Hidden inside one of your students pencil cases

24. Elf having a marshmallow bath

Other academic ideas you can implement that involve your Elf on the Shelf:

- Dedicate some writing lessons

The ideas are endless when writing about your class elf. Maybe it is a Santa’s workshop job application, a description of your elf, a story where the hero is the class elf or even a persuasive text such as, “Should Santa send his Elves out to watch children or keep them in the workshop to help him prepare for Christmas.”

Click here for this writing task

- - Number of the Day

Set your Elf up, so they are holding a number that the students need to use to complete a number of the day activity. You can grab a free template here or a Christmas version here.

- - - Christmas Kindness Campaign

We mentioned this one above but what better time is there than Christmas to remind our students of the power of kindness. Using your Elf on the Shelf is a great way to get started by him/her leaving kind notes for your students. Grab this free template to help your students to start writing kind notes to each other.

- - - - Design and make

Get your students to create a new outfit for your Elf on the Shelf using leftover paper or art supplies, or perhaps create a mode of transportation for Elf. How adventurous you want to be is dependent on the number of supplies you have available at the end of the school year.

Let us know, did you use any of these ideas? What did your students enjoy the most?