Elf on a Shelf

Christmas is a Special Time

It’s an opportunity to spend the days shopping for Christmas gifts and to spend some time with friends and family.  The holidays mean carols, lights, church, Santa Claus, and snow and we cannot forget the gifts.

For me Christmas is a time of fun and laughter with family, but to my seven year old cousin Ivan, Christmas means something else.  My aunt just got my cousin the “Elf on a Shelf”.  For me this was something I had not heard of and was astonished when I soon found out what it was.  While I was visiting, I saw a cute little toy elf sitting on the living room table.  As I go to pick it up I was startled by Ivan who yelled “Don’t touch him”.  I instantaneously dropped the toy and soon found out the story behind the little guy.  The elf is Santa’s little helper and notifies Santa whether Ivan had been behaving or acting bad.  Every night the elf moves to a different place in the house because when the kids are sleeping he goes to the North Pole to inform Santa and when he returns sits at a different place.  So, Ivan now behaves tremendously well and makes sure no one touches his elf. 

Vocabulary:

1.      Opportunity: to have a chance

2.      Astonished: to be surprised

3.      Startled: to be shocked or amazed at something

4.      Instantaneously:  to do something immediately/right away

5.      Notify: to let someone know about something or to inform someone

6.      North Pole: Where Santa Claus lives

7.      Tremendously: means the same as extremely

Grammar Point:

Conjunctions are words that join simple sentence to make a compound sentence.  An easy was to remember conjuctions is with the acronym FANBOYS, which stands for: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

Grammar Activity:

Can you write five sentences using the FANBOYs conjunctions below. 

Ex: For me Christmas is a time of fun and laughter with family, but to my seven year old cousin     Ivan, Christmas means something else.

1.      ______________________________________________________________________

2.      ______________________________________________________________________

3.      ______________________________________________________________________

4.      ______________________________________________________________________

5.      ______________________________________________________________________

Cloze Activity:

Use the vocabulary words from above to fill in the blanks in the following sentences.

1.      Macys had a big sale and I had the __________________ to buy a coat at half the regular price.

2.      It snows a lot in the _________________, and it is where Santa lives.

3.      I received a lot of gifts for Christmas and I felt ___________________________ happy.

4.      I was ________________ to find out that it snowed in November when it wasn’t even winter yet.

5.      I told my sister to ______________ me when the package arrive so that I could go pick it up.

6.      I was ____________________ when my brother scared me.

7.      The little girl drank her milk __________________ so that she could go out and play.