Creepy Contractons

Hey Friends!
It finally feels a little like fall here in South Florida! We had just about a straight week of rain, but then we were left with the most perfect weather ever! It's in the high 70's during the day and the 60's at night. It's actually pretty hysterical to see some of my fellow Floridians break out the sweaters and Uggs the minute the mercury dips below 80! When it gets really cold, like 60 {brrr!} we have to let the kids in early and all outside recess is canceled due to the cold. I know my peeps in Michigan and other parts north probably just spit their coffee at the computer screen, sorry about that!  I guess we're better at sandcastles than snowmen.

So, in the spirit of Halloween quickly approaching and the onset of some good hair weather, I'd like to share my hallway bulletin board. I had a parent volunteer actually staple it up and decorate it. She was making all kind of apologies for her lack of craftiness. She's crazy. I think it turned out great! In years past, I would obsess over every little detail of my board, but I've learned to let go a bit. It's up, it's cute, it's done and it didn't take a ton of time.

We used this as a way to reinforce the fact that contractions are made from two words that become one.  I printed out the houses and took about 10 minutes to actually make the proper cuts to open the windows so that the kids didn't mangle the paper when they tried to do it. I stacked a few papers on top of each other and used my cute paper slicer to make the cuts.

I had the kids color the house and then glue it on to a plain white piece of paper so that there was a back behind the windows when the shutters were opened. After they trimmed away the excess paper, I had them write the two parts of the contraction on the shutters and then the contractions underneath. Simple and fun for the kids. We cut the one long, skinny window on the left in half horizontally, so it would open in two parts like the other shutters. I love that they are really starting to put so much effort and attention to to detail into their work!

If you'd like to make some creepy contractions, click {HERE} download the house pattern and {HERE} for the title.  I'm sure there's lot of other creative uses for the blank house, so if you use them for something else, feel free to share the pix on my FB page. Enjoy!

I'm off to enjoy this beautiful day in Miami!