Halloween Hallway

     I am not a big fan of Halloween. I am more of a Fall Festival person. I love hay rides, bon fires/ weenie roasts, and family friendly events. However, it's a big deal in my department. Coming up with creative ways to decorate while trying not to duplicate previous years is always a challenge.  This past Halloween was no different. 

    One of my new found talents is drawing and painting. I dabbled in the arts but never realized that I was some what good at it. The following are some ideas that I worked on. I am not including the areas that my co-workers decorated. I am only showing the ones that I did or that I helped with.

    We decided to call our hallway "Creepy Hallow." I made this poster on the back of bulletine board paper and then put a coat of Modge Podge on it. I do most of my projects on the back of our bulletine paper because I do not have any other paper available. I use what we have and hope for the best. 

    I then created a coffin with a 3D hand coming out of it. I cut out a coffin shape from the black bulletine board paper. Next, I searched for and printed out a wood grain image. I glued it to the coffin. Using a piece of cardboard, I traced out my hand and arm. After cutting it out, I wrapped toilet paper around it and taped the end behind the coffin.

    I made two posters last year that I got alot of compliments on, so I hung them back up this year. The first one depicts trick or treaters on Halloween night. The other one is a for farm fresh pumpkins. The leaves on it are fabric.

    It wouldn't be halloween without adding some corn stalks. These were very easy to make. I made most of them by rolling brown paper to make the stalk. Then I ripped strips of the same paper and taped them to the stalks. My co-worker had a corn cobb craft so I made several copies on the printer and placed them on the stalk as well. An easier way to make these is to use wrapping paper tubes. I did not have any available at the time so I had to make my own. I am saving any wrapping paper tubes to make more corn stalks next year. On a side note, wrapping paper tubes come in handy when you need to store your posters. I just roll them up and place in the tube. I then label the tube and place them in a wrapping paper conatiner.

    Last, but not least, I had to decorate my classroom doors. On the first door, I made a spider, pumpkin, ghost, and monster out of construction paper. The other  decorations on the door are crafts made by my students. The second door had over forty fall leaves that I cut out. The branches are actually 3D, as well as the swing. It's hard to see in the picture, but there is a glowing moon in the window of the door. I cut out a circle from cardboard. Then taped a string of battery operated lights to it. I wrapped it in yellow paper and adhered it to the inside of my window.

    I have no idea how we are going to decorate next year. I have feeling we will be exploring ideas as early as spring.