Pinterest is full of amazing contraction surgery ideas so this is definitely not an original idea on my part.  I wanted my firsties to really understand the concept of what a contraction is.  So, they needed to perform surgery on some words.  I wanted them to concretely understand that letters are taken away in order to make the contraction.  The kiddos got to wear gloves, surgical masks and were equipped with bandaids of every shape and color.  I also had some washi tape on hand in case we ran out of bandaids.  The washi tape worked really well and nobody was disappointed when they ran out of bandaids.  Yay!!  I always strive to have tear free lessons (mine or theirs)!

Each pair of students had a “patient list” which was a set of words and the contractions they make.  They looked at each bone and decided which letters needed to be removed.  The bandaids were used in place of the apostrophe’s.  They LOVED this.  They have asked several times if we can do it again.  Ha Ha!  I call that a win.