Laminator! Laminator! Laminator! Did I mention you could win a Laminator?!

Happy end of my first weekend after my first week of school!

I've just returned from HOURS of working in my classroom to get ready for next week.  One thing I did NOT do was laminating.  Read on to find out why!  ;)

On the first day of school I always have my students do this:

1.)  I print each students' name in a different font.  I make sure not to fill the font with color.
2.)  They color their names, cut them out, and glue them on construction paper... which they then cut aroud.
3.)  I laminate them and hang them up so they are there on the 2nd day.
4.)  They stay there all year long!

This year I got a new student on the 2nd day of school.  I wanted her to do the same activity... so she did.

And I tossed it in my teacher bag and brought it home to lamiante this weekend!

Here's what I got from Mybinding.com... a Papermonster A3 Business Laminator:

It came with those stickers so you can decorate it yourself!  I love that!!!

So, here I am, getting my item in the pouch and protective case to run through the laminator...

 And waiting for it to heat up...

Running it through!  I was pretty giddy with glee as I waited for it to come out...

So close!!!

And... there it is!  My first thing lamianted from home!  :) 

I LOVE this Papermonster brand laminator.  It is small, fast, and SUPER affordable at less than $50... by the time you add some laminating pouches you can get free shipping too!  It can do pages as wide as 12 inches and as long as 17 inches!

I am so excited about the work-out this laminator is going to get at my house!

Later on, I did all of these:

I have all of the 3rd grade books and this 2nd grade one from Creative Teaching Press- they are really quick and easy to use for word work centers!

And I *JUST* laminated my new compound word matching activity which you can check out by clicking the pic below if you're interested...

Anyway... how have I gone 6 years of teaching without one of these laminators?!  If I had known they were only $50.00, I would have bought one ages ago!!!!  Seriously.

I am now racking my brain to think of things I can create just so I can use my laminator!

I know you want to win one... and you can!

Be sure you follow my blog and leave a comment below to let me know that you do and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday!

Good luck!