We think every teacher (and parent) should have a laminator in their home! When we tell friends about our laminators, they all respond with “I’d love to have one, but they’re so expensive!” Not true! They only cost around $30 – definitely worth the investment! Here’s why we think you need one…
- Your items will be more durable. It’s great to have a laminator in your school but the laminating film is typically thin and not sturdy. When you have a personal laminator, you can choose to buy film at different thicknesses. This is great because it makes your game pieces, flash cards and centers sturdy.
- If your school only laminates on certain days, it can make it difficult to have your centers ready to go. With an at home laminator, you can prevent this and laminate at any time.
- Make bag tags for your students! You can purchase luggage tags for your laminator. As a fun activity, give each student a piece of paper cut to fit the tag. Students can decorate their papers and you can use them to create sturdy, laminated tags.
- If you’re also a parent, it is great to use to preserve your children’s work. Or, create placemats for home. Run off a word serach or other activity and your children can play with a dry erase marker on the mat while you fix dinner!
We have found the best place to purchase a laminator is through Amazon. Here is the one we like along with laminating pouches we have purchased before.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I would love to get a personal laminator and have thought about getting one many times, but I have one question. Can you cut the items out like you can with the laminating film at school? I know that the laminating pouches are thicker so my concern is that you won’t be able to laminate small items and cut around them. I’ve laminated some things at Staples before and it was too thick to cut so I was wondering if this was similar to that.
Michelle – I usually purchase the 3mm laminating pouches when I want to be able to cut the items out. I use them for my own centers and have always been able to cut them without a problem. I use the thicker pouches when I am making bag tags (they are pre-cut to the correct size) and these would be difficult to cut. I hope this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
Cathy
I love the one I bought at SAM’s. It wasn’t very expensive either.
I have this exact laminator that I got at Walmart– I keep packs of the sheets at school. I can’t rely on the laminator at school and I find the more sturdy product comes from this!
I’ve been toying with keeping the one at school and buying an additional one– I work 100+ miles away from school, so I can’t just go up there every weekend. It’s definitely worth the money (in this case, you get MORE than what you paid for)
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