Why had I never tried this helpful little tool before now?

Last week, I picked up a Fiskars circle punch like the one below to cut out some iron on tags I had made for my son's clothes for daycare. Well I haven't gotten around to printing those out yet, but today I made some positive reinforcement coins for my classroom using the punch. I'm in love! I think I need to get more of these in all different shapes! I cut out over 300 little circles in no time. This handy little punch saved me sooooo much time! I laminated all the coins, but the punch doesn't like to cut through the thick laminating so I'm having to cut all of the coins out of the laminating, which is taking forever, but I can't imagine how long this project would have taken if I didn't have this handy dandy punch.

Here are the coins I made. I plan on handing them out to the students for following directions and making good choices in class. After they earn 20, they will earn a trip to the treasure box. If you would like a copy of these, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers shop for a free copy. I printed these on cardstock, punched them out and laminated them.

Cutting Machines

Do any of you have a cutting machine, such as a Cricut, that you use for making things for your classroom? What type do you have and what kind of classroom things do you make with it? How do you like you cutting machine?

I'm debating taking the plunge and getting one (not sure what brand as there are several on the market), but not sure how much I would actually use it. I have lots of ideas for using it, but not sure if it's worth spending the money.

WAHOO!!!

For my new teaching position that I will be starting in the fall, I needed to add on Exceptional Student Education to my current Early Childhood Certification. This morning I took the certification test and passed! WAHOO! One more thing to check off my list and a big weight off my shoulders.

The Mailbox is having a Cyber-Monday Sale today!

The Mailbox is having a Cyber-Monday Sale! All of their clearance merchandise is an additional 30% off and regularly priced merchandise is 15% off (no code needed)! The sale gets even better! SHIPPING IS FREE (no minimum purchase required)! Check out the sale here. You can get some really great deals with the sale. Since I'm teaching a grade I've never taught before I stocked up. I got $188 worth of books for just  $70! I was pretty happy with that since I got 17 books for that amount.

I've opened a Teachers Notebook shop!

I've decided to give Teachers Notebook a whirl and opened a shop! I only have a few items in there as of right now but am slowly working on uploading more. You can check it out here. Please follow me on there so you can get updates on all the new items I add.

Back-to-School Number Fun!

I've made some Back-to-School Number Cards that can be used to play games like Memory and Go Fish. Or put them in a pocket chart to let your students practice matching the numerals to the number words to the picture cards. These are a great way to build number sense and make a great addition to any math center. The Back-to-School Number Cards can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Scotch Create, Decorate & Motivate Classroom Sweepstakes

Enter here to win a $500 in prize pack of Carson-Dellosa Products & Scotch Brand products to help get your classroom ready for the new school year! Contest runs until September 30, 2011.