Reinforcing Paper Manipulatives!

Laminating gets so expensive sometimes. Plus, I hate it. (Don't tell anyone.)

So I found a way to turn trash into reinforcements! 

First, you find a thin box. I found my Dr Pepper and other soda boxes for free at work.

Then you find the glued seam and rip it apart. After that, cut the other sides on the edges. You should end up with all the sides of the box flattened out.

While I was doing this, I had my kids cutting out the paper parts we were going to use. 

In these pictures are How to Train a Dragon letters from 1+1+1=1 and some of the You Can Read!.

Then glue it down! I let the kids squirt the glue on the backs and I did the placement and smoothing.

Wait 24 hours and cut it out. (I did this cutting after they went to bed.)

Not totally indestructible, but not going to be destroyed in a day either.

No free soda box supply? No problem. I ran through my kitchen earlier and you could use boxes from crackers, noodles, wheat germ, cereal, granola bars, panko, etc, etc. Anything that's thinner cardboard.

Linking up with:

http://wwwicanteachmychild.com