Going Green in Speech: Using Lamination Scraps

Like many of you, I find myself in a sea of excess laminating film that I just can't, in good conscience, pitch. It is my goal to reduce what I am throwing into landfills for perpetuity, so I have been both limiting what I laminate and squirreling away the excess for later use. I want to share only a couple possibilities.




First, rather than purchase page protectors and plastic sleeves, why not make your own? Here is a video of how to make your own. I use them as overlays for books when students are practicing articulation while reading. Using dry erase markers they highlight or underline any words with their target sounds. I also place worksheets in them and again, students use dry erase markers to complete the page. I can then send the same page as homework.

I've made them in varying sizes so I can put articulation or task cards in them for use with dry erase or as smash mats with play-dough. It keeps unlaminated cards clean and reduces waste. I made these for Texas Speech Mom's speech counters by folding a piece of laminating film and using washi tape to seal the two sides. I left the bottom a little higher than the top so I could easily insert and remove the cards.

Another fun and green idea is to save the cut off ends of laminated materials. They are perfect as makeshift whiteboards. I often cut them into strips and write words for practice or sentence formulation and expansion. I have a sentence frame and then have different morphological endings on each card that students can manipulate. Erase for a new sentence.

I don't have pictures of my scraps, but this is the general idea.

These scraps make targeting interrogative reversal a snap. I call it the "magic flip." Write a declarative sentence on the laminated scraps and then abracadabra, do the magic flip and formulate a question!

Do you have any handy laminating film hacks? I'd love to hear of the ways you use it. Please share!!