VistaPrint - FREEBIES!

If you do not already know about VistaPrint, you are about to be shocked and awed.  :)

VistaPrint is an online resource for all sorts of personalized items:  business cards, postcards, magnets, banners, stationary, window clings, brochures, t-shirts, invitations...you name it, they probably have it.  The great thing about them is they frequently give things away for FREE!  Yes, I really do mean free.  When I first considered taking them up on their summer offer last year, I thought, "Is this a scam?"  But it's not...they are just that awesome.  I just put in another order last week during their summer sale.  I received (around) $150 worth of personalized products for my classroom and I only paid less than $30 to cover the shipping.  AMAZING!  They have quality stuff, too.  It takes some time to persoalize the items to your liking, but it is so worth the time and the cost of shipping.

If you're stumped as to what you could order, hop over to Jennifer's blog at Kindergarten Klassroom.  She too took advantage of VistaPrints great resources and she provides us with images of her purchases.  Thanks Jennifer!  :)

Here are some items that I personalized and ordered for my own classroom:

This is a huge magnet.  It is simply a decoration piece for the "100th Day of School" celebration.

I wanted to send these postcards out to my Kinders prior to the first day of school.  However, our enrollment was a little funky this year and I was not sure who was going to be in my class for sure, until the first day.  Oh well...I will save them for next year!



I am going to hang this banner up on the day of our Kindergarten Graduation.  This is a special day, especially because all the families join us in the celebration!

This was a lot of work, but I made brochures (bilingual, Spanish and English) that explain to families what their Kinders will learn throughout the year.  I gave some away at Open House.  For those families who joined us after Open House, I will hand them out during Parent / Teacher Conferences.

At the end of the year, my Kinders learn about writing invitations.  To make this writing experience more authentic, last year I started having my kids write invitations to their families that invited them to our Kindergarten Graduation.  The kids LOVED this!  Anyway, I ordered these from VistaPrint, although last year I just got some cheapies from the Dollar Tree and those worked just as well.



These are business cards, but we use them as our Classroom Library Check-Out System cards.  Whenever the kids take home a book from our classroom library, I fill out one of these cards, so I can keep tabs on who has what book and for how long.

This is my very favorite VistaPrint purchase!  The photo below is not the actual banner in real-life (I pulled the picture from the VistaPrint website), but you get the idea.  At the beginning of the school year before the kids arrive and/or when our bulletin board is in a transitional phase, I slap this banner up there!  My parents and family friends work for a local Sheriff's Department, so I was able to easily get my hands on some free caution tape.  I put the tape on the bulletin board with this banner and it looks GREAT! 

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!  :)