Comb Binding A Book

I finally  have all the tools I need to bind my own books for my kids! I love making these books and coming up with fun educational activities for them to do. I know it's not rocket science but here's how it works :-) 

After printing each page in your book. Laminate and trim them to about 1/8 inch. I bought this laminator at Costco a few years ago for about 20 some bucks and it has worked like a charm for me.

 Once all your pages have been cut, its time to put the book together. I purchased this binding machine last week from webofficemart.com for 45.00.  It's not the best of quality but for what I will be using it for it's fine. You simply place each sheet inside the slot and pull the handle down to make the cuts.
 Here is how each sheet will look when cut. 

 Once each sheet has been punched it's time to put the binding on the book. These plastic bindings are 5/8" and work well for a 11 page book (card stock + laminated), tho smaller ones would work fine too. Slide the plastic piece onto the metal combs that are placed along the bottom of the machine. 

Pull down the lever on the side of the machine and the plastic bindings will open. Simply slip the open comb into the holes you punched on the pages. Pull the lever up to close the comb. Your book is now complete!

 This is a fun matching book I put together where the students have to find the ingredients from the store shelves for the recipe on each page. There are 9 recipe cards, each recipe with 4 ingredients, and 36 food grocery items that will be velcroed onto the pages. 

There are two grocery store shelf pages.  One has the food items on it and one doesn't which will allow the students to put the food back wherever they want. I prefer to use the one with the items and I use see-through velco. This way it is as much of a lesson putting the items back on the shelves as it was removing them. Here is a copy of this particular book if you're interested.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Grocery-Store-Recipe-Match-1277964