AllStar Review and a Giveaway

Aloha friends!  I hope you all enjoyed your long President's Day weekend and eased back into school this week.  I was lucky enough to spend a few days camping on the beach with some friends. Three day weekends always make it a little difficult to get back into the routine.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Ellison Education to do a review of one of their products.  If you know Ellison they have been providing great die cuts for education for years.  I remember when I first started teaching and I wondered where everyone got all those cute cut outs!!

So I was really excited when they sent me their AllStar Superstar Machine.

I pulled it out of the box and had it set up in just a few minutes.

They let me pick a few die cuts to use.  Since Valentine's Day was last week I went with their heart frames and an envelope cut out.

I also received this flashcard wheel and a puzzle die cut.

The machine was super easy to use.  Just sandwich your paper and the die cut between the two protector sheets.  Crank it through and voila, you have your shape.  

I used some pastel colored card stock that I purchased at Target, along with the cute little buckets from the dollar section.  In about 15 minutes I had a variety of fun paper cut outs that I wanted to use in my writing and word work centers.

My students could not wait to get their hands on those little envelopes and write Valentines to their friends and family.

They used a little heart shaped sticker to close up their envelopes.

I also placed some puzzle pieces into the writing center.  I had the students write a riddle on one piece and the answer on the other.

They loved this and couldn't wait to mix them up and read them all! I can see this coming in handy for so many different activities.

The flashcard wheels are really cool and could be used for so many things.  I made some samples for my students to start with.  I placed these in the word work area and they were really excited to fill them in.  I didn't have any fasteners so I used a pipe cleaner to hold the pieces together.

We did synonyms last week and this was a great way to review and challenge them to write their own.  Super simple and very engaging!  It's amazing how motivated students can be when you add in something new and fun to the routine.

I was really happy to test drive Ellison's Superstar machine. It was super easy to use, lightweight and easily storable in my classroom.  They also have such a great selection of die cuts that I may be in trouble!  I also discovered that Ellison has a blog with great tips, lesson plans and more!

Just click on the pictures to take you right to their site for some crafty ideas to use in your class.

Now the fun part! Ellison is generously letting me give away an AllStar machine to a lucky reader! 

Just fill out the Rafflecopter and leave me a comment telling me whether you have used Ellison products before.  I will choose a winner next week.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway