One of my favorite ways to start off a new school year with my art students is to create art portfolios. I believe art portfolios help to instill a sense of responsibility in an artist. It tells them, “Your creations are worth taking care of and protecting.”
This year, students created about-me portfolios that featured their names in stylized fonts with hand drawn “stickers.” I encouraged artists to create stickers that showed their favorite things, likes, hobbies, interests, favorite foods, bands, characters and more. This helped me to get to know my new students and encouraged positive relationships in my room.
Materials needed:
- 22″ x 28″ white posterboard (I used this product from Amazon)
- Sharpies
- Colored pencil
- Pencil
- Colored duct tape for the edges (this was a great deal from Amazon and the tape was strong, brightly colored, and did the job perfectly!)
Steps to create:
1.) Fold the posterboard in half.
2.) Duct tape the sides
3.) Draw out your name in a stylized manner, such as bubble letters, 3D block letters, calligraphy, and more!
4.) Begin drawing out your “stickers.” Below are tips on how to render stickers…
Student examples:
I loved all the variety of student work that was created. So much personality. Check them out:
Sticker rewards!
As a reward system throughout the year, students will have opportunities to earn actual stickers to put on their portfolios. The whole “VSCO” thing has phased out in 2021, but the sticker game is still strong! My middle school students still love these things.
Thank you for reading! I would love to hear your feedback. If you implement this into your classroom, I would love to hear about it! Feel free to comment below.
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-Stephanie Villiotis