DIY Art Portfolio for Elementary School
All you need is a pizza box to make a homemade art portfolio. Just fold it inside out for a plain brown box with all kinds of decorating possibilities.
Kinder teachers at my school loved this system for keeping student’s art work as the pizza boxes could be stacked and sorted with ease. Simple marker names on the side made filing art a breeze and many kept them until spring, when they went home with parents at Open House.
Given that most of these kindergartners were brand new, they needed an easy solution to decorate them. Some stencils and metallic markers always did a great job, and everyone finished in one class too. The combination of black and shiny color made for some very pretty (and cheap) portfolio boxes!
Materials
- Pizza boxes, I like 14″ size
- Black chisel tip marker for names
- Stencils, assorted (used for new kinders that are just learning how to draw)
- Markers (Metallic Markers look great on the brown)*
- Masking tape (the lids did tend to pop open sometimes)
*The above product link is a referral. If you click through and take action, I’ll be compensated a small amount, at no extra expense to you.
Directions
- PREP: Fold the boxes inside out so no printing is showing. Tape the top temporarily shut to keep it from popping open while being colored.
- Students use templates and markers to decorate the box tops as desired.
- Teachers write the students name on the sides of the boxes. Love the neat penmanship of the teacher shown here.
Portfolio Binders
Have you ever wondered where my experience of drawing with students has come from? Well, this was once my storage system for my entire afterschool drawing class. There are probably over 80 portfolios there.
I did develop a color coding system for each grade level, to keep them a bit more orderly. When students filled the 12 sleeves inside, they could take them home. The system worked great as students were always in charge of putting away their finished art and they had an incentive to fill up their book too.
You can find many versions of these binders on Amazon, this Dunwell Binder is a good example one that comes in bulk. *Amazon affiliate link.
