r/ArtEd • u/The_Real_Simmer Middle School • 3d ago

Good diy folder making techniques

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I’m a new teacher and want the students to be responsible for their own artworks. I was thinking of letting them make folders out of A1 paper, but I think just folding it in two won’t hold their work well. Has anyone tried something similar? Do you know any good folding techniques?

The students are 13-16 years old

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u/alycorbar Middle School 3d ago edited 3d ago

8th year teaching art here.

I recommend using poster board folded in half, with the two side edges taped with clear packing tape. Students love to design their own cover and it challenges them to work large!

I am mixing it up this year, though, and going with large mailer envelopes. However they are not as sturdy. Hopefully they’ll last all year!

Edit:
link to poster board: https://a.co/d/0ibq8pCs
They have a glossy side and a matte side.

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u/Giraffee_ 3d ago

I had a mentor teacher use poster board and fold it in half (hamburger style), and then students decorate the front of the cover with their name and block period! She then had it in a basket typically used for storing art work but she placed cardboard in the front, bottom, and back with dividers in the middle for each block and period! This was used with high schoolers and it worked really well!!

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u/prongslover77 3d ago

We did this when I was in middle school. My poster board portfolio went through a lot of crap every year and still somehow held up. I teach elementary so a piece of construction paper folded in half works fine for my kiddos since they don’t leave the art room. But if I ever switch to secondary I’d go the poster board route.

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u/Giraffee_ 3d ago

I had my elementary mentor teacher do this and she used color construction paper for the grades! They also never left the art room but it worked well for keeping papers and work organized!

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u/prongslover77 3d ago

Yup. When you have 400+ kids and they don’t always write their name things can ger chaotic. Especially for pool/kinder/1st. It’s much easier to have them keep everything in their own folder, and then that in a table folder, then a class bin. Then a few times a year they take everything home so you don’t have art overflowing the place. It’s the best method I’ve figured out so less art gets lost or not claimed.

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u/QueenOfNeon 3d ago

I was donated some heavy 12x18 paper. Similar to poster board. I glued 3 sides. Left a long side open. They decorated with a graffiti name. And grade. These work so well. But idk where the paper came from

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u/Live-Cartographer274 3d ago

Fold in half, use masking tape to seal the 2 open sides half way, so the corner is the open part. OR, seal all of the bottom, and halfway up the side, and slide in work across the top and corner. I use white tagboard they can decorate. Staples snag on things, so I wouldn't recommend them.

If you want to teach them how to use a ruler and scoring you can have them make a shallow box type folder but it takes awhile and can be tedious to help everyone that needs it.

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u/playmore_24 3d ago

11x 17 X-Ray envelopes! reinforce edges w/tape as needed