In the Classroom: Shrinky Self Portraits

The holidays strike fear into the hearts of many a teacher....  Parties, emotional outbreaks, gifts, sing-a-longs, performances... Oh my!  Those of use who love order and routine have a really hard time with the chaos that the holidays bring to a classroom.  Ok... maybe that is just my perspective, but I'm sure someone out there feels the same way.

I think my biggest issue with the holidays was parent gifts.  Do I? Don't I?  Do we have time?  What should we make? Will it turn out?  on and on...

I have had my serious flub ups... the year we tried to make photo holders out of mini clothes pins... major disaster!  But last year I had one of my all too infrequent bright ideas...  Shrinky Self Portraits ornaments.

I had an annual art project that I did with each of my classes at the end of the year... self portraits sun catchers.  I decided to take that idea and use shrink film instead of transparency sheets.

 I took photos of each student and printed them out in black and white.  When I looked into Shrinky Dink film, it was very expensive.  Luckily, while searching Amazon.com, I found Graffix Shrink Film.  They have clear or opaque.  Last year I used the opaque and it worked out really well.  This year I accidentally got clear, which worked fine, but I like the opaque better.

Student put the shrink film over their photo and used Sharpies to trace and color.  The key is make sure that students trace the outline SHAPES of their features.  When coloring with Sharpies, students don't need to completely fill in their pictures.  The color will concentrate as the film shrinks.

If you plan on using these for ornaments, make sure you hole punch the film before you put it in the oven.

Before putting in the oven.

Follow the directions for shrinking the film that is provided on the back of the package.  It only takes a few minutes for each portrait.  You have watch the film carefully as it shrinks.  I had a couple curl in on themselves and I had to wrestle them apart with a fork and a knife.  Not a fun time.

In the oven...

Taa Daa!  SHRINKY DINK!

The film shrinks into the perfect size for an ornament.  I had students put ribbon through the holes and tie to finish them off.  I wish I had a picture to share, but I didn't take one before the students took them home.

Last year I had students write Dear Santa letters and write them on the bottom of their portraits.  They had to ask for something for someone else and it had to be something money couldn't buy.  It was wonderful to see some of the ideas the students came up with.

I know this post is a bit late for you to do this project for Christmas, but it would also be great for Mother's Day or end of the year memory gift.

Happy Holidays to you all!