This Teacher Turned Her Students’ Drawings Into a Dress for the Final Day of School

ShaRee Castlebury is one creative teacher. As a special project, Castlebury, a first-grade teacher at Pat Henry Elementary School in Lawton, Okla., came up with the original idea of turning a dress into a sentimental piece of artwork.

Castlebury brought a plain white dress to her classroom a few days before school ended. She handed her students fabric markers so they could decorate the dress, covering it with doodles of hearts, flowers, kites, bugs, and rainbows. All of the students then signed the back of the dress, which Castlebury wore on the last day of school.

The teacher posted photos of the finished dress on her Facebook page — the post has now been shared more than 55,000 times — with the caption: “My first idea that is original!! This is all artwork courtesy of MY first grade class! Who am I wearing? Room 219. Happy last day of school with my precious Picasso’s!”

In a separate post, Castlebury wrote about how lucky she feels to be a teacher to her students: “So blessed to be a teacher. I hope each year my kids always know how loved and cherished they are by me…they become part of my family without even realizing how much they touch me on an hourly basis.”

The dress was such a hit that Castlebury has decided to make the wearable art project an annual tradition for each of her graduating classes.

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