Lets Talk Crayons

[daycare]

Please tell me that I am not the only person that feels like I go through crayons like water.

I have 12-14 kids daily. We color A LOT. I have a ton of 2 and 3 year olds this year and 2 kids under 2. a couple 4 year olds.

It feels like despite my efforts to teach them how to use them, they are broken up, papers off, just DONE.

I think today will be the day all of my crayons quit.

How do you keep your crayons? What do you do with them when they break?

[NeedaVaca]

My older kids get a pencil box with their own crayons. Broken crayons go in molds and I melt them in the oven. The little kids get the bigger molded crayons in different shapes, to big to break, no paper to tear off, easy to hold. I also give these molded crayons to all the kids at holidays ie: heart shaped crayons for valentines day etc. They help me make them by taking the paper off and picking the colors they want in the mold. They swirl around and look really pretty.

[childcaremom]

I've never purchased new crayons for daycare use. Always use the cast offs from my kids. I will set out a smaller container for the day. They are all broken, some missing paper, etc.

My plan is to do like above, and melt them. I have a few of those that were given to my children and they are everyone's favourites, hands down.

[bklsmum]

I just stocked up HUGE with the quarter boxes of crayons on sale at Walmart for back to school. Spent $25 and got 100 boxes which should keep us for a good long while. I also plan to melt them down when they get too broken to use.

[Blackcat31]

Please tell me that I am not the only person that feels like I go through crayons like water.

I have 12-14 kids daily. We color A LOT. I have a ton of 2 and 3 year olds this year and 2 kids under 2. a couple 4 year olds.

It feels like despite my efforts to teach them how to use them, they are broken up, papers off, just DONE.

I think today will be the day all of my crayons quit.

How do you keep your crayons? What do you do with them when they break?

Each child gets their own box of crayons at the start of our school year.

How they treat their crayons are up to them.

Ive had lots of kids that treat their crayons nicely and some that don't. Not fair for the kids that do treat them nicely to have to use broken crayons.

I also think it helps teach the kids responsibility for their belongings.

As for replacing them... Once the child has gone through or ruined their personal crayons, they have to use the ones from the "dump container"

The "dump container" is a plastic shoe box of all the crayons that have been left behind went other kids have outgrown or left my program.

I do the same thing with markers. Except only kids that wear underwear get issued markers.

[daycare]

My older kids get a pencil box with their own crayons. Broken crayons go in molds and I melt them in the oven. The little kids get the bigger molded crayons in different shapes, to big to break, no paper to tear off, easy to hold. I also give these molded crayons to all the kids at holidays ie: heart shaped crayons for valentines day etc. They help me make them by taking the paper off and picking the colors they want in the mold. They swirl around and look really pretty.

omg this is sooo cute.

so where do you guys get the molds

[Baby Beluga]

My current group are odd balls and are not big fans of crayons. They prefer colored pencils much more, we go through those like crazy (just stocked up at Walmart with the back to school sales).

[daycare]

Each child gets their own box of crayons at the start of our school year.

How they treat their crayons are up to them.

Ive had lots of kids that treat their crayons nicely and some that don't. Not fair for the kids that do treat them nicely to have to use broken crayons.

I also think it helps teach the kids responsibility for their belongings.

As for replacing them... Once the child has gone through or ruined their personal crayons, they have to use the ones from the "dump container"

The "dump container" is a plastic shoe box of all the crayons that have been left behind went other kids have outgrown or left my program.

I do the same thing with markers. Except only kids that wear underwear get issued markers.

this is also a great idea. do you also give the little ones their own box?

I guess for me I would not have the table space to put the boxes.

I do have the crayon rack holder with colored cups and I have each cup set up with a full set of crayons. I have 3 different sizes.


do all of your kids color at once?
if so, do all of the boxes fit on the table with their coloring pages. I would have to show you my classroom so you could see how small the tables are. they are the green circle tables from Ikea. so 5 kids at one table .

thanks for the ideas ladies

[daycare]

My current group are odd balls and are not big fans of crayons. They prefer colored pencils much more, we go through those like crazy (just stocked up at Walmart with the back to school sales).

We tried colored pencils, but i don't trust my under 3 crowd with them. The thought of someone poking their neighbor with one scares me..

[Blackcat31]

this is also a great idea. do you also give the little ones their own box?

I guess for me I would not have the table space to put the boxes.

I do have the crayon rack holder with colored cups and I have each cup set up with a full set of crayons. I have 3 different sizes.


do all of your kids color at once?
if so, do all of the boxes fit on the table with their coloring pages. I would have to show you my classroom so you could see how small the tables are. they are the green circle tables from Ikea. so 5 kids at one table .

thanks for the ideas ladies

The crayon boxes are the pencil boxes used for school. I stack them on a shelf near the table. Stacked up, 10 crayons boxes take up about as much space as one of those fabric square bin things.... (11" x 11")

My group is separated into 2 groups. Each group does their coloring activities separately although there have been times in which everyone colors but my table space has room for 12.

Yes, everyone but my 6 month old colors. Even my 16 and 20 month olds.

[Laurel]

Aargh, I just lost my typed out post.

These are good for toddlers http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/...&scategoryid=0 They don't break and no paper. The chubby ones.

These are so-so for toddlers. Some brands are not that good. Can't remember what the good brand was though. https://www.kaplantoys.com/product/3...jQGBoC0Ezw_wcB

Mostly, like someone else said, I just used colored pencils a lot.

Aaargh, I'll never forget that I had a child who never broke crayons until one day he was just sitting there popping them in half one after the other....and it was a new box! I think it was my grandson and he just liked how it felt to break them.

Laurel

[nothingwithoutjoy]

Here, we use markers far more often than crayons, so my crayons last a long time. For toddlers, I like chunky crayons, triangular shaped (so they don't roll off the table and break). For the skinny crayons, I have a rectangular basket that's divided into 6 sections. Each section holds a tin can. The crayons are sorted by color into those cans. Broken ones are set aside for melting projects. The kids use the crayons carefully because they're stored rather high and the littlest kids don't tend to pull them out; they're mostly used by bigger kids.

[NeedaVaca]

omg this is sooo cute.

so where do you guys get the molds

I use cupcake molds, you can find them in all kinds of shapes especially around the holidays. Break up crayons into small enough pieces to fit and put them in the oven on low (200-250) for about 20 minutes then I put them in the fridge to chill and set faster. It's really fun to experiment with different colors!

Plus my kids would peel paper off crayons for an hour or more, they loved it!

[Blackcat31]

Aaargh, I'll never forget that I had a child who never broke crayons until one day he was just sitting there popping them in half one after the other....and it was a new box! I think it was my grandson and he just liked how it felt to break them.

Laurel

I had a DCK once that thought all crayons had to be opened before use.

Spent a lot of time convincing her the wrappers stayed on the crayons.

[Blackcat31]

Here is a great blog about uses for old crayons.....

http://handsonaswegrow.com/35-kid-activities-with-crayons/