Crayon Madness

[abc123gal]

My class has gone through so many crayons this year it's unbelievable! What is normal? They lose them, break them, etc.
I'm almost thinking about buying the slightly larger size crayon, so maybe it won't break so easy! (I buy Crayola brand only)
So-how many boxes of crayons, and what count do you use for your first graders, and does anyone use the larger kind (not jumbo-I think there are 3 different sizes)

 

[Rosieo]

Same problem here!

My kids have almost no crayons left! Everytime we go to color something half of them don't have the colors needed! What is going on???

 

[cvt]

tub

My students share the (Crayola) crayons because of the donations at the beginning of the year. Each table of 4 has one large bowl of crayons, all sizes and colors, whole and broken, wrapped and unwrapped. It does not seem to matter to them, as long as they can color. I save them from year to year, and have a huge container of left-over crayons in case we run out.

 

[Tchr07]

I feel your pain!

Same thing was happening to me in the beginning of the year...I was so tired of hearing, "Um, I don't have a green to color the trees" and so on and so forth. I sent a little note home asking for crayon donations and received several boxes from parents. Some even sent in just a few stray crayons here and there. Now we have a big bucket full of crayons in writing center...if somebody needs a crayon, they can go to the bucket to borrow what they need and return the crayons to the bucket at the END of the activity (this helps cut down on the traffic of students going back and forth from their seats to the crayon box.) Hope this helps!

 

[lovebug422]

Lost Crayons Bin

Whenever a crayon is found on the floor it goes into the bin - nobody tries to find the "owner" we just place it in the bin. The custodians know about the bin too, and will either toss ones they find in there, or will toss them on the table and I'll put them in the bin the next morning. At the end of the day we each pick up three scraps (at least) and put any found crayons in the bin. If you need a color, you can just go to the bin and take one - no need to return it.

 

[Azure]

crayons

I have my students to each bring in 1 24 pack of crayons at the beginning of the year. Then for Valentine's Day, I will give them a new box of 24. I stock up during the summer when they are on sale. I also have a crayon bin. All lost ones are put in there. If a studend loses all of their crayons before Feb. then I will send home a note asking for another box just like the glue.

 

[TwoMonkeys]

We required our students to buy the Twistables crayons this year and so far they have worked much better than regular crayons. I love it! They don't break and the kids seem to be better at keeping track of them. There is the possiblity of twisting them up too far and breaking them that way but the kids really haven't been doing that. They seem to be a little more careful with their "special" twistables. That might be one option. We also have an orphan crayon bucket that was left over from last year that the kids go to when they do need a certain color.

 

[love4learning]

Crayon Lost and Found

I have a crayon lost and found box in my room. Whenever a student finds a crayon on the floor or an extra in their box they put it in the crayon lost and found. If a child is missing a color they go to the box to find it. This has really cut back on "I don't have a *blank*"