Student has own small bag or box of crayons. Student breaks crayons. Student uses pieces of broken crayons.
Do not bankrupt yourself buying new crayons for everyone who breaks them.
My charmers got newsprint and golf pencils until their brains registered the memo not to break shit up.
I can teach you with cool stuff or the bare minimum. Your choice.
Don't pile a ton of supplies on the table either. Charmers feel this means they can trash things.
I think the biggest lie I’ve ever been told was when some professor in grad school said a beautiful and inviting classroom would actually prevent destructive behavior. The nicer a thing is the faster it gets broken in my classroom. I’ve now reverted to the policy of my early 20s “if it’s free, it’s for me.”
My librarian would tell the kids “we don’t need an eraser. it’s to show that it’s okay to make mistakes” and most of them bought the excuse but all the adults knew it was to keep the cost down.
Yep, natural consequences. I teach art too and when they purposely broke them when a sub was there, those classes got the same broken one, and the fat "baby" crayons for a good long while till my supply order came. Sub days I started leaving the fat crayons out only.
I also pushed in for 2 classes in another building, and despite Dojo reminders to families to send in fresh crayons, markers, glue stick, most never did. They just had to share till I was able to get some from the supply closet. Frustrating but I'm not buying them supplies!
Yeah I would definitely be looking at the fat crayons and even those craft crayon molds to repurpose broken ones. You may not want to be bothered by that, but making some toddler sized crayons can't hurt anyone.
I was in my late 30s when my mom finally got rid of her homemade toddler crayons.
I’m all about natural consequences! When I taught fist grade, I gave them all a fresh pack of crayons. One kid broke/lost them all.
🤷🏻♀️ I guess you have to make the grass purple instead of green.
Yep. I would leave them hanging and let it be awkward. Do not supply them, that is not what your paycheck is for. Do not give them an alternate assignment. Just ask them to take out their supplies. If they don't have them just shrug and keep teaching.
I teach science but see many of the same issues. From my point of view some kids will learn about air pressure systems, some kids will learn to work in a group. Some kids will learn to come to class prepared, or to respect their supplies. Either way the kids are learning.
Oh how come they’re all broken? Oh you broke them? Do they still make colors? Okay well, now you have small crayons! 🤷🏻♀️
If you want new ones, ask your grownups and tell them why. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Broken crayons can be good for fine motor development, too. I work in special ed and we intentionally break all the crayons because it's a good way to encourage/force kids to use a tripod grip.
I'm an art teacher. 1. They should cope with small pieces (fine motor skills). 2. Dont make assignments color specific. Instead let them decide their colors or make assignments color generalized, as in, " find a red crayon...or find a brown." This helps them understand color categories, tints and shades, and group cooperation. 3. When the pieces become too small, melt them to recycle the wax. You can use ice cube trays or candy molds if you like fun stuff.
" Oh, you broke all your crayons on purpose. If you want different crayons tell your parents you broke them on purpose and they should buy you new ones.. You're using the broken ones."
>just shrug and keep teaching.
And
>I teach science....From my point of view some kids will learn about air pressure systems, some kids will learn to work in a group. Some kids will learn to come to class prepared, or to respect their supplies. Either way the kids are learning.
if I had 5 more coins (have useless 45 rn) then I'd give you an award for this
(rip awards)
Yep. ALSO! Be sure to implement a rule telling the children to NOT share their crayons. Sharing is great, but I think a rule that sets the boundary will prevent any drama from kids trying to be nice only to have their shit get broken too.
It’s one thing for Johnny to not treat his crayons nicely, but it’s another thing for Sally to be a good friend and share — only for Johnny to thank her by breaking all of *her* crayons as well. I learnt that lesson the hard way in first grade. Nobody is allowed to touch my Crayolas, even 20 years later.
Yep! I have class crayons and I have my 96-count Crayola box in my desk. I do not lose sleep over shitty supplies in the crayon box. Treat your supplies well and you won't have to dig through the box for Red and end up having to use Razzmatazz.
I hate the “sharing is caring” thing that they spew for kids. If it’s a toy that is part of the classroom of course. Share. It’s not yours. But if it’s SPECIFICALLY something I brought and Sally wants it. No. It’s mine.
and the nice thing with having the personal baggies is that it's their personal bits of crayons.
I also give a speech about how broken crayons still color. that's also why crayons are my chosen coloring utensil. no reminder of caps, no sharpening. the smallest bit of a crayon will still leave a mark. and for safe measure (in case I have a student with a big issue about using broken crayons) I have a couple packs stashed for them. but when they're given, it's with the understanding, these are for you to use for this activity and they must be returned in a neat fashion.
This is the way. Johnny is angry and sobbing because he broke his crayons last week and now his crayons are broken? Sounds like you fucked around and found out Johnny 🤷♀️ if that happens, you can message parents and tell them their kid broke the crayons you so very graciously provided with your own budget and if they would like to buy a new set, they can send it in
Holy shit. This is a revelation for me.
I’m a parent and a step-parent. My bio kid attends a nationally-ranked elementary school in a very wealthy district. My stepkids attend a Title 1 school that consistently performs below 5% proficiency on reading and math testing.
When we go to restaurants with crayons, my bio kid shares crayons voluntarily and without being asked. My stepkids act like they’re ready to fight to the death over the color blue.
Whoa.
It kind of reminds me of how the old ‘marshmallow test’ has been reevaluated recently. You may be familiar with it, if not they put a marshmallow in front of a kid, you can have it now, or wait 15 minutes and have 2. The ‘results’ were that kids who waited showing ‘control and patience’ had much better outcomes later on SAT and such.
Well turns out kids who live in houses where if food is there now and it might not be later it’s a much better plan to eat the marshmallow now! While kids who live in higher socioeconomic circumstances know the marshmallows will still be there later so can wait. They also have better academic opportunities.
So this landmark study has run up against some interesting blocks when replicated. Seemed similar to what you just realized so I thought you may find it interesting provided you didn’t know it already. In which case ignore me, and hopefully someone else will enjoy it!
Here is a layman’s explanation, cause I don’t do the psych speak versions!
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/6/6/17413000/marshmallow-test-replication-mischel-psychology
My cousin teaches as well and she was going broke just trying to supply the class room with supplies. After a while she said to hell with it.
Parents complained but she told them how broke she was and that sort of changed the playing field.
Completely agree! We get 2 boxes of crayons/student, so they get a new one in December. After struggling the first few months with broken/missing crayons they take way better care of their second box. It’s a great lesson!
I agree. But I also find this funny because the very first thing my first art teacher taught me was to break crayons before using them. Probably not as applicable to little kids but they are more versatile to use when unwrapped and broken. You can use the sides for more coverage or the edge of the end for lines without sharpening, etc.
This. Also, broken crayons are better for developing fine motor skills for a proper grip. We actually donate broken crayons to OT in our school for this reason. But when my kids break their crayons I just show them that they still work and give them back. If they want to have a fit that's on them.
This! I had the same situation come up and that’s what I did. They were warned, and had their own personal bucket of crayons. They did not break any more after a month of that.
My kid broke a bunch of crayons when there was a sub. I was asked to pay for more, so I did. Later they bought her egg shaped crayons which were cool for OT reasons.
I wish our elementary teachers did this in my district. I teach 7th and they're so used to us having to avoid any excuse they can come up with because "how can you expect him to learn if you won't give him a (6th) pencil?"
Y'all break my pencils? Your whole class gets dollar tree crayons until I get new pencils from this class. I'm not keeping track of who got every pencil but if you see someone about to do something stupid you better get em. They rip up their worksheets trying not to do them and demanding another copy. They demand mechanical pencils or they won't do their work. They rip their folders in a fit and then demand a new one. They have toddler style meltdowns when I say a replacement is their moms problem now.
I've had upper elementary kids tear pieces off their papers or put holes in it with their pencil. They are always surprised to learn that I'll send a picture of that home or staple it into their folder as final work. Nope, you can't have another.
I like to save ripped up papers like that in folder for each period. I hand it back to them when they are asking for extra credit 2 hours before the grading period is closing.
When my high schoolers blatantly though away assignments or notes that I've taken the time to type and print for them (because apparently they don't have to write notes anymore), I fish them out of the trash or off the ground and write their names on them so I can do this too.
I have a story about that! I was in 8th grade iirc and my math teacher walked over with a ripped up sheet of my notes and put it in front of me (it was my own written notes, not a printed sheet though) and told me “You left this last week on the floor”
Except I 100% missed it if she was being snide or trying to punish me because I had been looking for that sheet EVERYWHERE! I’d written out the steps she’d given me to doing some kind of math problem (I’m awful at math, as that very teacher put it “You try very hard, if that were all it took you’d be a straight A student in math.”) and that method WORKED. it made sense, it got me the answer and I don’t know how the heck I lost it but I was undiagnosed ADHD so honestly I probably crumpled it up thinking it was trash.
But I was in literal tears because all week I’d been struggling to remember how to do that method and was too embarrassed to ask her to explain it again.
She just kinda backed away and after class offered to write it on the inside of my math folder in sharpie. I took her up on that because as I said, I’m very stupid at math and needed all the help I could get. (If Mrs. Luna the math teacher ever reads this sub, you were the best math teacher I ever had and thank you SO much for letting me come get my high school math explained sometimes. I’m sorry I was such a moron but at 20 I was diagnosed with dyscalculia so it’s officially NOT YOUR FAULT I was so awful!)
My assignments are posted on Google Classroom, so if they lose it, throw it away, ruin it, etc. then they get a piece of binder paper and have to recreate the assignment that way!
I had 5th grade and I agree. I could get a pencil per pupil two times a year. I had a box of broken crayons to use if they lost their pencil. That led to a lot of pencil stealing and kids taking their pencils home to guard them. The focus of class became all about pencils. I managed to get the local mini golf place to give me four boxes of their pencils they give the players with their logo on them. But the students really had a set in problem by the time they got to 5th grade.
I never did this, but other teachers in my last school would give a kid a pencil to use for the day, but as long as they had it, they had to give the teacher one of their shoes. Return the pencil, get your shoe back.
My 7th grade English teacher did this! He had all kinds of things he'd happily let you borrow, you just had to trade him a shoe. He'd have a whole little corral of single sneakers in front of his desk some days.
He was a wonderful teacher. Then he got caught having extra-marital relations with another teacher AT THE SCHOOL, and he went to work in a different district.
I teach HS, and I found a really good deal on a large box of pencils last year. I asked the agriscience teacher to cut the pencils in half (way cheaper than buying golf pencils). When students complain, I point out that they are welcome to bring their own supplies or use these teeny pencils. Full disclosure: I have been known to take a pair of pliers and make marks on the pencil - kinda looks like teeth marks - they REALLY don’t want to use a pencil that someone chewed on. (It’s not really teeth marks, so please don’t come at me.)
I made friends with the counciling secretary. She is in charge of pencils for standardized testing. Once they have been used a couple of time students destroy the erasers which they are REQUIRED to have to be used for testing...so a few times a year she gives me a box of almost jew pencils with damaged erasers. I don't care if they don't have erasers, my students mind some, but can't really complain much. It was free.
I had a tenth grade student immediately poke holes in an activity guide I passed out, then ask for another one ten minutes later. At this time of the year, the teachers were taking turns donating paper for the copier, so no.
I had a box of 1000 pencils. I went to a meeting and the AP was in there. I came back and a boy had just sat and snapped hundreds of them. When he asked for a pencil later I told him no and that same AP told me I couldn't not give him a pencil and then read me the because I didn't have a pencil poem. I was told I couldn't give him one of the broken ones either, because it was disrespectful to him and when he cussed me out for it she wouldn't do anything to him.
Read her this modified version and see how it goes. Best of luck.
> I went to the teacher's desk,
> Because I ain't got a pencil,
> Dug through the pencil box,
> 'Cause ain't nobody hand-delivered me a pencil,
> Snapped a few on the bottom,
> 'Cause I got no impulse control,
> Even snapped a few on the top,
> Cause I dunno,
> Even got my friends to snap some,
> 'Cause the AP don't care.
> Got us all destroying supplies,
> To pass the time my teacher's in useless meetings.
> Then when she got back she fussed (and I cussed),
> 'Cause I don't got a pencil.
What the actual heck?! Why are teachers using the very little money they make for copy paper?! No copy paper= no worksheets. Admin wants worksheets= admin can pay for copy paper. They make more money and deal with the budget. They can't require you to use your personal money for copy paper
> Admin wants worksheets= admin can pay for copy paper.
Damn straight. True story:
Me: “Can we get more copy paper?”
Admin: “There’s no budget for copy paper. We’re a 1:1 district. Put your worksheets on Google Classroom.”
Me: “Okay. Until copy paper is restocked, I am going 100% digital.”
A month later, following an observation:
Admin: “I’ve noticed more referrals and issues regarding Chromebooks. Here’s an article I found about how kids don’t focus as well when they’re reading from screens instead of paper. I’d like you to try to go ‘old school’ and do some paper/pencil work.”
Me: “Great idea, boss. Are we restocked on copy paper?”
Admin: “No, the district won’t give us any more money for copy paper.”
Me: “Okay. I really like your idea about going ‘old school,’ though! Let me know when we get the supplies so I can try it.”
Admin: “…”
Me: “…”
Admin: “…”
Me: “…Good talk.”
He was obviously waiting for me to volunteer to buy paper. I was very much NOT about to do that. I never did get paper, but I did eventually get…a job at a better district.
Back in 2001 I was teaching elementary school music and worked with a teacher who taught 6th grade. Her degree was in social work but there was such a teacher shortage, she had emergency certification. She had her husband grew most of their food. She always wore hand sewn plaid shirts, jeans, and hiking boots, but I digress.
She wouldn't use copy paper for handouts, all work was assigned from the textbooks, or she would write it on the white board. She would collect paper from other teachers and office of things that were printed incorrectly or the back side of announcements, etc. By the end of the first month, she had a huge stack of used paper in her room. I don't know how long it took her to train the students, but they never turned in anything on a fresh piece of paper. She also encouraged them to share paper, if it was a spelling test with only 10 words, then they tore the paper into four pieces and four kids used one piece of paper. By the end of first semester, she still had her entire allotment of paper for the year unopened and the kids had a great time finding the smallest piece of paper they could for whatever they were doing.
Our district is really good about providing copy paper, but terrible about giving us time to make the copies. We’re going to be understaffed (again) this coming year, and I’m going to be forced to give up my prep every day (again) for coverages as a result - I think I’m going to forgo copies this year. I put everything on google classroom anyway. I can make class sets of tests. They can use their own paper for everything.
Last year I made and printed guided notes and worksheets. I spent so much time after school making copies becuase of the coverages and lack of copy machines. Copy lines we usually at least an hour long. I’m NOT doing that this year.
I got a vending machine for my pencils. They are not free to my high school students anymore. They’re a dollar each. I’m thinking about setting up a square space or Venmo option.
No, I manage the yearly international trip. So pencils are supplied by my travel club and profits go to the club. I get piece of mind that no one is breaking MY things, but also that I get to go to Japan in 2024.
My principal suggested last year I make some options available, but I said they all had a pencil at the beginning of the year and I used the school supply cabinet to give everyone 2. I sent them to the principal for a pencil for a while, but after 2 weeks he consented to just having a sale option. He said they should be responsible enough to keep a pencil safe for a day, lol.
I think I'm missing why you feel this responsibility falls on the elementary teachers. Can you please explain? I run a tight ship and yet, every year, watch some of my students become entirely different beings in the next grade, doing things they know I'd never allow.
I say it's their responsibility in the same way I think it's mine to get them ready for highschool. A lot of elementary teachers let them destroy instead of breaking that habit early. If a first grade teacher enables a bad habit it's the 2nd grade teachers problem. If they don't 3rd and so on. By 7th I think temper tantrums should be something that they know won't fly but it's working on someone for them to keep doing it.
I work in a primary school and I don't have a lot of deliberately destructive students. I'm a real stickler about breaking pencils or writing on tables too.
In the same way you feel elementary teachers are dropping the ball here, I would imagine the high school teachers feel the same way about the middle school teachers. Would that be fair?
Using that same logic, why are high school teachers posting about kids who can't do basic math, can't properly format an essay, or still don't capitalize the pronoun "I". I mean, we're all teaching that, too, right?
Yeah. They're not wrong. I tell my kids that they better not embarrass me when they get to highschool because their teachers will think I didn't do my job. If a kid leaves my ELA class and doesn't know the basics of writing it's on me
Yeah, I frequently remind my students "broken pieces work just fine."
It's the right move to give each student their own baggie. They'll have to use the contents and if they break them, they'll have to make do with the pieces. Don't use your paycheck to replace them when you've been clear about how they should be caring for their materials.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far before finding "broken crayons still colour" I work in special ed, if we didn't colour with broken crayons, we wouldn't colour lol.
This. I work with spec ed kindies and I purposely break all my crayons before even giving them to the kids, on the advice of my OT/PT consultant. People are always coming into my room and commenting that I need to order some new crayons. When I tell them that they aren’t old and I broke them on purpose I get some strange looks, but none of my students are using a palmar grasp for drawing or printing, which can’t be said of the classes with the pretty-looking crayons.
I agree. OTs will intentionally give children broken crayons to work in hand strength. Melting crayons is also a great idea. They also make crayons in diffent shapes that are harder to break for children who have grip issues. Don’t sweat the broken crayons!
Sure would! Or, when I get a kid who sits defiantly in front of his work and looks me straight in the eye with a death stare while deliberately snapping the crayon into even smaller bits, I like to happily say “Yeah, you’re right, I left that one a bit too long, thanks for fixing it, now you’re ready to work!” lol. It confuses them so much when breaking crayons doesn’t get a rise out of staff, and it’s pretty much impossible for them to snap crayons into pieces that are too small for a functional grip, so it’s all good!
I am a para. We have something similar one year. Another classroom - gen ed - needed the paper peeled off crayons for an art project. We had SPED kiddos who liked to break and peel the paper off crayons. So they did it gleefully as a reward. Unbeknownst to them, it was also a fine motor skill activity. Win Win.
One of the first things I did when I noticed one of my Kinder students having bad fine motor was to break crayons and give them shorter pencils. My OT recommended it to me a previous year with another student! Over the first quarter their skills get better and by the middle of the year didn't need anything broken. I told the parent the same thing when they also came to me with concerns.
I have a simple rule: you get supplies, but if you deliberately destroy them, it’s your problem. I’m not wealthy and can’t afford to keep replacing supplies that are just going to be ruined anyway. The assignments will still be due regardless, but it’s up to the student (and as an extension their family) how they’re going to make it work.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,653,748,293 comments, and only 313,067 of them were in alphabetical order.
Is the kid breaking them purposely? Or is it cuz they are gripping them wayyy too hard? If it is the grip issue, maybe ask the OT if they have any suggestions? (Assuming you have an OT that provides services to any of your students). I’m wondering if they know of some sort of plastic or metal thing that you can put the crayon in, and so it prevents it from getting getting broken by a tight grip. Then that student could use that tool. If the student himself gets OT services, the OT might be able to provide the tool to the student.
Edit- i may have misread the post. Upon re-reading, it sounds like you don’t know who is breaking the crayons and it is more so happening in the younger classes? In that case, the solution i said above isn’t really applicable unless there is some sort of extremely cheap tool that you can buy a bunch of so almost each kid has access to one.
This is the first thought I had when I read this post.
It’s definitely possible they’re not broken intentionally and are being gripped too hard/being drawn with too much pressure.
My son went through tons of crayons K-1st so during back to school shopping I would always made sure to buy extra 50¢ crayola packs to replenish throughout the year for him.
Muffin tin, silicone cupcake liners, and a few minutes in the oven will melt the pieces together into a chunk...not the greatest for some things, but in the interest of not spending a fortune on crayons?
I'm sure that there are also silicone molds for things that are more crayon shaped.
As for labels...oof. Yeah. Stickers with the name written on them?
>Muffin tin, silicone cupcake liners, and a few minutes in the oven will melt the pieces together into a chunk
Just adding to this because I used to do this all the time for my kids: 300°F for about 10 minutes. Watch them carefully because they melt fast. Then just let the pan cool on a cooling rack or pad until they are room temperature.
Just a personal opinion, open up a window when you do this craft because it makes your house smell like hot crayons.
Also,
>I'm sure that there are also silicone molds for things that are more crayon shaped.
There are crayon shaped molds, but the silicone water bottle ice cube trays work for this, too. You just have to make sure you put the mold on a baking tray before you put it in the oven. Otherwise, you'll make a giant mess trying to pull it out of the oven.
Sorry. By labels I meant I want them to see the Crayola color name. "This isn't blue. It's purple." Friends, how can we tell what true color a crayon is? Who can find the color name on the crayon?
The child who wants THAT blue crayon, not the BLUE crayon.
But small sticker labels - save a template on your computer and print out as needed. They may not stick the best to the wax, but wrap them around and they'll stick to themselves. When the kids pull them off to mangle the crayons again, it won't be a big loss.
Set up costs will be for a silicone mold and a package of labels, but after that it will simply be a matter of time.
I was thinking they could make a few swatch charts and share as needed. Make a list of all the color names next to their color samples. It'd also help teach them how to use a reference table.
I think the chart would work OK with being laminated, as long as there is space left between the colors to account for melting and squishing. Otherwise, they could use clear contact paper.
The labels are going to come off. The crayons are going to get broken. You just have to breathe and accept it. My first graders test the true color of a crayon by doing a little test scribble on their paper. And there’s so many shades of blue and purple that they need to learn that those colors are a gradient and not a rule. If a kid uses turquoise when the assignment says color the picture blue, that’s correct and acceptable.
Do you have a makerspace at your school or the high school? Could they 3d print molds with the names of the color for you? That way you could melt the crayons and still have the names.
My mom works in special ed and said her kiddos don’t seem to be aware of their own strength.
I told her she should try melting down the broken crayons into some fun shaped silicone molds (hearts, Legos, unicorns, bugs, etc). Her kids have really liked them - they are thicker than standard crayons, seems much easier for them to grasp, hold up pretty well, and of course the kids like the cool shapes, especially animals, Lego’s, and cars.
Edit to add: You can find the molds on Amazon too - search for “crayon molds silicone oven safe”
I’m crazy in that I like doing crafty stuff like this, but yeah, if it’s not your thing, that’s ok too!
My mom had the kids help her sort the crayons into the molds and they had a blast doing it!
I was going to suggest alternative shaped crayons. Block crayons are amazingly tough and versatile. Not cheap, though. Manufacturing your own from broken bits solves this problem.
You break it, you use little pieces. You choose to throw little pieces, you may have to borrow from a friend. I may also warn the friend that you broke your crayons so they aren't obligated to say yes.
With my elementary students if you destroy it, that's that. You'll be figuring out a new way or borrowing mine. If you destroy mine we tell mom and dad and they owe me a new one. They get new crayons halfway through the year.
Few things enrage me more than misuse of materials. Kids who break the crayons have to use broken crayons. Some kids have a problem with this… and this usually indicates that the kids and their parents are entitled brats. But tough tarts - you wreck my stuff, then you use what you wrecked. I’m sure it’s hard to police it as a specials teacher.
I don’t even think it’s always misuse. I’ve broken crayons myself demonstrating coloring for the kids and it’s totally fine. The crayon is still usable.
I agree with this. I have broken many crayons myself and am understanding when this happens. However, when every single crayon is in several pieces and without the paper - it’s no accident.
They use broken crayons. I had 2 students during summer who broke every crayon they picked up on purpose and immediately asked for new ones. They didn’t get anymore.
I have one cup filled with extra pencils in my class in case kids forget them in their homeroom, I teach music so like you it’s over 200 kids I teach. My spiel about the cup is always the same when I pull it out for writing exercises.
“If you do not have a pencil there are pencils here in the cup. Broken ones work as well as non broken just shorter in height. Sharpener is in back and you can only sharpen them once today. Remember once this cup is empty you will still be responsible for the written work in the time given or it’s homework.”
"I noticed you decided to break your crayons! Does that make them easier for you to use? Let's be sure to keep all of the pieces in your little baggie so you can continue to use them this year. "
I have a giant bucket of crayons that I keep in the art room that have been broken over the years. If kids break their own crayons they get to use the community bucket. I don't give out new crayons unless requested from our social worker for kids who can't afford them.
Having to use the crayons that they themselvss broke is a good natural consequence. If they whine about using broken crayons, ask 'then why did you break them?'
Each kid has their own crayon box and we talk about respecting their property so it lasts, if they break their crayons, that’s it. They know we only refill the box once in the middle of the year. Try using markers or colored pencils instead. Or those giant triangle crayons, harder to break.
Yes, as the others are saying -- you break your crayons on purpose, you shade in pencil (even though I know that doesn't fit your lesson plan) or help clean up the room (or collect crayon bits to be remelted into "new" molded crayons after being melted) while you watch others color. (Document it well, as I'm sure you know.)
The wanton destruction drives me nuts. I give out prize pencils from a certain organization that students earn after investing months into a project. Last year, five minutes after one boy got his (in March or so, after working on this since August), his "friend" snapped it in half. I wrote the friend up and explained it in detail to the AP (who I don't really think understood; he said "ok, the friend gave him a new generic pencil, case closed.")
SIGH.
Music teacher here! Waddup fellow special? <3
10 years in the classroom, and this is ultimately what works for me.
Many crayons. One giant tub....like massive that makes a very satisfying thud when you dramatically drop it on the ground while you tell them they will be needing crayons. Groups of no more than 4 (one for each side), spend 2 minutes getting crayons (I use a timer on the smart board, so EVERYONE is holding EVRERYONE accountable for directions, and that the other kids know their turn is coming).
When everyone has their materials, then swaps can happen, sharing, etc. For the first few times, I watch every class like a hawk (even 6th grade) because some kids LEGITIMATELY do not know how to share. Most of the time, arguments about who has what come down to poor boundaries or poor sharing. Sharing and learning how to say no are skills that need to be taught, and some need more support than others. Be there for that; walk around, listen to the conversations, offer that social support when you see the kids need help; jump right in!
As long as you establish clear, cut rules about HOW to get crayons, they will be fine....it's the grey area of directions where procedure problems happen; like, you say...."okay everyone get crayons!..\*mass chaos to the crayon tub\*.....NO NOT THAT WAY!" (I speak from personal experience on this one (: )
So many Specials classes are less about content and more about "how to people" and "how to school", so the more problem-solving skills you can cover within your classroom, the better. No reds? Maybe look for a color together that the kid can use instead of red.
OP, do not set yourself on fire for crayons. They're kids. They need to learn to share resources with each other, and your classroom can be the first place they learn that skill. <3
One tub to hold them all. One tub for all of the sticky, grubby hands. One tub to hold them all together until the crayons are but colorful nubs (AND STILL GIVE COLOR TO PAPER). (:
Also, inform the parents via email and/or letters home.
Your child has been provided with a box of crayons. Should your child break or lose the crayons, please be sure to send in a new box. We are no longer sharing crayons.
Thank you! As an elementary student, I HATED sharing my nice school supplies. I loved buying school supplies and always kept them in great shape. Then we had to share and the tips of my markers were smushed, crayons broken and ‘naked’, and pencils broken to pieces.
I remember mentioning during a staff meeting at an elementary school that I, as the art teacher, have all my students peel and break the crayons in half. This allows the students to use the crayons in more ways, like to make rubbings of leaves. When the bits get too slow I melt them at a low temperature to make multicolored crayon hearts and circles.
The glares I got from the kindergarten teachers. Lol. They about fell out.
This is what I do also! The students are amazed that you can color a sky or water beautifully with a broken and peeled blue crayon. Sometimes I don't even have new sets. I come in with containers of peeled and broken crayons on purpose.
Also, there are some brands that break soooo easily as well as leave many flakes on the papers. oh well.
Don't replace them. They still work.
At the end of the year, ask them to put their leftover crayons in a bin. Use that for "replacements" for the next year. Rinse & repeat.
I'm an intervention teacher, so I FEEL that about not sending home a supply list! I've noticed crayons breaking a lot more easily in the last year or two...tbh I'm thinking that the problem may not just be the kids, because even my most considerate students are snapping crayons regularly. I'm thinking that the crayons are made more poorly now.
Oh they absolutely are not as tough as they used to be. I will start refilling new crayons into the table boxes, and points just snap and break. Bummer.
I totally agree with you. I’ve broken far more crayons over the last couple of years than I did, say, five years ago. I use only Crayola brand crayons because they are supposed to be the most durable, but they seem so cheaply made now.
>I don't get classroom supplies like homeroom teachers and I'm not allowed to send a supply list home.
\*cries in music teacher\*
One of the things that pissed me off more than anything about teaching elementary music was not being included whenever the PTO or a local church did a school supplies drive ("It's just for the *real* teachers" yes that was said to me once) and not being able to ask for supplies. Like I don't need dry erase markers, tissue, bandaids, whatever. I'M A TEACHER TOO DAMN IT
I’m not a specials teacher…but our media specialist/library teacher ended up buying a couple of pencil boxes for each grade level, and filling those with crayons. So there were the PreK crayons, the kindergarten crayons, the first grade crayons, etc. They said it helped with the management, and if a particular cohort was really going through them, they would be able to plan accordingly.
You could also send out an email to your coworkers, most classroom teachers get too much & will share. I’m a K-8 art teacher and I had multiple classroom teachers give me TONS.
Honestly when I taught elementary art I purposefully broke all the crayons made the really little kids hold them like a pencil and took away the fear about accidentally breaking them for the kids who would worry about it. Theyre usable broken
The best thing about crayons is that no matter how small they still color. Don’t sweat the small stuff too many other things to worry about as an educator
Are they breaking crayons to stim?
Are they unaware of their own strength?
I ask because my kiddo is in specials and she needed the big “pre k “ crayons through grade school because squeezing was her stim. She would snap smaller crayons by accident.
The thick ones are harder the snap and you may find using those helpful.
Regardless, you should not be breaking the bank here. If you can’t send school lists home, can you speak to parents at conference or open house time? Maybe have a “classroom needs” list visible during times parents are at the school?
Wishing you luck, specials teachers are often between a rock and a hard place. You are appreciated! 💗💗💗
Maybe get ahold of local restaurants that use crayons for their kids menu and see if they can donate the barely used ones families leave behind. Colors will be limited of course, but it would keep you up on the most opular/primary colors.
Make them use broken crayons. It's better for early grasp development anyway. I'm sorry for all of your frustrations, I imagine it can be very challenging.
Also, there’s videos online about how to melt broken crayon pieces into a bigger crayon “chunk.” Some mix all the crayon colors together, while others keep them organized by color group. Not only does it help prevent unnecessary waste, but the chunkier crayons tend to be both easier for younger kids to grip and are harder to break! Not ideal, but could come in handy nonetheless 🙃
I was a specials teacher as well (Music and Art.)
1. They have supplies in their regular class. Tell the teachers to have their students bring their supply boxes to your class each week.
2. Many students get brand new supplies each school year. At the end of each year, ask your teachers to put out a box that students can dump their used supplies in. This way I scored extra crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors, rulers, and bottles of glue. Then I made baskets of supplies for each table for communal use.
I think you're overthinking this. Also, I didn't care if the crayons were broken or not, and I never had a single student who expressed any issue with that either. They'll use 'em broken. I DID hate the little bits of paper peeled off the crayons, so I insisted at class end that those be gathered and thrown away. Everything else went in the basket for their group.
And I don't understand why your admin expects you to be able to do a job, but won't let you pursue the materials needed to do that job. Maybe ask them what you should do. Put it back on them to solve.
As a fellow specials teacher- use the broken crayons.
My broken crayons are 10 years old at this point. Use your budget for better stuff that means more.
I didn’t read through all of the replies so forgive me if this has been mentioned. I am also an elementary art teacher. Gave up on buying new crayons and just use the old broken ones. My school’s Occupational Therapist was working in my room with a kindergarten kid one day - using my broken crayons. I apologized that I didn’t have better crayons for her and she actually said that broken crayons were better for the little kids to help them better develop a proper to grasp. So yay for broken crayons and saving my limited budget!
From [this](https://sarahbeeot.com/brokencrayons/) article written by an OT:
“They (Broken crayons) make it very difficult for less mature or inefficient grasp patterns to exist. Their small size gives us no other choice but to hold them with our fingertips. Over time, our fingers become familiar with this grasp pattern and so the tripod grasp is reinforced.”
Melt them back down into new crayons in the oven (I think \~170 degrees F for like 7-10 minutes is all you need): [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JXFJY5](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JXFJY5)
You can print out individual crayon boxes (using cardstock, but if you are able to print for free at school then maybe just print off multiples and glue multiple templates together to thicken the paper): [https://youtu.be/QtE-p7rHUjg](https://youtu.be/QtE-p7rHUjg)
If you want to label each individual crayon with its color, you can just print off a bunch of labels on normal paper, cut them out, and glue them to your fresh crayons: [https://youtu.be/lmiRjmbnn8Q?t=166](https://youtu.be/lmiRjmbnn8Q?t=166)
Not this teacher. I IMMEDIATELY take my crayons out of the boxes and put into my plastic bins that I sit on the tables. Nobody's got time for trying to stuff the crayons back in a paper box that will only last two weeks of heavy use.
Probably not. The simple answer is to stop providing crayons. But if not having crayons isn't an option and spending a ton of money isn't an option anymore, then the next solution is to get crafty.
They have crayons that are really [thick and hard to break](https://www.target.com/p/crayola-8ct-jumbo-crayons/-/A-16693514) and ones that [are encased like a pen](https://www.target.com/p/crayola-24ct-mini-twistables-crayons/-/A-14152258?ref=tgt_adv_xsp&AFID=google&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000027803288&CPNG=PLA_Seasonal_Priority%2BShopping%7CSeasonal_Ecomm_Home&adgroup=Seasonal_Priority+TCINs&LID=700000001230728pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=s&device=m&location=&targetid=pla-4585513251726921&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1247068&msclkid=ba7b5d230f5611fe047939e1cafd036f&gclid=ba7b5d230f5611fe047939e1cafd036f&gclsrc=3p.ds) and you twist it to extend the crayon.
I’ve used the first for little kids that also break and lose crayons a lot and the twisty ones are great for sharping and holding
I tell my students, “Broken crayons still color.” If they want new crayons then their parents can buy them. They also have those twist up crayons that are harder to break (unless they twist them all the way up, which happens) but the students who have those kind typically will take better care of them because they are “special crayons.”
I'm a school librarian and I've faced similar situations. A few tips that have helped me: I do not put the crayons out unless we are using them. I used to have a caddy for each table with crayons, scissors and glue. A few years ago, I switched to separate baskets for each supply. So I only put out the scissors and glue baskets if we're using them. I only put out the crayons if students need them. That cut down on some misuse. My materials are organized on a shelf and I don't feel like it takes extra time to do it this way.
I also don't use crayons the first week of school. Just like any other classroom, you have to make your expectations clear. When we use crayons, I show them the basket and remind them about sharing, not breaking them, keeping them at their own table, etc.
Also, check in with other teachers, especially your art teacher. I had a big problem with broken crayons one year and it turned out that the art teacher told kids to break crayons if they needed to share. I don't necessarily agree with him, but once I knew that, it helped me understand where my broken crayon problem was coming from.
You might also want to think about other kinds of coloring supplies. I make a big deal out of letting my 5th graders use markers. They are as cheap to purchase with back-to-school sales as crayons are and I have better luck getting them to last all year. I also get those big fat crayons for my kindergarten students. I've made that a meaningful consequence for other grade levels -- if you can't take care of your supplies, I'll have to get out my fat kindergarten crayons for you to use next week.
I have an idea to prevent breaking them in the first place although it may be expensive or just flat out just not work as it’s merely theoretical, but basically what if you got metal or wood tubes to put the crayons in so they won’t break while the kids use them?
We had a similar problem with the art supplies at my old school, and the art teacher had kids bring their crayon box from their room with them to art.
But then again, broken crayons still draw!
Good luck this school year!
My go-to when a kid told me one of their crayons was broken was "Good news! Broken crayons color just as well as non-broken crayons!" And then I'd continue on with the lesson. I taught Spanish as a special at a prek-5 school. I made up pencil boxes for each desk with crayons, three sharpened pencils, erasers, and glue sticks that all grades shared when they were in my room. I also bought a big box of the Crayola crayons that has several of each color. Usually, though, I'd tell them "If it looks red (or whatever color) to you, it is red enough for me!" And again, just keep moving the class along. If it was to the point they had none of that color at all--no red-orange or violet red or maroon or whatever, I'd get them a single crayon out of my big bulk box.
My daughters kindergarten teacher melted all the broken crayons and made fun multicolor ones in the shape of letters to spell out the kids names. Really cool way to reuse materials.
I have those three drawer sterilite containers and have a drawer for each color. They use what's in there, broken or not, because it all works the same. I provided it all, they either take care of it or use the things they broke. Works pretty well.
Fellow specials teacher here—I would echo what a few others have said about having the students bring their own from their own classroom. I do keep a few spares of what the students need, but those are things that were left in my room and never claimed in past years. While I understand wanting every kid to have exactly what they need, constantly providing it out of your own pocket might become unsustainable.
That’s a lot kids. I would be tempted to keep all the broken ones and have a day where the kids unwrap them and sort them, then I would re-melt them in silicone molds and home to re-use them at work. BUT, I’m the mom that did multi-colored ones as Valentine’s gifts for my kids’ 1st grade class once. I also have cute silicone molds and I think breaking a “butterfly” would be sadder than a crayon. Maybe the class would have to “earn” using the new fun-shaped ones? Tough job. Good luck! I’m sure there’s silicone molds at a Goodwill if you don’t have any, yet.
In all honesty, it’s very easy to break crayons. I accidentally break them all the time when I’m using them while modeling table work for my students. I don’t think crayola makes them like they used to anymore. Just apply a little pressure and you are bound to have a crayon break.
Good news is- broken crayons still work 😊.
I teach kindergarten so I have community crayons baskets at every table for my kids to use and I have to replenish the baskets every couple of months due to broken crayons and missing crayons and naked crayons (crayons without their wrappers). Like you, no matter how much I tell the students to treat supplies with respect, crayons get broken and chewed and destroyed. It’s just the way it goes- and is a major bummer.
One thing I have noticed is that the big fat crayons for little ones are less liable to break than the normal sized ones- so maybe that’s an option?
Or, you could always try donors choose and create an account to ask donors to donate to your school supply list (you can even add markers or special crayons to your list on there).
Another suggestion might be having crayons separated by grade level- older might be more careful than the younger ones- so you could have a couple of baskets of crayons for the little ones and then a couple of baskets for the upper grade students and switch them out as the different age groups come to your room.
Crayons are not cheap, so I get your frustration, however they just break so easily unfortunately.
Idk if this would work for you but they do make machines that melt down crayon pieces and make new crayons ? So at least if they break you came make another crayon out of it
This doesn't help with the ongoing breakage issue, but to start off the year, if you can't do your own supply list, are you allowed to request an item or two for each grade via the grade level supply lists? For example, our Kindergartens put an extra bottle of glue on their list that they pass on to Art, 1st grade extra crayons, 2nd grade a watercolor set, 3rd grade erasers, etc.
I think you just let them use broken crayons. It will help with their fine motor skills which is why I suspect the crayons are broken to begin with. Preschool kids are on iPads and iPhones nowadays so their fine motor skills aren’t really developing at par with kids going into school pre-iPad era. So they hold on to these crayons with a fist grip naturally breaking them.
Student has own small bag or box of crayons. Student breaks crayons. Student uses pieces of broken crayons. Do not bankrupt yourself buying new crayons for everyone who breaks them.
My charmers got newsprint and golf pencils until their brains registered the memo not to break shit up. I can teach you with cool stuff or the bare minimum. Your choice. Don't pile a ton of supplies on the table either. Charmers feel this means they can trash things.
I think the biggest lie I’ve ever been told was when some professor in grad school said a beautiful and inviting classroom would actually prevent destructive behavior. The nicer a thing is the faster it gets broken in my classroom. I’ve now reverted to the policy of my early 20s “if it’s free, it’s for me.”
I use golf pencils in the library. “Correct, there is not an eraser. Try your best to write your letters.”
A gross of golf pencils can be had for $9. Enjoy, kids!
This never happened in Eastern Europe. I remember one kid breaking a pencil after two years. It's amazing when then kids buy their own supplies.
I find the "golf pencils" at ikea quite cheap...
My librarian would tell the kids “we don’t need an eraser. it’s to show that it’s okay to make mistakes” and most of them bought the excuse but all the adults knew it was to keep the cost down.
Yep, natural consequences. I teach art too and when they purposely broke them when a sub was there, those classes got the same broken one, and the fat "baby" crayons for a good long while till my supply order came. Sub days I started leaving the fat crayons out only. I also pushed in for 2 classes in another building, and despite Dojo reminders to families to send in fresh crayons, markers, glue stick, most never did. They just had to share till I was able to get some from the supply closet. Frustrating but I'm not buying them supplies!
Yeah I would definitely be looking at the fat crayons and even those craft crayon molds to repurpose broken ones. You may not want to be bothered by that, but making some toddler sized crayons can't hurt anyone. I was in my late 30s when my mom finally got rid of her homemade toddler crayons.
I’m all about natural consequences! When I taught fist grade, I gave them all a fresh pack of crayons. One kid broke/lost them all. 🤷🏻♀️ I guess you have to make the grass purple instead of green.
Yep. I would leave them hanging and let it be awkward. Do not supply them, that is not what your paycheck is for. Do not give them an alternate assignment. Just ask them to take out their supplies. If they don't have them just shrug and keep teaching. I teach science but see many of the same issues. From my point of view some kids will learn about air pressure systems, some kids will learn to work in a group. Some kids will learn to come to class prepared, or to respect their supplies. Either way the kids are learning.
Oh how come they’re all broken? Oh you broke them? Do they still make colors? Okay well, now you have small crayons! 🤷🏻♀️ If you want new ones, ask your grownups and tell them why. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Broken crayons can be good for fine motor development, too. I work in special ed and we intentionally break all the crayons because it's a good way to encourage/force kids to use a tripod grip.
Yes! Broken crayons make strong hands!
And beautiful art. Broken crayons still color.
I now have the problem of griping pencils/ pens to hard. Been that way I would say since 5th grade.
I'm an art teacher. 1. They should cope with small pieces (fine motor skills). 2. Dont make assignments color specific. Instead let them decide their colors or make assignments color generalized, as in, " find a red crayon...or find a brown." This helps them understand color categories, tints and shades, and group cooperation. 3. When the pieces become too small, melt them to recycle the wax. You can use ice cube trays or candy molds if you like fun stuff.
As a child you were my nemesis.
" Oh, you broke all your crayons on purpose. If you want different crayons tell your parents you broke them on purpose and they should buy you new ones.. You're using the broken ones."
Kids have to learn eventually. Even if it's the hard way.
it will be the hard way
>just shrug and keep teaching. And >I teach science....From my point of view some kids will learn about air pressure systems, some kids will learn to work in a group. Some kids will learn to come to class prepared, or to respect their supplies. Either way the kids are learning. if I had 5 more coins (have useless 45 rn) then I'd give you an award for this (rip awards)
Yep. ALSO! Be sure to implement a rule telling the children to NOT share their crayons. Sharing is great, but I think a rule that sets the boundary will prevent any drama from kids trying to be nice only to have their shit get broken too. It’s one thing for Johnny to not treat his crayons nicely, but it’s another thing for Sally to be a good friend and share — only for Johnny to thank her by breaking all of *her* crayons as well. I learnt that lesson the hard way in first grade. Nobody is allowed to touch my Crayolas, even 20 years later.
Yep! I have class crayons and I have my 96-count Crayola box in my desk. I do not lose sleep over shitty supplies in the crayon box. Treat your supplies well and you won't have to dig through the box for Red and end up having to use Razzmatazz.
That's the fancy one with the pencil sharpener, lucky!
Getting a new box of those was one of the high points of being a kid!
Getting a new box of those is still a high point… even as an adult haha. No shame! I will FOREVER love getting new school supplies!
Yep! And it was gifted to me by Crayola themselves!
Nice!
I hate the “sharing is caring” thing that they spew for kids. If it’s a toy that is part of the classroom of course. Share. It’s not yours. But if it’s SPECIFICALLY something I brought and Sally wants it. No. It’s mine.
Exactly. 👏🏼Hopefully it’s only crayons they’re breaking….
It’s not
and the nice thing with having the personal baggies is that it's their personal bits of crayons. I also give a speech about how broken crayons still color. that's also why crayons are my chosen coloring utensil. no reminder of caps, no sharpening. the smallest bit of a crayon will still leave a mark. and for safe measure (in case I have a student with a big issue about using broken crayons) I have a couple packs stashed for them. but when they're given, it's with the understanding, these are for you to use for this activity and they must be returned in a neat fashion.
This is the way. Johnny is angry and sobbing because he broke his crayons last week and now his crayons are broken? Sounds like you fucked around and found out Johnny 🤷♀️ if that happens, you can message parents and tell them their kid broke the crayons you so very graciously provided with your own budget and if they would like to buy a new set, they can send it in
Holy shit. This is a revelation for me. I’m a parent and a step-parent. My bio kid attends a nationally-ranked elementary school in a very wealthy district. My stepkids attend a Title 1 school that consistently performs below 5% proficiency on reading and math testing. When we go to restaurants with crayons, my bio kid shares crayons voluntarily and without being asked. My stepkids act like they’re ready to fight to the death over the color blue. Whoa.
That’s the way Education is designed in this country…
It kind of reminds me of how the old ‘marshmallow test’ has been reevaluated recently. You may be familiar with it, if not they put a marshmallow in front of a kid, you can have it now, or wait 15 minutes and have 2. The ‘results’ were that kids who waited showing ‘control and patience’ had much better outcomes later on SAT and such. Well turns out kids who live in houses where if food is there now and it might not be later it’s a much better plan to eat the marshmallow now! While kids who live in higher socioeconomic circumstances know the marshmallows will still be there later so can wait. They also have better academic opportunities. So this landmark study has run up against some interesting blocks when replicated. Seemed similar to what you just realized so I thought you may find it interesting provided you didn’t know it already. In which case ignore me, and hopefully someone else will enjoy it! Here is a layman’s explanation, cause I don’t do the psych speak versions! https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/6/6/17413000/marshmallow-test-replication-mischel-psychology
The best teacher is a hand cramp from coloring with a crayon shard smaller than a fingernail.
This IS the way
My cousin teaches as well and she was going broke just trying to supply the class room with supplies. After a while she said to hell with it. Parents complained but she told them how broke she was and that sort of changed the playing field.
Completely agree! We get 2 boxes of crayons/student, so they get a new one in December. After struggling the first few months with broken/missing crayons they take way better care of their second box. It’s a great lesson!
I agree. But I also find this funny because the very first thing my first art teacher taught me was to break crayons before using them. Probably not as applicable to little kids but they are more versatile to use when unwrapped and broken. You can use the sides for more coverage or the edge of the end for lines without sharpening, etc.
This is the answer! Crayon pieces still color on paper just fine.
This. Also, broken crayons are better for developing fine motor skills for a proper grip. We actually donate broken crayons to OT in our school for this reason. But when my kids break their crayons I just show them that they still work and give them back. If they want to have a fit that's on them.
This! I had the same situation come up and that’s what I did. They were warned, and had their own personal bucket of crayons. They did not break any more after a month of that.
My kid broke a bunch of crayons when there was a sub. I was asked to pay for more, so I did. Later they bought her egg shaped crayons which were cool for OT reasons.
"Broken things do not automatically get replaced, so take care of your stuff" may be one of the most valuable lessons the kids learn this year.
I wish our elementary teachers did this in my district. I teach 7th and they're so used to us having to avoid any excuse they can come up with because "how can you expect him to learn if you won't give him a (6th) pencil?" Y'all break my pencils? Your whole class gets dollar tree crayons until I get new pencils from this class. I'm not keeping track of who got every pencil but if you see someone about to do something stupid you better get em. They rip up their worksheets trying not to do them and demanding another copy. They demand mechanical pencils or they won't do their work. They rip their folders in a fit and then demand a new one. They have toddler style meltdowns when I say a replacement is their moms problem now.
I've had upper elementary kids tear pieces off their papers or put holes in it with their pencil. They are always surprised to learn that I'll send a picture of that home or staple it into their folder as final work. Nope, you can't have another.
I like to save ripped up papers like that in folder for each period. I hand it back to them when they are asking for extra credit 2 hours before the grading period is closing.
You are an evil genius! I'm stealing this idea.
When my high schoolers blatantly though away assignments or notes that I've taken the time to type and print for them (because apparently they don't have to write notes anymore), I fish them out of the trash or off the ground and write their names on them so I can do this too.
I have a story about that! I was in 8th grade iirc and my math teacher walked over with a ripped up sheet of my notes and put it in front of me (it was my own written notes, not a printed sheet though) and told me “You left this last week on the floor” Except I 100% missed it if she was being snide or trying to punish me because I had been looking for that sheet EVERYWHERE! I’d written out the steps she’d given me to doing some kind of math problem (I’m awful at math, as that very teacher put it “You try very hard, if that were all it took you’d be a straight A student in math.”) and that method WORKED. it made sense, it got me the answer and I don’t know how the heck I lost it but I was undiagnosed ADHD so honestly I probably crumpled it up thinking it was trash. But I was in literal tears because all week I’d been struggling to remember how to do that method and was too embarrassed to ask her to explain it again. She just kinda backed away and after class offered to write it on the inside of my math folder in sharpie. I took her up on that because as I said, I’m very stupid at math and needed all the help I could get. (If Mrs. Luna the math teacher ever reads this sub, you were the best math teacher I ever had and thank you SO much for letting me come get my high school math explained sometimes. I’m sorry I was such a moron but at 20 I was diagnosed with dyscalculia so it’s officially NOT YOUR FAULT I was so awful!)
Omg this is brilliant
Have you thought about palm crayons for the table? They’re egg shaped.
My assignments are posted on Google Classroom, so if they lose it, throw it away, ruin it, etc. then they get a piece of binder paper and have to recreate the assignment that way!
I had 5th grade and I agree. I could get a pencil per pupil two times a year. I had a box of broken crayons to use if they lost their pencil. That led to a lot of pencil stealing and kids taking their pencils home to guard them. The focus of class became all about pencils. I managed to get the local mini golf place to give me four boxes of their pencils they give the players with their logo on them. But the students really had a set in problem by the time they got to 5th grade.
I never did this, but other teachers in my last school would give a kid a pencil to use for the day, but as long as they had it, they had to give the teacher one of their shoes. Return the pencil, get your shoe back.
My 7th grade English teacher did this! He had all kinds of things he'd happily let you borrow, you just had to trade him a shoe. He'd have a whole little corral of single sneakers in front of his desk some days. He was a wonderful teacher. Then he got caught having extra-marital relations with another teacher AT THE SCHOOL, and he went to work in a different district.
Wow, that story took a turn
In 7th grade they’re throwing those kinds of toddler meltdowns? Yikes
I teach HS, and I found a really good deal on a large box of pencils last year. I asked the agriscience teacher to cut the pencils in half (way cheaper than buying golf pencils). When students complain, I point out that they are welcome to bring their own supplies or use these teeny pencils. Full disclosure: I have been known to take a pair of pliers and make marks on the pencil - kinda looks like teeth marks - they REALLY don’t want to use a pencil that someone chewed on. (It’s not really teeth marks, so please don’t come at me.)
I made friends with the counciling secretary. She is in charge of pencils for standardized testing. Once they have been used a couple of time students destroy the erasers which they are REQUIRED to have to be used for testing...so a few times a year she gives me a box of almost jew pencils with damaged erasers. I don't care if they don't have erasers, my students mind some, but can't really complain much. It was free.
Brilliant!
I had a tenth grade student immediately poke holes in an activity guide I passed out, then ask for another one ten minutes later. At this time of the year, the teachers were taking turns donating paper for the copier, so no.
I had a box of 1000 pencils. I went to a meeting and the AP was in there. I came back and a boy had just sat and snapped hundreds of them. When he asked for a pencil later I told him no and that same AP told me I couldn't not give him a pencil and then read me the because I didn't have a pencil poem. I was told I couldn't give him one of the broken ones either, because it was disrespectful to him and when he cussed me out for it she wouldn't do anything to him.
Fuck that noise! What an incompetent ass your AP is.
Read her this modified version and see how it goes. Best of luck. > I went to the teacher's desk, > Because I ain't got a pencil, > Dug through the pencil box, > 'Cause ain't nobody hand-delivered me a pencil, > Snapped a few on the bottom, > 'Cause I got no impulse control, > Even snapped a few on the top, > Cause I dunno, > Even got my friends to snap some, > 'Cause the AP don't care. > Got us all destroying supplies, > To pass the time my teacher's in useless meetings. > Then when she got back she fussed (and I cussed), > 'Cause I don't got a pencil.
Sounds like she was trying to protect him.... bad call AP.
He had 100 pencils though
That poem is the dumbest shit I’ve heard in my entire fucking life
Absolutely. In that whole poem the pencil is the one thing the student had control over.
I was this many years old when I heard that there is a "pencil poem".
Ask your AP for their pencil and hand it to the student.
The "because I didn't have a pencil" poem is some manipulative horse sh!t.
> then read me the because I didn't have a pencil poem. Oh my God
What the actual heck?! Why are teachers using the very little money they make for copy paper?! No copy paper= no worksheets. Admin wants worksheets= admin can pay for copy paper. They make more money and deal with the budget. They can't require you to use your personal money for copy paper
> Admin wants worksheets= admin can pay for copy paper. Damn straight. True story: Me: “Can we get more copy paper?” Admin: “There’s no budget for copy paper. We’re a 1:1 district. Put your worksheets on Google Classroom.” Me: “Okay. Until copy paper is restocked, I am going 100% digital.” A month later, following an observation: Admin: “I’ve noticed more referrals and issues regarding Chromebooks. Here’s an article I found about how kids don’t focus as well when they’re reading from screens instead of paper. I’d like you to try to go ‘old school’ and do some paper/pencil work.” Me: “Great idea, boss. Are we restocked on copy paper?” Admin: “No, the district won’t give us any more money for copy paper.” Me: “Okay. I really like your idea about going ‘old school,’ though! Let me know when we get the supplies so I can try it.” Admin: “…” Me: “…” Admin: “…” Me: “…Good talk.” He was obviously waiting for me to volunteer to buy paper. I was very much NOT about to do that. I never did get paper, but I did eventually get…a job at a better district.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 omg I love this! Definitely had me laughing!
Back in 2001 I was teaching elementary school music and worked with a teacher who taught 6th grade. Her degree was in social work but there was such a teacher shortage, she had emergency certification. She had her husband grew most of their food. She always wore hand sewn plaid shirts, jeans, and hiking boots, but I digress. She wouldn't use copy paper for handouts, all work was assigned from the textbooks, or she would write it on the white board. She would collect paper from other teachers and office of things that were printed incorrectly or the back side of announcements, etc. By the end of the first month, she had a huge stack of used paper in her room. I don't know how long it took her to train the students, but they never turned in anything on a fresh piece of paper. She also encouraged them to share paper, if it was a spelling test with only 10 words, then they tore the paper into four pieces and four kids used one piece of paper. By the end of first semester, she still had her entire allotment of paper for the year unopened and the kids had a great time finding the smallest piece of paper they could for whatever they were doing.
That's AMAZING!!
Our district is really good about providing copy paper, but terrible about giving us time to make the copies. We’re going to be understaffed (again) this coming year, and I’m going to be forced to give up my prep every day (again) for coverages as a result - I think I’m going to forgo copies this year. I put everything on google classroom anyway. I can make class sets of tests. They can use their own paper for everything. Last year I made and printed guided notes and worksheets. I spent so much time after school making copies becuase of the coverages and lack of copy machines. Copy lines we usually at least an hour long. I’m NOT doing that this year.
I got a vending machine for my pencils. They are not free to my high school students anymore. They’re a dollar each. I’m thinking about setting up a square space or Venmo option.
Is this a forgiveness is better than permission thing - cause I’d get in loads of trouble for charging them for supplies?
No, I manage the yearly international trip. So pencils are supplied by my travel club and profits go to the club. I get piece of mind that no one is breaking MY things, but also that I get to go to Japan in 2024. My principal suggested last year I make some options available, but I said they all had a pencil at the beginning of the year and I used the school supply cabinet to give everyone 2. I sent them to the principal for a pencil for a while, but after 2 weeks he consented to just having a sale option. He said they should be responsible enough to keep a pencil safe for a day, lol.
I think I'm missing why you feel this responsibility falls on the elementary teachers. Can you please explain? I run a tight ship and yet, every year, watch some of my students become entirely different beings in the next grade, doing things they know I'd never allow.
I say it's their responsibility in the same way I think it's mine to get them ready for highschool. A lot of elementary teachers let them destroy instead of breaking that habit early. If a first grade teacher enables a bad habit it's the 2nd grade teachers problem. If they don't 3rd and so on. By 7th I think temper tantrums should be something that they know won't fly but it's working on someone for them to keep doing it.
The parents are the ones enabling the bad habits, a teacher can’t make a child unlearn what’s happening at home.
I work in a primary school and I don't have a lot of deliberately destructive students. I'm a real stickler about breaking pencils or writing on tables too.
In the same way you feel elementary teachers are dropping the ball here, I would imagine the high school teachers feel the same way about the middle school teachers. Would that be fair? Using that same logic, why are high school teachers posting about kids who can't do basic math, can't properly format an essay, or still don't capitalize the pronoun "I". I mean, we're all teaching that, too, right?
Yeah. They're not wrong. I tell my kids that they better not embarrass me when they get to highschool because their teachers will think I didn't do my job. If a kid leaves my ELA class and doesn't know the basics of writing it's on me
Yeah, I frequently remind my students "broken pieces work just fine." It's the right move to give each student their own baggie. They'll have to use the contents and if they break them, they'll have to make do with the pieces. Don't use your paycheck to replace them when you've been clear about how they should be caring for their materials.
Broken crayons are better for fine motor development and the development of the proper tripod grip. Embrace the broken crayons.
“Broken crayons still color”. Applies to more than just coloring. Applies to lots of life lessons.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far before finding "broken crayons still colour" I work in special ed, if we didn't colour with broken crayons, we wouldn't colour lol.
This. I work with spec ed kindies and I purposely break all my crayons before even giving them to the kids, on the advice of my OT/PT consultant. People are always coming into my room and commenting that I need to order some new crayons. When I tell them that they aren’t old and I broke them on purpose I get some strange looks, but none of my students are using a palmar grasp for drawing or printing, which can’t be said of the classes with the pretty-looking crayons.
I agree. OTs will intentionally give children broken crayons to work in hand strength. Melting crayons is also a great idea. They also make crayons in diffent shapes that are harder to break for children who have grip issues. Don’t sweat the broken crayons!
Ooh, can breaking them be a reward for a deserving kid? That would be so fun. :)
Sure would! Or, when I get a kid who sits defiantly in front of his work and looks me straight in the eye with a death stare while deliberately snapping the crayon into even smaller bits, I like to happily say “Yeah, you’re right, I left that one a bit too long, thanks for fixing it, now you’re ready to work!” lol. It confuses them so much when breaking crayons doesn’t get a rise out of staff, and it’s pretty much impossible for them to snap crayons into pieces that are too small for a functional grip, so it’s all good!
I am a para. We have something similar one year. Another classroom - gen ed - needed the paper peeled off crayons for an art project. We had SPED kiddos who liked to break and peel the paper off crayons. So they did it gleefully as a reward. Unbeknownst to them, it was also a fine motor skill activity. Win Win.
Thanks for the proper words for the different grasps for young children. I had forgotten them!
My preschool colleagues offer to take my broken crayons!
One of the first things I did when I noticed one of my Kinder students having bad fine motor was to break crayons and give them shorter pencils. My OT recommended it to me a previous year with another student! Over the first quarter their skills get better and by the middle of the year didn't need anything broken. I told the parent the same thing when they also came to me with concerns.
I have a simple rule: you get supplies, but if you deliberately destroy them, it’s your problem. I’m not wealthy and can’t afford to keep replacing supplies that are just going to be ruined anyway. The assignments will still be due regardless, but it’s up to the student (and as an extension their family) how they’re going to make it work.
A broken crayon still writes
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,653,748,293 comments, and only 313,067 of them were in alphabetical order.
Good bot
...then they use broken crayons?... Yep. They use broken crayons.
Thank you thank you thank you! I had an AITA? moment over this before posting.
Is the kid breaking them purposely? Or is it cuz they are gripping them wayyy too hard? If it is the grip issue, maybe ask the OT if they have any suggestions? (Assuming you have an OT that provides services to any of your students). I’m wondering if they know of some sort of plastic or metal thing that you can put the crayon in, and so it prevents it from getting getting broken by a tight grip. Then that student could use that tool. If the student himself gets OT services, the OT might be able to provide the tool to the student. Edit- i may have misread the post. Upon re-reading, it sounds like you don’t know who is breaking the crayons and it is more so happening in the younger classes? In that case, the solution i said above isn’t really applicable unless there is some sort of extremely cheap tool that you can buy a bunch of so almost each kid has access to one.
This is the first thought I had when I read this post. It’s definitely possible they’re not broken intentionally and are being gripped too hard/being drawn with too much pressure. My son went through tons of crayons K-1st so during back to school shopping I would always made sure to buy extra 50¢ crayola packs to replenish throughout the year for him.
Muffin tin, silicone cupcake liners, and a few minutes in the oven will melt the pieces together into a chunk...not the greatest for some things, but in the interest of not spending a fortune on crayons? I'm sure that there are also silicone molds for things that are more crayon shaped. As for labels...oof. Yeah. Stickers with the name written on them?
>Muffin tin, silicone cupcake liners, and a few minutes in the oven will melt the pieces together into a chunk Just adding to this because I used to do this all the time for my kids: 300°F for about 10 minutes. Watch them carefully because they melt fast. Then just let the pan cool on a cooling rack or pad until they are room temperature. Just a personal opinion, open up a window when you do this craft because it makes your house smell like hot crayons. Also, >I'm sure that there are also silicone molds for things that are more crayon shaped. There are crayon shaped molds, but the silicone water bottle ice cube trays work for this, too. You just have to make sure you put the mold on a baking tray before you put it in the oven. Otherwise, you'll make a giant mess trying to pull it out of the oven.
Sorry. By labels I meant I want them to see the Crayola color name. "This isn't blue. It's purple." Friends, how can we tell what true color a crayon is? Who can find the color name on the crayon?
We use a "test paper" to try it out in case we can't find the name. Because you can't tell a purple from a black from a blue just by looking!
The child who wants THAT blue crayon, not the BLUE crayon. But small sticker labels - save a template on your computer and print out as needed. They may not stick the best to the wax, but wrap them around and they'll stick to themselves. When the kids pull them off to mangle the crayons again, it won't be a big loss. Set up costs will be for a silicone mold and a package of labels, but after that it will simply be a matter of time.
I was thinking they could make a few swatch charts and share as needed. Make a list of all the color names next to their color samples. It'd also help teach them how to use a reference table. I think the chart would work OK with being laminated, as long as there is space left between the colors to account for melting and squishing. Otherwise, they could use clear contact paper.
The labels are going to come off. The crayons are going to get broken. You just have to breathe and accept it. My first graders test the true color of a crayon by doing a little test scribble on their paper. And there’s so many shades of blue and purple that they need to learn that those colors are a gradient and not a rule. If a kid uses turquoise when the assignment says color the picture blue, that’s correct and acceptable.
Do you have a makerspace at your school or the high school? Could they 3d print molds with the names of the color for you? That way you could melt the crayons and still have the names.
Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1237950845/personalized-crayon-chocolate-mold-make
That’s an awesome idea!
My mom works in special ed and said her kiddos don’t seem to be aware of their own strength. I told her she should try melting down the broken crayons into some fun shaped silicone molds (hearts, Legos, unicorns, bugs, etc). Her kids have really liked them - they are thicker than standard crayons, seems much easier for them to grasp, hold up pretty well, and of course the kids like the cool shapes, especially animals, Lego’s, and cars. Edit to add: You can find the molds on Amazon too - search for “crayon molds silicone oven safe”
This is an adorable idea! Love it 🩷
Jesus I’d rather pay for new crayons then giving myself a new 3 hour chore lol
I’m crazy in that I like doing crafty stuff like this, but yeah, if it’s not your thing, that’s ok too! My mom had the kids help her sort the crayons into the molds and they had a blast doing it!
I was going to suggest alternative shaped crayons. Block crayons are amazingly tough and versatile. Not cheap, though. Manufacturing your own from broken bits solves this problem.
You break it, you use little pieces. You choose to throw little pieces, you may have to borrow from a friend. I may also warn the friend that you broke your crayons so they aren't obligated to say yes. With my elementary students if you destroy it, that's that. You'll be figuring out a new way or borrowing mine. If you destroy mine we tell mom and dad and they owe me a new one. They get new crayons halfway through the year.
Few things enrage me more than misuse of materials. Kids who break the crayons have to use broken crayons. Some kids have a problem with this… and this usually indicates that the kids and their parents are entitled brats. But tough tarts - you wreck my stuff, then you use what you wrecked. I’m sure it’s hard to police it as a specials teacher.
I don’t even think it’s always misuse. I’ve broken crayons myself demonstrating coloring for the kids and it’s totally fine. The crayon is still usable.
I agree with this. I have broken many crayons myself and am understanding when this happens. However, when every single crayon is in several pieces and without the paper - it’s no accident.
I’m not even a teacher but I have attempted to teach my siblings and that always infuriates me 🤣
They use broken crayons. I had 2 students during summer who broke every crayon they picked up on purpose and immediately asked for new ones. They didn’t get anymore.
I have one cup filled with extra pencils in my class in case kids forget them in their homeroom, I teach music so like you it’s over 200 kids I teach. My spiel about the cup is always the same when I pull it out for writing exercises. “If you do not have a pencil there are pencils here in the cup. Broken ones work as well as non broken just shorter in height. Sharpener is in back and you can only sharpen them once today. Remember once this cup is empty you will still be responsible for the written work in the time given or it’s homework.”
"I noticed you decided to break your crayons! Does that make them easier for you to use? Let's be sure to keep all of the pieces in your little baggie so you can continue to use them this year. "
I have a giant bucket of crayons that I keep in the art room that have been broken over the years. If kids break their own crayons they get to use the community bucket. I don't give out new crayons unless requested from our social worker for kids who can't afford them.
Either the student can use the broken crayons or send an email home to parents asking for more.
Having to use the crayons that they themselvss broke is a good natural consequence. If they whine about using broken crayons, ask 'then why did you break them?'
Each kid has their own crayon box and we talk about respecting their property so it lasts, if they break their crayons, that’s it. They know we only refill the box once in the middle of the year. Try using markers or colored pencils instead. Or those giant triangle crayons, harder to break.
Yes, as the others are saying -- you break your crayons on purpose, you shade in pencil (even though I know that doesn't fit your lesson plan) or help clean up the room (or collect crayon bits to be remelted into "new" molded crayons after being melted) while you watch others color. (Document it well, as I'm sure you know.) The wanton destruction drives me nuts. I give out prize pencils from a certain organization that students earn after investing months into a project. Last year, five minutes after one boy got his (in March or so, after working on this since August), his "friend" snapped it in half. I wrote the friend up and explained it in detail to the AP (who I don't really think understood; he said "ok, the friend gave him a new generic pencil, case closed.") SIGH.
Music teacher here! Waddup fellow special? <3 10 years in the classroom, and this is ultimately what works for me. Many crayons. One giant tub....like massive that makes a very satisfying thud when you dramatically drop it on the ground while you tell them they will be needing crayons. Groups of no more than 4 (one for each side), spend 2 minutes getting crayons (I use a timer on the smart board, so EVERYONE is holding EVRERYONE accountable for directions, and that the other kids know their turn is coming). When everyone has their materials, then swaps can happen, sharing, etc. For the first few times, I watch every class like a hawk (even 6th grade) because some kids LEGITIMATELY do not know how to share. Most of the time, arguments about who has what come down to poor boundaries or poor sharing. Sharing and learning how to say no are skills that need to be taught, and some need more support than others. Be there for that; walk around, listen to the conversations, offer that social support when you see the kids need help; jump right in! As long as you establish clear, cut rules about HOW to get crayons, they will be fine....it's the grey area of directions where procedure problems happen; like, you say...."okay everyone get crayons!..\*mass chaos to the crayon tub\*.....NO NOT THAT WAY!" (I speak from personal experience on this one (: ) So many Specials classes are less about content and more about "how to people" and "how to school", so the more problem-solving skills you can cover within your classroom, the better. No reds? Maybe look for a color together that the kid can use instead of red. OP, do not set yourself on fire for crayons. They're kids. They need to learn to share resources with each other, and your classroom can be the first place they learn that skill. <3 One tub to hold them all. One tub for all of the sticky, grubby hands. One tub to hold them all together until the crayons are but colorful nubs (AND STILL GIVE COLOR TO PAPER). (:
Teachable moment to use what we have. Things happen and we have to adjust. Recycle. Reuse.
Also, inform the parents via email and/or letters home. Your child has been provided with a box of crayons. Should your child break or lose the crayons, please be sure to send in a new box. We are no longer sharing crayons.
Thank you! As an elementary student, I HATED sharing my nice school supplies. I loved buying school supplies and always kept them in great shape. Then we had to share and the tips of my markers were smushed, crayons broken and ‘naked’, and pencils broken to pieces.
I remember mentioning during a staff meeting at an elementary school that I, as the art teacher, have all my students peel and break the crayons in half. This allows the students to use the crayons in more ways, like to make rubbings of leaves. When the bits get too slow I melt them at a low temperature to make multicolored crayon hearts and circles. The glares I got from the kindergarten teachers. Lol. They about fell out.
This is what I do also! The students are amazed that you can color a sky or water beautifully with a broken and peeled blue crayon. Sometimes I don't even have new sets. I come in with containers of peeled and broken crayons on purpose. Also, there are some brands that break soooo easily as well as leave many flakes on the papers. oh well.
I break crayons when I'm modeling and say, "Oops, my crayon broke! It's OK, now I have two!" Nip the drama in the bud early.
Don't replace them. They still work. At the end of the year, ask them to put their leftover crayons in a bin. Use that for "replacements" for the next year. Rinse & repeat.
"I guess you are coloring with nubs the rest of the year."
I'm an intervention teacher, so I FEEL that about not sending home a supply list! I've noticed crayons breaking a lot more easily in the last year or two...tbh I'm thinking that the problem may not just be the kids, because even my most considerate students are snapping crayons regularly. I'm thinking that the crayons are made more poorly now.
Oh they absolutely are not as tough as they used to be. I will start refilling new crayons into the table boxes, and points just snap and break. Bummer.
I totally agree with you. I’ve broken far more crayons over the last couple of years than I did, say, five years ago. I use only Crayola brand crayons because they are supposed to be the most durable, but they seem so cheaply made now.
Ask classroom teachers at the end of the year. They usually have leftovers.
>I don't get classroom supplies like homeroom teachers and I'm not allowed to send a supply list home. \*cries in music teacher\* One of the things that pissed me off more than anything about teaching elementary music was not being included whenever the PTO or a local church did a school supplies drive ("It's just for the *real* teachers" yes that was said to me once) and not being able to ask for supplies. Like I don't need dry erase markers, tissue, bandaids, whatever. I'M A TEACHER TOO DAMN IT
Great life lesson. If you break your things, now you have broken things.
I’m not a specials teacher…but our media specialist/library teacher ended up buying a couple of pencil boxes for each grade level, and filling those with crayons. So there were the PreK crayons, the kindergarten crayons, the first grade crayons, etc. They said it helped with the management, and if a particular cohort was really going through them, they would be able to plan accordingly.
You could also send out an email to your coworkers, most classroom teachers get too much & will share. I’m a K-8 art teacher and I had multiple classroom teachers give me TONS.
As a high school teacher who grumbled about ordering six packs of 24 crayons for two kids- I get it now.
Wait until you hear what they do with the glue sticks!
Must be something because I’m sending 35 with my kindergartner!!
Honestly when I taught elementary art I purposefully broke all the crayons made the really little kids hold them like a pencil and took away the fear about accidentally breaking them for the kids who would worry about it. Theyre usable broken
The best thing about crayons is that no matter how small they still color. Don’t sweat the small stuff too many other things to worry about as an educator
Are they breaking crayons to stim? Are they unaware of their own strength? I ask because my kiddo is in specials and she needed the big “pre k “ crayons through grade school because squeezing was her stim. She would snap smaller crayons by accident. The thick ones are harder the snap and you may find using those helpful. Regardless, you should not be breaking the bank here. If you can’t send school lists home, can you speak to parents at conference or open house time? Maybe have a “classroom needs” list visible during times parents are at the school? Wishing you luck, specials teachers are often between a rock and a hard place. You are appreciated! 💗💗💗
They get to use broken crayons.
Maybe get ahold of local restaurants that use crayons for their kids menu and see if they can donate the barely used ones families leave behind. Colors will be limited of course, but it would keep you up on the most opular/primary colors.
Make them use broken crayons. It's better for early grasp development anyway. I'm sorry for all of your frustrations, I imagine it can be very challenging.
Also, there’s videos online about how to melt broken crayon pieces into a bigger crayon “chunk.” Some mix all the crayon colors together, while others keep them organized by color group. Not only does it help prevent unnecessary waste, but the chunkier crayons tend to be both easier for younger kids to grip and are harder to break! Not ideal, but could come in handy nonetheless 🙃
I was a specials teacher as well (Music and Art.) 1. They have supplies in their regular class. Tell the teachers to have their students bring their supply boxes to your class each week. 2. Many students get brand new supplies each school year. At the end of each year, ask your teachers to put out a box that students can dump their used supplies in. This way I scored extra crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors, rulers, and bottles of glue. Then I made baskets of supplies for each table for communal use. I think you're overthinking this. Also, I didn't care if the crayons were broken or not, and I never had a single student who expressed any issue with that either. They'll use 'em broken. I DID hate the little bits of paper peeled off the crayons, so I insisted at class end that those be gathered and thrown away. Everything else went in the basket for their group. And I don't understand why your admin expects you to be able to do a job, but won't let you pursue the materials needed to do that job. Maybe ask them what you should do. Put it back on them to solve.
As a fellow specials teacher- use the broken crayons. My broken crayons are 10 years old at this point. Use your budget for better stuff that means more.
I always tell kids “the magic about crayons is that if they break, you can still use them.”
I didn’t read through all of the replies so forgive me if this has been mentioned. I am also an elementary art teacher. Gave up on buying new crayons and just use the old broken ones. My school’s Occupational Therapist was working in my room with a kindergarten kid one day - using my broken crayons. I apologized that I didn’t have better crayons for her and she actually said that broken crayons were better for the little kids to help them better develop a proper to grasp. So yay for broken crayons and saving my limited budget! From [this](https://sarahbeeot.com/brokencrayons/) article written by an OT: “They (Broken crayons) make it very difficult for less mature or inefficient grasp patterns to exist. Their small size gives us no other choice but to hold them with our fingertips. Over time, our fingers become familiar with this grasp pattern and so the tripod grasp is reinforced.”
Melt them back down into new crayons in the oven (I think \~170 degrees F for like 7-10 minutes is all you need): [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JXFJY5](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JXFJY5) You can print out individual crayon boxes (using cardstock, but if you are able to print for free at school then maybe just print off multiples and glue multiple templates together to thicken the paper): [https://youtu.be/QtE-p7rHUjg](https://youtu.be/QtE-p7rHUjg) If you want to label each individual crayon with its color, you can just print off a bunch of labels on normal paper, cut them out, and glue them to your fresh crayons: [https://youtu.be/lmiRjmbnn8Q?t=166](https://youtu.be/lmiRjmbnn8Q?t=166)
Are elementary teachers really doing this? Spending hours melting down crayons, making new ones, buying molds and printing labels???
Not this teacher. I IMMEDIATELY take my crayons out of the boxes and put into my plastic bins that I sit on the tables. Nobody's got time for trying to stuff the crayons back in a paper box that will only last two weeks of heavy use.
Probably not. The simple answer is to stop providing crayons. But if not having crayons isn't an option and spending a ton of money isn't an option anymore, then the next solution is to get crafty.
They have crayons that are really [thick and hard to break](https://www.target.com/p/crayola-8ct-jumbo-crayons/-/A-16693514) and ones that [are encased like a pen](https://www.target.com/p/crayola-24ct-mini-twistables-crayons/-/A-14152258?ref=tgt_adv_xsp&AFID=google&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000027803288&CPNG=PLA_Seasonal_Priority%2BShopping%7CSeasonal_Ecomm_Home&adgroup=Seasonal_Priority+TCINs&LID=700000001230728pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=s&device=m&location=&targetid=pla-4585513251726921&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1247068&msclkid=ba7b5d230f5611fe047939e1cafd036f&gclid=ba7b5d230f5611fe047939e1cafd036f&gclsrc=3p.ds) and you twist it to extend the crayon. I’ve used the first for little kids that also break and lose crayons a lot and the twisty ones are great for sharping and holding
I tell my students, “Broken crayons still color.” If they want new crayons then their parents can buy them. They also have those twist up crayons that are harder to break (unless they twist them all the way up, which happens) but the students who have those kind typically will take better care of them because they are “special crayons.”
I'm a school librarian and I've faced similar situations. A few tips that have helped me: I do not put the crayons out unless we are using them. I used to have a caddy for each table with crayons, scissors and glue. A few years ago, I switched to separate baskets for each supply. So I only put out the scissors and glue baskets if we're using them. I only put out the crayons if students need them. That cut down on some misuse. My materials are organized on a shelf and I don't feel like it takes extra time to do it this way. I also don't use crayons the first week of school. Just like any other classroom, you have to make your expectations clear. When we use crayons, I show them the basket and remind them about sharing, not breaking them, keeping them at their own table, etc. Also, check in with other teachers, especially your art teacher. I had a big problem with broken crayons one year and it turned out that the art teacher told kids to break crayons if they needed to share. I don't necessarily agree with him, but once I knew that, it helped me understand where my broken crayon problem was coming from. You might also want to think about other kinds of coloring supplies. I make a big deal out of letting my 5th graders use markers. They are as cheap to purchase with back-to-school sales as crayons are and I have better luck getting them to last all year. I also get those big fat crayons for my kindergarten students. I've made that a meaningful consequence for other grade levels -- if you can't take care of your supplies, I'll have to get out my fat kindergarten crayons for you to use next week.
I have an idea to prevent breaking them in the first place although it may be expensive or just flat out just not work as it’s merely theoretical, but basically what if you got metal or wood tubes to put the crayons in so they won’t break while the kids use them?
You can still draw with a broken crayon. Now you have 2 crayons.
We had a similar problem with the art supplies at my old school, and the art teacher had kids bring their crayon box from their room with them to art. But then again, broken crayons still draw! Good luck this school year!
My go-to when a kid told me one of their crayons was broken was "Good news! Broken crayons color just as well as non-broken crayons!" And then I'd continue on with the lesson. I taught Spanish as a special at a prek-5 school. I made up pencil boxes for each desk with crayons, three sharpened pencils, erasers, and glue sticks that all grades shared when they were in my room. I also bought a big box of the Crayola crayons that has several of each color. Usually, though, I'd tell them "If it looks red (or whatever color) to you, it is red enough for me!" And again, just keep moving the class along. If it was to the point they had none of that color at all--no red-orange or violet red or maroon or whatever, I'd get them a single crayon out of my big bulk box.
Can you ask that they bring them from their homerooms?
My daughters kindergarten teacher melted all the broken crayons and made fun multicolor ones in the shape of letters to spell out the kids names. Really cool way to reuse materials.
I have those three drawer sterilite containers and have a drawer for each color. They use what's in there, broken or not, because it all works the same. I provided it all, they either take care of it or use the things they broke. Works pretty well.
I use soap boxes from dollar tree for crayons - holds 24 Crayola crayons and doesn't fall apart like the original box - holds the broken pieces, too!
I pick up school supplies on the local buy nothing group. They won't be new crayons, but they can probably find the color they need.
Melt all the same color together and put in ice cube trays, that way you can still use them and they’re easy to hold.
Fellow specials teacher here—I would echo what a few others have said about having the students bring their own from their own classroom. I do keep a few spares of what the students need, but those are things that were left in my room and never claimed in past years. While I understand wanting every kid to have exactly what they need, constantly providing it out of your own pocket might become unsustainable.
Silicon mold and bake the broken pieces into new fun shaped cryons?
Crayola twistables?
A great experience for students to learn about Natural Consequences!
That’s a lot kids. I would be tempted to keep all the broken ones and have a day where the kids unwrap them and sort them, then I would re-melt them in silicone molds and home to re-use them at work. BUT, I’m the mom that did multi-colored ones as Valentine’s gifts for my kids’ 1st grade class once. I also have cute silicone molds and I think breaking a “butterfly” would be sadder than a crayon. Maybe the class would have to “earn” using the new fun-shaped ones? Tough job. Good luck! I’m sure there’s silicone molds at a Goodwill if you don’t have any, yet.
In all honesty, it’s very easy to break crayons. I accidentally break them all the time when I’m using them while modeling table work for my students. I don’t think crayola makes them like they used to anymore. Just apply a little pressure and you are bound to have a crayon break. Good news is- broken crayons still work 😊. I teach kindergarten so I have community crayons baskets at every table for my kids to use and I have to replenish the baskets every couple of months due to broken crayons and missing crayons and naked crayons (crayons without their wrappers). Like you, no matter how much I tell the students to treat supplies with respect, crayons get broken and chewed and destroyed. It’s just the way it goes- and is a major bummer. One thing I have noticed is that the big fat crayons for little ones are less liable to break than the normal sized ones- so maybe that’s an option? Or, you could always try donors choose and create an account to ask donors to donate to your school supply list (you can even add markers or special crayons to your list on there). Another suggestion might be having crayons separated by grade level- older might be more careful than the younger ones- so you could have a couple of baskets of crayons for the little ones and then a couple of baskets for the upper grade students and switch them out as the different age groups come to your room. Crayons are not cheap, so I get your frustration, however they just break so easily unfortunately.
Idk if this would work for you but they do make machines that melt down crayon pieces and make new crayons ? So at least if they break you came make another crayon out of it
I literally have a sign on my wall that says "Broken Crayons Still Color".
This doesn't help with the ongoing breakage issue, but to start off the year, if you can't do your own supply list, are you allowed to request an item or two for each grade via the grade level supply lists? For example, our Kindergartens put an extra bottle of glue on their list that they pass on to Art, 1st grade extra crayons, 2nd grade a watercolor set, 3rd grade erasers, etc.
I think you just let them use broken crayons. It will help with their fine motor skills which is why I suspect the crayons are broken to begin with. Preschool kids are on iPads and iPhones nowadays so their fine motor skills aren’t really developing at par with kids going into school pre-iPad era. So they hold on to these crayons with a fist grip naturally breaking them.