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daycare 07:57 AM 08-20-2015
Please tell me that I am not the only person that feels like I go through crayons like water.

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

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

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

How do you keep your crayons? What do you do with them when they break?
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NeedaVaca 08:04 AM 08-20-2015
My older kids get a pencil box with their own crayons. Broken crayons go in molds and I melt them in the oven. The little kids get the bigger molded crayons in different shapes, to big to break, no paper to tear off, easy to hold. I also give these molded crayons to all the kids at holidays ie: heart shaped crayons for valentines day etc. They help me make them by taking the paper off and picking the colors they want in the mold. They swirl around and look really pretty.
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childcaremom 08:18 AM 08-20-2015
I've never purchased new crayons for daycare use. Always use the cast offs from my kids. I will set out a smaller container for the day. They are all broken, some missing paper, etc.

My plan is to do like above, and melt them. I have a few of those that were given to my children and they are everyone's favourites, hands down.
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bklsmum 08:28 AM 08-20-2015
I just stocked up HUGE with the quarter boxes of crayons on sale at Walmart for back to school. Spent $25 and got 100 boxes which should keep us for a good long while. I also plan to melt them down when they get too broken to use.
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Blackcat31 08:37 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by daycare:
Please tell me that I am not the only person that feels like I go through crayons like water.

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

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

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

How do you keep your crayons? What do you do with them when they break?
Each child gets their own box of crayons at the start of our school year.

How they treat their crayons are up to them.

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

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

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

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

I do the same thing with markers. Except only kids that wear underwear get issued markers.
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daycare 08:38 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by NeedaVaca:
My older kids get a pencil box with their own crayons. Broken crayons go in molds and I melt them in the oven. The little kids get the bigger molded crayons in different shapes, to big to break, no paper to tear off, easy to hold. I also give these molded crayons to all the kids at holidays ie: heart shaped crayons for valentines day etc. They help me make them by taking the paper off and picking the colors they want in the mold. They swirl around and look really pretty.
omg this is sooo cute.

so where do you guys get the molds
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Baby Beluga 08:39 AM 08-20-2015
My current group are odd balls and are not big fans of crayons. They prefer colored pencils much more, we go through those like crazy (just stocked up at Walmart with the back to school sales).
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daycare 08:41 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Each child gets their own box of crayons at the start of our school year.

How they treat their crayons are up to them.

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

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

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

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

I do the same thing with markers. Except only kids that wear underwear get issued markers.
this is also a great idea. do you also give the little ones their own box?

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

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


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

thanks for the ideas ladies
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daycare 08:46 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Baby Beluga:
My current group are odd balls and are not big fans of crayons. They prefer colored pencils much more, we go through those like crazy (just stocked up at Walmart with the back to school sales).
We tried colored pencils, but i don't trust my under 3 crowd with them. The thought of someone poking their neighbor with one scares me..


lol
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Blackcat31 08:50 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by daycare:
this is also a great idea. do you also give the little ones their own box?

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

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


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

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

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

Yes, everyone but my 6 month old colors. Even my 16 and 20 month olds.
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Laurel 09:11 AM 08-20-2015
Aargh, I just lost my typed out post.

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

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

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

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

Laurel
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nothingwithoutjoy 09:16 AM 08-20-2015
Here, we use markers far more often than crayons, so my crayons last a long time. For toddlers, I like chunky crayons, triangular shaped (so they don't roll off the table and break). For the skinny crayons, I have a rectangular basket that's divided into 6 sections. Each section holds a tin can. The crayons are sorted by color into those cans. Broken ones are set aside for melting projects. The kids use the crayons carefully because they're stored rather high and the littlest kids don't tend to pull them out; they're mostly used by bigger kids.
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NeedaVaca 09:59 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by daycare:
omg this is sooo cute.

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

Plus my kids would peel paper off crayons for an hour or more, they loved it!
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Blackcat31 10:07 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Laurel:
Aaargh, I'll never forget that I had a child who never broke crayons until one day he was just sitting there popping them in half one after the other....and it was a new box! I think it was my grandson and he just liked how it felt to break them.

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

Spent a lot of time convincing her the wrappers stayed on the crayons.
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Blackcat31 10:08 AM 08-20-2015
Here is a great blog about uses for old crayons.....

http://handsonaswegrow.com/35-kid-ac...-with-crayons/
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laundrymom 10:26 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by nothingwithoutjoy:
Here, we use markers far more often than crayons, so my crayons last a long time. For toddlers, I like chunky crayons, triangular shaped (so they don't roll off the table and break). For the skinny crayons, I have a rectangular basket that's divided into 6 sections. Each section holds a tin can. The crayons are sorted by color into those cans. Broken ones are set aside for melting projects. The kids use the crayons carefully because they're stored rather high and the littlest kids don't tend to pull them out; they're mostly used by bigger kids.
Tip. I line griddel w foil.
Get hot. And carefully hold crayon against it. To get a flat spot. So they don't roll. Then pop onto a chilled plate to set.
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childcaremom 11:01 AM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I had a DCK once that thought all crayons had to be opened before use.

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


I can see that. I have a dcb3 who has not been exposed to much in the way of these kinds of materials and he likes to sit and break them. It takes a LOT of reminding not to do it. He makes me glad I don't buy new ones.
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snbauser 11:10 AM 08-20-2015
I guess I am the oddball on this. Broken crayons are actually better for fine motor development than full size crayons. Same with chalk. And for pencils, we use the golf pencils for the same reason. So I rarely ever have "new" crayons. And all our crayons are in a drawer in the art center.
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Ariana 11:49 AM 08-20-2015
I use them broken and naked
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Unregistered 01:27 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by NeedaVaca:
I use cupcake molds, you can find them in all kinds of shapes especially around the holidays. Break up crayons into small enough pieces to fit and put them in the oven on low (200-250) for about 20 minutes then I put them in the fridge to chill and set faster. It's really fun to experiment with different colors!

Plus my kids would peel paper off crayons for an hour or more, they loved it!
I read that letting the crayons soak in water made the papers fall off
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daycare 01:30 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Ariana:
I use them broken and naked
Hahaha that made me laugh

Thanks for all of the ideas.
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NeedaVaca 01:37 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
I read that letting the crayons soak in water made the papers fall off
Yes, but I get to enjoy an hour of peace and quiet
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NeedaVaca 01:39 PM 08-20-2015
Speaking of crayons, don't forget to stock up!! Crayons are on sale for back to school and I get tons of the 24 packs for 25 cents each! I'm just stocked up on all my craft supplies like glue, paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils etc...
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Laurel 01:44 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I had a DCK once that thought all crayons had to be opened before use.

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


That kind of makes sense. You unwrap other things like candy.

Laurel
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Thriftylady 03:01 PM 08-20-2015
I have some colored pencils, but I hate "can you sharpen this" constantly. Those of you who use them, how do you get around that?
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nothingwithoutjoy 05:53 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
I have some colored pencils, but I hate "can you sharpen this" constantly. Those of you who use them, how do you get around that?
Electric pencil sharpener--they want to sharpen all the time! I have to remind them only to sharpen when they actually need it. But they can do it on their own.
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Febby 07:07 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Laurel:
These are good for toddlers http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/...&scategoryid=0 They don't break and no paper. The chubby ones.
Those are what we keep out for our three year olds. We have nicer crayons (with more colors!) but those only come out during art time.
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nothingwithoutjoy 07:47 PM 08-20-2015
Just came across this use for old crayons today.

And a book I got recently has an idea for making crayons inside Japanese knotweed stalks for a mold (a type of bamboo that's invasive here). They were making crayons from beeswax, but it would be a great idea as a mold for old crayon bits, too! Hmmm...when can I get to this?
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Baby Beluga 09:05 PM 08-20-2015
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
I have some colored pencils, but I hate "can you sharpen this" constantly. Those of you who use them, how do you get around that?
I found a large handheld pencil sharpener/eraser combo at Walmart - the kiddos use that. The older ones (3&4) happily keep track of which ones need sharpening.
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Laurel 01:31 AM 08-21-2015
Originally Posted by NeedaVaca:
Yes, but I get to enjoy an hour of peace and quiet
Exactly! If you want the paper off you might as well make an activity out of it. One time mine spent a lot of time sorting the colors into piles. I didn't really tell them to. One did and then they all wanted to. Ahhh, it was so peaceful.

Laurel
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Laurel 01:34 AM 08-21-2015
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
I have some colored pencils, but I hate "can you sharpen this" constantly. Those of you who use them, how do you get around that?
I just hand them the sharpener and let them do it. Of course, the little ones don't have a clue and can't do it but they think it is cool and it keeps them busy pretending to sharpen the pencil.

Laurel
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Laurel 01:35 AM 08-21-2015
P.S. daycare, the title of this thread made me chuckle. Let's talk crayons...
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Josiegirl 04:10 AM 08-21-2015
When I was a kid I think my most favorite thing in the world was one of those huge boxes of crayons with all the colors in the world. Well, I think back then it was 64 colors. So I was excited when one of our dcfs gave us a big box filled with dc arts and crafts materials at Christmas time and in it was one of those boxes of crayons. Then after Christmas, one afternoon while the SA were here, I let them color during naptime. Afterwards I found most of those brand new crayons all snapped in two. So that's all they got to use for a really really long time.

Anyways, I have oodles and oodles of crayons, new boxes, pieces, and a former dcm just cleaned out her ds's room and asked us if we could use a small tub filled with crayons. Well, of course. We use them for tons of things. But my dcks like markers best. And colored pencils occasionally.

We make the crayon 'cookies'(out of regular muffin tins) a lot plus with the older kids, we heat a griddle on low, and put paper on it. When it's warm enough, the crayons will melt and slide and makes an awesome batiking type of picture.
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