green hippo Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Hi everyone, I'm having a bit of a headache at the moment about how to store our mark-making equipment. Over the past few years we have tried a number of things including: small open tool-boxes, shelves inside the door with bags, plastic draws and our current storage - a covered mini-greenhouse with trays and boxes for the equipment. The greenhouse has been successful for storing paper, clipboards, whiteboards, notebooks etc but not so for storing the mark-making tools. Whatever we try we seem to end up with crayons, pencils etc on the floor, trodden into the grass, broken and dirty. However much 'training' we do with the children the equipment never seem to end up in the box that they started in! I know that the outdoors is never going to be as tidy as the indoors but we are just wasting so many resources this way. Has anyone got any other ideas for storing mark-making tools in the outdoor area that have been successful? Thanks Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Sorry can't help - but this sounds just like my indoors! After 10 mins of arrival we can't see the floor, in fact yesterday a member of staff did wonder why we bother with tables! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klc106 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I'm watching this thread with interest we have the same problem indoors and outdoors. The place looks a mess after half an hour! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 We have a plastic five drawer creation from poundstretcher or some such place, photo on each drawer for chalks, pencils, spare paper, clipboards, and the last one actually has big number lines in that they use outside - lift it out each day, it lives just inside the door, used to push it as it is on wheels but a wheel broke, so now a quick hoist is required! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrison Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Why not leave the crayons inside and use 'different' resources? We use decorators brushes and water, washing up liquid bottles, water pistols etc - theboys especially love it! Also, tie a pencil to the clipboard so they done get lost 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 we too used different ways outside,pens tied to the clipboards worked well... but also had a small seaside bucket or two with some resources for drawing outside.. easy to carry around and they did tend to put them back into it, or tool belts/ pouches, for children to wear to put the items in . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 Why not leave the crayons inside and use 'different' resources? We use decorators brushes and water, washing up liquid bottles, water pistols etc - theboys especially love it! Also, tie a pencil to the clipboard so they done get lost This is what we do - whilst mark making can be the same outdoors as indoors, we prefer to make a subtle difference and encourage outdoor type articles, pavement chalks, decorating sponge rollers and brushes as Rachael, we don't stop children from using conventional items and clipboards, just try different things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlettangel Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I like the idea of the greenhouse outdoors to have resources in!!!! Thanks for that idea!! As for crayons we do have them outdoors and we have tried numerous ways of housing them but they do end up on the floor and broken. as do pens and chalks!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emz321 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 i have a trolley like 'Iri' with a broken wheel also! for felt tips which seems to work well we have a block of wood which i got my dad to drill holes in, i then glued the pen lids into the holes so the lids don't get lost. They seem to put the pens back in the block, but i still find pencils ect on floor even with all the training and reminding! tying pencils to clipboards is a good idea i think i'll try that thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Yes we are the same too, after 10 mins everything is scattered around everywhere, the worst indoors is the playdough which gets transported everywhere, which is fine though it gets trodden into the rugs and allsorts haha! I'm liking the pencils tied to clipboards too! Also ours love the easals, with the paper side and chalk, they love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 Thank you all for your helpful replies. I am reasurred by others having the same problem! I like the ideas of pencils tied to clipboards - will definately do this. I also think we maybe need to simplify the storage for the outdoors. So instead of having seperate boxes/trays for each pencils, crayons, pencil crayons, etc just having one or a few buckets/boxes with mark-making resources in so the children don't have to sort them out so much. We do also offer different mark-making experiences outdoors but still want to provide 'indoor' type equipment which we find is popular when the children can actually find them! I also think that we may need to re-think our tidy-up system for outdoors - we tend to announce that it's tidy-up time so the children that are outside quickly put away what they're playing with before coming inside and going to their area to tidy - I think I'm going to choose 2/3 children to go back outside to check the area and pick up any smaller equipment that has been left. Lets hope for some drier weather so the children can actually do some outdoor mark-making! Thanks again Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I also think that we may need to re-think our tidy-up system for outdoors - we tend to announce that it's tidy-up time so the children that are outside quickly put away what they're playing with before coming inside and going to their area to tidy - I think I'm going to choose 2/3 children to go back outside to check the area and pick up any smaller equipment that has been left. Lets hope for some drier weather so the children can actually do some outdoor mark-making! Thanks again Green Hippo x If we have a 'big' outdoor set up I sometimes divide the class into 2 teams and we make it a bit of a competition to see whether indoors or outdoors can get tidied quicker. Another thing I try sometimes is have everybody outside to get it tidied as quickly as possible then everyone inside. I have a class with a strong group who are expert at avoiding tidying up no matter where we are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 I love the idea of a block of wood, drilling holes in for pen lids and gluing the lids in! I'm forever finding pens without lids. Will get the other half onto it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 (edited) I love the idea of a block of wood, drilling holes in for pen lids and gluing the lids in! I'm forever finding pens without lids. Will get the other half onto it!!! Fab, stealing this idea Edited April 29, 2012 by max321 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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