Mark Making - Storage Of Materials?

[Guest terrydoo73]

We have a small square table set against a book rack. Beside this is a large 3 shelved bookcase and another set of 2 tables pushed together with 6 chairs around them. Inside the bookcase we have on the top shelf paper (plain and coloured), card, wrapping paper, stickers then on the bottom 2 shelves all sorts of materials - pencils, crayons, cotton wool, tin foil, boxes of all sizes and descriptions, pasta, lentils, peas, pine cones, sequins etc etc. Our children tend to go to the large table and make all sorts of creations. We have kept the small square table purposely for mark making and have in the past put on this table - drawing books, blackboards, markerboards etc with the relevant crayons, pens, chalk etc just in boxes set on the desk. We are not utilising the book rack enough but apart from storing the blackboards, markerboards, drawing books etc that is all we have in there. I would like suggestions as to how we could store more for mark making using this book rack and make it more inviting to the children?

[Guest]

envelopes? clipboards? different lengths/sizes/colours of paper? staplers, hole punches, scissors to entice boys over if this is a problem

[Guest terrydoo73]

Sorry I meant how we actually store things in this book rack to make things more appealing - I think I know what to put into the area but how I display it in such a way that it is enticing to the children to use it more productively - the rack is permanently fixed and we have to work with it effectively! I am looking really for some creative ideas!

[Panders]

I suppose there are all manner of recepticles you could use - we have cutlery caddies from the pound shop, round tubs which we have stuck wrapping paper to at the moment the boys are into the film Cars, so I have wrapped up the tubs in that wrapping paper and put in the odd comic, surprising how many boys just access the area, look through the comics and mark make at the same time. You might try glittery paper and that malibu fur trim for the girls - I'm sure if they see things like that, novelty pens etc. and stickers which they can have as many as they want they will be there like a flash! Just try pots in different shapes and heights - cut down Pringle tubes etc.

[louby loo]

We've wrapped some pringle pots and add a string handle- then fill with different themed things.

[Guest terrydoo73]

Thanks for these suggestions - I am thinking already of perhaps the bisto gravy granule tubs and cover them in wrapping paper as you suggested. I could pierce a hole in the side of these and tie them with string onto the book rack. I really would like more choice in this area as we tend to just put out say blackboards and chalk one month then change it to notebooks and pens or pencils the next but if there was more choices available it might appeal to more children. How do you stop them using all the sticker sheets at once - we had a little girl this past year and that was all she did - stuck a load of stickers onto a sheet and it was like a race with her to see how quickly and how many she could get on the sheet before anyone especially us could see. We spent ages explaining to her that in doing so there was none for others to use as well but she really did not care two hoots!

[louby loo]

Thanks for these suggestions - I am thinking already of perhaps the bisto gravy granule tubs and cover them in wrapping paper as you suggested. I could pierce a hole in the side of these and tie them with string onto the book rack. I really would like more choice in this area as we tend to just put out say blackboards and chalk one month then change it to notebooks and pens or pencils the next but if there was more choices available it might appeal to more children. How do you stop them using all the sticker sheets at once - we had a little girl this past year and that was all she did - stuck a load of stickers onto a sheet and it was like a race with her to see how quickly and how many she could get on the sheet before anyone especially us could see. We spent ages explaining to her that in doing so there was none for others to use as well but she really did not care two hoots!

 

We cut sticker sheets up and sort of ration them out!

We might put just a few out - then replenish the supply as necessary . If we had a total sticker-er- I think I might try something like masking tape and scissors and try and get them to draw their own sticker designs.

[Guest terrydoo73]

Was in Poundland today and saw some stainless steel utensil holders which have holes all around the outside. I was thinking of perhaps putting some stickers on the outside to cover the holes a bit and then use 2 holes at the back with some string to attach them to the bookrack. Then I am thinking of putting like hand held blackboards behind them and whiteboards too plus perhaps coloured and plain paper/notebooks. The utensil holders are big enough to say put in some small calculators and notebooks too. I have also bought a Cars Mini box - any suggestions what I could put in this? I was thinking along the lines of say binoculars, magnifying glasses but then I ran out of ideas - I thought if I had another one in say a Princess style then I could have 2 and put them in another area but need more little fiddly bits if you understand what I mean??

[Panders]

Ours have quite liked magic slates in the past - you know where you write on the top of a plastic sheet and then pull it up and the writing disappears. we do put in rulersand erasers we also used magic pens which they liked but you can get fat felt tipped ones now, only the thin ones. They also like those thin plastic stencils, they anchor them to bits of paper with large paper clips or small bulldog clips and colour away, they do have a great time.

[Guest terrydoo73]

Thanks for these ideas - I have loads of stencils in the cupboard which I could use. I guess this would be the type of thing to put in my boxes?

[narnia]

Sorry ladies, not a fan of stencils at all...................we had hundreds of the things at my old setting and I don't have any now. The children's own drawings are much lovelier.

 

I would also look for items with a 'twist' if you can.....we bought some very nice 'skull' crayons and rubbers from the Disney store sale, so they were incredibly cheap, about £1 a set. We also bought some spiderman rubbers, in a web-shaped box, the children love those and we also have some twig pancils and crayons also bought in sales. I was also gifted some very sweet mouse crayons, they have strings for tails, and the shape is really tactile. Our lead teacher really rates all of those. I also bought some cheap light sabers on ebay, so they children could swish their letters in the air...........lots of space needed for that and a darkened room is great, so they can see the lights working in them..

[Panders]

I agree Narnia, I wasn't keen on stencils either, but this particular group have really enjoyed using them, and are quite able now to hold them in place with one hand whilst either drawing the outline or colouring the stencil in with the other, which I think is quite a skill to be able to do at their tender age and may help when they come to write properly, where one hand will steady the paper whilst the other is writing. It's just another item at the end of the day to enthuse some children, but not all children, under their own choice isn't it.

[narnia]

well, i think we'd have to agree to disagree on that one. I think they can hold paper still while they colour in their own pictures, but I wouldn't tell anyone they shouldn't use them.

Another thing we do, is to give the children little writing pads/booklets ( 10 for £1 in Poundland) of their own, they store them in their drawers and use them as they see fit, to 'write' messages , lists, take notes etc. Some of them go home, so they send messages to family members too...........

[Guest terrydoo73]

Yes we have done that to Narnia - we sent them home in June with those who were not coming back in September but I just wanted to give them a wide range of mark making activities to get them interested. This is an area that is rarely used but the creative table/junk art are is used a lot.

[Guest]

put clipboards around the setting and outside, all our childrren access thes but especially the boys

[redjayne]

Our favourite items for mark making seem to be clipboards and paper, small notepads, and whiteboards, all of which are easily transported around, and the boys seem to like these as much as the girls. We attach a pencil and a pen to each clipboard with string and two different coloured board pens to the whiteboards and the children have hours of fun - we extended our graphics area as well because so many children want to be there and 'writing' all of the time. :1b