Chunky vs thin pencils

[Froglet]

So, chunky or thin pencils - it's often suggested that my class use chunky pencils but it sometimes seems to me that they can be too big for little fingers to get themselves round and hold properly. What are the fors/againsts using them? Are there particular situations when they 'should' be used?

 

I actually like to have all sorts so that children can choose whichever they want to use but wondered if I should be encouraging them in a particular direction?

[Susan]

Soft leads are better for small hands to manipulate and easier for the children to mark make with, as this tend to be available only in thicker pencils then that was my preference. Berol make some excellent soft lead pencils in thinner forms but they are expensive.

I used to prefer thicker hexagonal shaped pencils to triangular ones!

[SueJ]

We have a mix of chunky long and short pencils/crayons, thin long and short pencils and crayons, wax crayons (thin and chubby - all short) and also have some round spongy spiral type grippers (Wilkinson's) for children trying to develop a better pencil grip for use on thin (long and short) - much better results than the triangular pencil grips.