Are you a teacher that likes your crayon boxes organized? Do you get tired of kids telling you that they don’t have a black crayon, or that they have two reds? Well, today I have a quick solution that will empower YOUR KIDS to keep your classroom crayons organized! I call it my Crayon Box Organizer, opens in a new tab, and it’s so simple that five year old could use it! 
This Crayon Box Organizer, opens in a new tab is simply a piece of paper printed with all of the colors in the box, and all of the color words printed on top of them. When printed at it’s actual size, it fits exactly in the bottom of the box of a 16 count box of primary crayons. Therefore, all the children have to do to organize their crayons is to put each crayon onto it’s matching color. Once each crayon is in place, it’s quite easy to see if there is one missing and if so, which color it is!
I got this wonderful idea from my good friend Palma Lindsay, who blogs over at KFundamentals, opens in a new tab! She made one of these several years ago and blogged on it. If you are not yet a follower, you’ll definitely want to start following Palma’s blog, opens in a new tab and TpT store, opens in a new tab! She has such creative ideas!
Incidentally, if you have never seen crayons in a flat box before, I found them online here at Target.com for $4.99 per box, opens in a new tab. Our school orders them for us from somewhere, but I kind of doubt that they pay that much, ha ha! Keep in mind that these are the LARGE, primary 16 count crayons, not the small ones!
Although I loved the idea, I didn’t need it at the time because we used to just dump our crayons into baskets. But this year, we’ve been using our crayons right out of the boxes rather than from baskets of loose crayons, mainly because I don’t have anywhere to store the baskets in my smaller room this year. So, I went looking for her post to download it. It was then that I found out that Palma’s crayon organizer was only for a small box of eight crayons, rather than the large box of 16 crayons that we were using!
Since I had a need for a 16 crayon box color organizer, I just decided to make one myself and share it with you, opens in a new tab! And you know what, most of my kids really LOVE sorting their crayons and putting them into place! Once I showed them how to do it- by starting on one end and working their way down to the other end- they have found that they really can do it themselves and they are quite proud! 
I did laminate our crayon organizer sheets and then taped them down into the crayon boxes. So far, there hasn’t been a single problem with any of them! None of the sheets have been pulled up or have come off. We have been using them for about a month now. The worst thing that has happened is that one child deliberately mixed up the crayons so that they would all be in the wrong places. Luckily, that only happened once, and the next group of children happily fixed the boxes right back up again! Yay! 
Watch this cutie!!
And by the way, don’t miss out on our newest set of Word Family Songs, streaming On Demand on Vimeo, opens in a new tab or on DVD right here, opens in a new tab!
Our sight word songs are also availble On Demand on Vimeo, opens in a new tab or VHX, opens in a new tab, or on DVD right here, opens in a new tab as well!
Are your students learning to write the alphabet? Don’t forget that our alphabet videos show how the letter is written in the top left corner as each song plays! The letter is written over and over again, and each one is formed correctly (I pinky promise!) So you should be able to give your students directions on how to write that letter, and then show them that video as they practice! Letters and Sounds is available On Demand on Vimeo, opens in a new tab and on DVD!
Enjoy your weekend, and happy teaching!
– Heidi
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