Coloring Time Game

For the last couple of weeks, we have been trying out a new ‘game’ during coloring time. The kids in our class have a tendency to all happen to want the same color each and every time we color. Our budget (Primary budget or my own pocket book) doesn’t allow us to have a set of crayons for each child in the class. However, our new ‘game’ means that each child randomly gets a crayon without anyone seeing it ahead of time (the popular pink and purple ones always get in there somehow…) and they get color time with that crayon until the teacher says “SWITCH”. Each child must switch crayons with another child in the classroom; they cannot keep the crayon more than one turn. It is not required to color using this crayon, but you must hold it and keep it until a teacher says the magic word “SWITCH” and then you may get another color from another child. This not only keeps coloring time under a good schedule, but alleviates melt downs over the coveted Pink and Purple crayons that are oh-so-popular in our Primary class. The children also seem to enjoy this sharing process and it’s helping take care of other sharing problems that we have had in the past as well, without us ever having to have the “let’s share” discussion with the kids.