So glad to read this! My inclination is to keep the community crayon basket going for as long as possible. I switched to individual paintbrushes when the students who cared for their materials got frustrated with the ones who didn’t. In retrospect I think it would have been better to just teach them all to take care of things! I’ll definitely take a look at those wooden holders!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/285474883/wooden-crayon-holder-for-beeswax-blocks?ref=shop_home_active_35

Yes. I’ve been told to get the 32×38. It makes sense to me to get the smaller books in 2nd and 3rd. And then the even smaller ones in 4th and 5th. One year in 6th I tried going back to the larger books (their handwriting was getting so small I thought a large page would encourage them to write larger.) It worked pretty well and it was challenging for them to fill the page with creative content. I didn’t do it with this group, though. I really like switching to loose paper and binding individual books starting in 6th grade.

This is great. And I love letting kids paint outside painting class. A few of my 8th graders help themselves to the painting stuff all the time. They’ve got watercolored main lesson pages — just beautiful! I love it!

I’ve been shopping for pretty bottles to store paint but recycled ketchup bottles seem so much more convenient. And tidy! And cheap!

I use recycled ketchup bottles with the watercolours – no mess with the little bowls and I don’t have the wooden holders yet. One child per colour goes around and gives out paint. I haven’t had a spill all year! (knock on wood) I also used screw top small mason jars to make some “dry watercolours” because we’ve been trying out Eugene Schwartz’s patient painting then kids can paint outside painting class. they only need to get some water