Crayons and/or chalk. Chalk and/or crayons.
To heck with markers. Nobody ever picked up a piece of chalk at the front of a classroom and had to ask, "I wonder if this still works?" Chalk in a classroom is where it's at, I tell you. Likewise, nobody ever sat down with a child and had to throw away crayon after crayon that had dried out when someone left the lid off.
What is true for the classroom works well for other areas where you might have thought your only choice was a sharpie. For example, in terms of making yard signs that are visible, chalk on brown paper or cardboard rocks. Behold:
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| That "Free Dog Kisses" sign in the background is about 2 months old now. Lots of dog kisses have been given, and the sign is only now starting to fade. |
Want to label those workroom shelves? Chalk comes to the the aid again.
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| "50 shades of grey paint" |
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| by now, you know the drill |
All of the above signs were regular chalkboard chalk, not sidewalk chalk. (My experience is that chalkboard chalk is much easier to purchase without plastic packaging). A single box of Crayola chalk is a lovely thing to have around the home. It's especially good for labeling cardboard boxes.
Also, Crayola has washable crayons that are fab for writing grocery codes on cloth bags, and that also work well for making highly visible lettering on signs (they're thicker than usual crayons), or for labeling food that goes into a freezer or onto canning jar shelves.
(If you're wondering how I label food without plastic tape: scraps of paper. I either clip them in between a lid and a bowl, or "glue" them on with a dab of milk).
Even though I still use permanent markers for some things, my experience is that chalk and crayons often outperform markers in terms of visibility, longevity, and -- of course -- sustainability.
Wow, this is exercising my brain. I'm not at all used to thinking of writing implements in this way.
ReplyDeleteI have no chalk. Just checked, I do have crayons; I haven't used them in ages. I do use pencils, the kind you sharpen (though I would not be surprised if some of the contents of these pencils are plastic, especially the colored pencils). Mostly I use pens and have just expanded into dry-erase markers for, um, plastic-covered game scoring sheets. Of course pencils and erasers work, too, though the plain paper sheets aren't quite as durable. Although if I glue them to something stiffer, they would be easier to erase without accidentally wrinkling them.
We do love brown paper around here. So brown paper + chalk is interesting, especially in these times of protest.
And I forgot about colored chalk (because I do so much teaching with white): colored chalk works great both on brown paper and also traditional white paper.
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