Isn’t it just such a bummer when you find your child’s brand new marker, capless and all dried out? It took me a few years of teaching to figure out that a simple little poem would greatly decrease the number of times I would find a dried out marker in our classroom marker bin. While holding up a blue marker, I say,
“There once was a marker named Sue.
If you took off her hat (the cap of the marker) she was blue.
On paper she colored away.
But she always remembered to say,
“I love to color! So please, when you are through,
Please put on my hat so I am still blue!”
A quick reminder for a few weeks to please remember to put the hats back on our markers is all it takes and I greatly decrease the chances that we will have capless markers in our bins.
But here is the best part of all. You can repurpose those dried out markers. I have done this for years and it works great. Gather them up and put them in a container or plastic bag until you have a small collection. The next time you need a batch of watercolor paint, use your old markers! Here is a great video demo from www.weareteachers.com of how to do this.
