Make Room

Last week Crayola announced the retirement of dandelion from their iconic 24-crayon box set. Dandelion will be replaced by a crayon in the “blue family,” yet to be named. This is the first time in the 100-year history of the 24-count box set that a crayon has been removed to make room for a new color.

As much as Crayola would like to keep dandelion, 25 crayons won’t fit in the box, so one crayon had to go. Likewise, we can’t keep adding things in our classrooms, because eventually they just won’t fit. We need to create room for new things by making thoughtful decisions about what can be retired.

These are a few things I have retired in my classroom to make room for new colors:

• I retired assigned activities to make room for a new color named “choice.”
• I retired assigned seats to make room for four new colors named “choice,” “chairs,” “cushions,” and “floor.”
• I retired whole-group novel studies to make room for the new color “lots of time to read choice books.”

What new color do you want to add to your box? What can you let go of to make room for it?