This Kindergarten Teacher Explains Why Teachers Ask For Such Specific Crayons And It Makes Perfect Sense

It’s that time of year when we grab our back-to-school classroom supply lists, and hit our local Walmart, Staples, or Target for supplies. But, why is it that teachers ask for the most specific things sometimes?

There is a teacher on TikTok that takes on the crayon debate — how many in the pack, what kind, and why.

She explains why it is that elementary teachers will ask for the 16-pack of Crayola crayons as opposed to the 24-pack (which is usually cheaper).

Once she explains it, her logic makes total sense!

First of all, we have all faced the dilemma of whether to get the 24-pack CraZart crayons (which are cheaper) or the Crayola crayons. This is a no-brainer to anyone who has ever had to sit and use the CraZart crayons — they just aren’t nearly as good as the Crayola brand.

But, not only does the teacher want Crayola crayons, they asks for the 16-count Crayolas (which can be $2.99) on the supply list instead of the 24-count Crayola crayons (which are usually on sale for about 50 cents this time of year).

Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things which count of crayons we get? More is better, right?

Not always.

As smilesamy70 on TikTok points out, in the 24-count crayon box there are 3 or 4 different crayons for some of the colors — but they aren’t all the same color shade.

You might have 3 RED crayons, but one of them is going to come out pink when you put it on paper.

There may be 5 BLUE crayons, but they are all different shades of blue — and one of them is even purple when you actually color with it.

Sure, this might be okay for older kids who can grasp the concept of different shades of color, but for those kids in kindergarten (and even up to about third grade) all these colors can be confusing.

The teacher may ask the kids to “color the apple red,” which you would think would be an easy task — but with multiple choices of RED crayons, the child may pick one that actually turns out pink once the kid starts coloring with it.

This can be frustrating for the littles.

With the 16-pack of crayons there are just simply the primary colors that the kids need to learn.

With the 24-pack of crayons, there are too many choices for the little that is just learning their colors.

So, when the teacher asks for the 16-count crayons instead of the 24-count crayons, they aren’t trying to be difficult. There really is a method to their madness.