Block crayons or stick crayons? How Waldorf children use crayons by age

Use both, for different jobs. A block crayon is flat and wide, so it lays down broad, soft areas of color, like the sky or the golden body of a bear. A stick crayon has a point, so it draws a line: a form, a letter, a number, the thin branch of a tree. In kindergarten, your child can draw freely with whichever suits their hand. In grade 1 the two sit side by side, blocks for pictures and sticks for lines. By grade 3, colored pencils and a graphite pencil join them, and the crayons stay for borders and big pictures.

Below is how each one is used from kindergarten to grade 3, how to show your child the block, and what to buy.

What's the difference between block crayons and stick crayons?

It's all in the shape. A Stockmar block crayon is a small flat rectangle, about 1 3/4 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch thick. Hold it on its long side and drag it across the paper, and you get a wide band of color. Tip it onto its short end and the band narrows. Use a corner and you get something close to a line. Bella Luna Toys describes the blocks as good for "shading large areas (think grass, ocean and sky)."

A stick crayon is the shape most of us grew up with, a thick round crayon with a point. It draws a line, and it's held much like a pencil. The Steiner Connection notes that the finer point "can produce more detail and encourage correct pencil grip."

So the two do opposite things. A block makes it hard to draw an outline. A stick makes it hard to fill a big space. Waldorf teachers use that on purpose.

Most Waldorf crayons are made with beeswax. Stockmar's contain 10% beeswax, which makes the color a little transparent, so a layer of blue over a layer of yellow shows green. That's why block crayon drawings can look soft and glowing, closer to a painting than a coloring page.

Block crayons or stick crayons for kindergarten?

This is where Waldorf teachers disagree, and it's fine to choose either.

Many kindergarten supply lists start with blocks. They fit a small fist, and a young child can cover a page with color in a few happy minutes. The Steiner Connection says blocks "fit nicely into small hands" and that they "make it difficult to create definition or outlines," which suits the way a young child draws.

Others start with sticks. Lavender's Blue names stick crayons and printer paper as "the basic essentials" for kindergarten. It adds that block crayons were first developed by a grades teacher for use in the grades. So it asks parents not to limit a young child to blocks, since they "can be frustrating for beginning drawers." Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls also has young children draw lines with sticks first, then brings in the block as a new way of drawing in grade 1.

What they agree on matters more. Drawing before grade 1 is free. You don't teach technique or correct a picture. You put out paper and crayons, perhaps sit down and draw beside your child, and let them get on with it.

Something to try: keep a basket with both kinds and a stack of plain paper where your child can reach it. Draw with them for ten minutes after a story, without talking about the drawing, and see which crayon they choose. Our article on Waldorf kindergarten at home has a sample day with room for this.

How are crayons used in grade 1?

Grade 1 is when the two start doing separate jobs, and your child uses both almost every day.

Stick crayons carry the line. Form drawing is mostly done with sticks, and so are the first capital letters and numbers. Starpath's grade 1 form drawing guide has your child draw each form first in a light yellow stick crayon, going over it several times. Then they trace the final line in a deeper color. One first grade teacher writing at A Waldorf Journey chose stick crayons for form drawing because "the stick crayon encouraged them to go over the form again and again," and it helped her see whose pencil grip needed watching.

Block crayons carry the picture. When your child draws from the story in the main lesson book, the picture is usually in block crayon. The bear from the letter B story is built from brown areas of color, not an outline. A sun is golden yellow, darker in the middle and fading out, with light blue brought in from the edge of the page. Blocks also make the borders around each page.

Sometimes the two work on one page. Your child might shade the sky and hills with blocks, then add a small figure or a row of flowers with the corner of a block or a stick.

You'll also see teachers use block crayons for form drawing. A Waldorf Journey mentions that blocks were the recommended medium in her training, because they turn the child's attention from the line to the movement of the form. If your child loves the block, that's a good reason to try it.

The grade 1 curriculum guide shows where drawing sits in the whole year.

How do you teach your child to draw with a block crayon?

The block needs showing, especially if your child has only used ordinary crayons. Diane Power, a Waldorf teacher quoted by Earthschooling, describes children learning the block by copying the teacher as she uses its different sides for different shapes and textures.

1. Show the long side. Hold the block flat against the paper and pull it across in a slow wave. Let your child do the same, in yellow, over half a page.
2. Show the short end. Now a narrower band, for a tree trunk or a path.
3. Show the corner. A thin line for grass or a branch.
4. Layer a second color. Blue over the yellow. Ask what happened.
5. Build a shape from color. A round red apple, made from the middle out, with no outline first.

Keep your touch light and build the color up slowly. Simply Waldorf's course reminds students there's "no 'crayon eraser'," so working gradually is the whole technique. Ten minutes is enough for a first try.

What changes in grades 2 and 3?

Grade 2. Both crayons stay. The forms get finer, with mirror forms and running forms, so it's tempting to hand over a pencil. A homeschooling parent asked Diane Power about this. She suggested drawing the forms big with a stick crayon first and trying a pencil alongside: "As a rule, we used pencil for FD more in G3." A child with a fine point tends to draw small, so keep some forms large on purpose. Our article on grade 2 symmetry form drawing has a lesson you can try.

Grade 3. Colored pencils and a graphite pencil join the crayons. Art of Homeschooling suggests colored pencils "if they are around age 9 or older", which lines up with grade 3 for most children. Pencils take over much of the writing and finer forms. Block crayons stay for borders, backgrounds and larger pictures, and stick crayons for bold titles.

What to buy

• 8 block crayons. The Stockmar Waldorf mix has carmine red, vermilion, orange, golden yellow, lemon yellow, green, ultramarine blue and purple.
• 8 stick crayons in the same colors, from grade 1 if not before. Art of Homeschooling suggests a tin with some of each.
• Plain paper for practice and free drawing. Save the main lesson book for finished work.
• Colored pencils around grade 3, not before.

Stockmar is the name on most supply lists, and Filana makes beeswax crayons too. Waldorf supply shops also sell small sets with only a few colors of each shape, meant for grades 1 and 2. You don't need 16 colors. Eight blocks and eight sticks will last most children for years, and brothers and sisters can share one tin. The full list for kindergarten and grade 1 is in our Waldorf homeschool supplies article, and the grade 1 curriculum comparison shows what each program asks you to buy.

Related reading

• Waldorf homeschool supplies for kindergarten and grade 1
• What are main lesson books in Waldorf education?
• What is form drawing in Waldorf education?
• The grade 1 form drawing sequence
• Waldorf kindergarten at home