Every family has a box or bag filled with broken crayons. Instead of running to the store to buy a new box, recycle them! It’s a fun and easy project you and your child can do together.
What you’ll need: Broken crayons, metal baking pan, aluminum foil, cookie cutters
Age range: 2-8 yrs.
Completion Time: Approx 30 minutes
What To Do:
- First, peel all the paper off the broken crayons and discard. If your child is toddler age, you will probably have to do this part yourself.
- Have your child dump the broken crayons into a foil lined baking pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until crayons are completely melted into a solid, rainbow block.
- Let the melted crayons cool for about 20 minutes.
- Using the foil, lift the block out of the pan and place it on the counter. It will still be warm and soft. This is the consistency you want, because the fun part is next!
- Pick out a few chunky cookie cutters and let your child help to carefully press them all the way down into the wax, making a new crayon each time. You’ll want to start cutting around the edges where it’s cooler, saving the middle for last.
- Place the cut out crayons on a plastic dish to fully cool. Soon you will be coloring together with your chunky, rainbow crayons!
Talk about recycling while you cut out the new crayons. If your child is a bit young for that, point out the different colors you have made together.
They will love this hands on project, and the chunky size of this new batch of crayons will be much easier for their little hands to hold, and hopefully more difficult to break!
Photo by laffy4k
Visit Barb' at Backdoor Homeschool Tools for more fun ideas like this one.
Loading ...
What a REALLY great idea!!!! I may just have to try this!
Even though my girls are 7 & 10, this is a craft they would still enjoy doing!
Just thought I'd add that if you soak the crayons in water for a couple of hours (or even overnight) they will be SUPER easy to peel. Otherwise I've found that the peeling is a major pain in the bum!
This sounds like a great idea, especially now that I know how to peel the crayons.
That is a great idea to soak the crayons. Thanks for sharing that with me!
I saw this on momliving. – Soaking the crayons – great idea. Thanks.